It has been another exciting day of competition on the third and penultimate day of the Sunraysia Safari Rally. And although they led for the most of the day, Rob Herridge and Sam Hill in the Maximum Motorsport Subaru Forester were left a little deflated when the near-production car suffered an engine failure just 3kms from the end of the final stage.
“I guess we are heartened by our performance, but disappointed to not get a result”, commented Rob on the trip back to Mildura. “We’ve been pushing this car really hard for three days, and have been keeping pace with trucks that are designed for these types of events.”
“We started to be a bit concerned when the car blew some smoke after the midday service today. And there are lots of high speed sections in this event, so we decided there was no point trying to nurse the car with a day and half to go. We just went flat out.”
“The engine in this car has now done a couple of Australasian Safaris without a rebuild. It’s disappointing to have to retire with an eight minute lead. But considering we were matching times with Purshouse, Olholm and Riley, it’s really impressive.”
Day 3 of the Sunraysia Safari Rally was a monster. Starting with a 113km stage from Pooncarie heading east to the northern edge of Mulurulu Lake, the crews then took a 130km loop around the lake, followed by a 100km westward stage back to Pooncarie, finishing with the ‘short’ 46km Tarcoola stage on the way back to Mildura.
Rob and Sam put in a solid results throughout the day, banking solid times against the larger, faster, trucks in conditions that didn’t really suit the Subaru Forester.
The big news of the morning was the problems of overnight leader Steve Riley. Starting the day with a three second lead over Rob and Sam, Riley hit problems early in the first stage, losing 30 minutes to stage winner Luke Olholm who was 3.7 minutes faster than Rob.
That put the Maximum Motorsport Subaru Forester back in the outright lead, and Rob started the final stage with an eight minute lead.
“Sunraysia has been a bit of a test for us. I wanted to see if the Forester could be competitive against the ‘Dakar-style’ trucks and buggys. And I’ve been hugely impressed by the Forester. We highlighted just how competitive the near-standard Forester can be.”
The Sunraysia Safari Rally continues on Saturday for another four short stages near Pooncarie, before the finish line in Mildura.