Brad Markovic isn’t taking a backward step this year, with the Maximum Motorsport Team driver aiming high after a mixed 2017.
Markovic had a promising start to last year’s CAMS Australian Rally Championship, but back surgery saw his season cut short, leaving him a spectator for the final rounds.
“I’ll be honest, it’s been frustrating,” Markovic said.
“It took a lot longer to recover than I’d planned. But I’m feeling better than ever, and really excited to get back in the car and pick up where we left off back in May.”
The Auto One driver began last year in promising fashion, with a top-10 finish in Ballarat to open the season.
He followed that performance with a podium at his home round at the Forest Rally, before another strong effort at the National Capital Rally, where he was the fastest Australian as part of the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship component of the round.
“For the events we competed in, was really positive,” Markovic said.
“We were improving round-on-round, and banking championship points at each event. Strong results in Ballarat and Canberra, plus the podium at our home event in WA.”
For this week’s Courier Eureka Rally, Markovic will again partner with experienced co-driver Toni Feaver in the Auto One Subaru WRX STI, prepared by Maximum Motorsport in Perth.
“Ballarat did have its challenges last year. We had a great start with a top-five time on stage one, but we had some clutch problems later in the day, and the Sunday stages were really rough and we suffered a series of punctures.”
“Even so, Toni and I battled on. To still get a top-10 result was pretty positive. The event was a bit of an ‘unknown’ last year, but we’ve now got that experience under our belts. The Maximum Motorsport crew have the car prepared and ready to go. So we’ll work on our pace notes, refine them a little bit, and start again. I can’t wait.”
The Courier Eureka Rally starts on 3 March, with stages held to the north-east and south of Ballarat.
