Bethany Cullen is hopeful that her 2022 RSEA Safety Motorsport Australia Rally Championship (ARC) campaign will help her develop as a driver.
The New South Wales born driver has long been involved in the Australian rallying scene, first as a co-driver before jumping in the hot seat, for which she has enjoyed a solid rise in form.
While there haven’t been many events over the past 24 months, Cullen has continued to remain sharp and has constantly occupied top positions at state events.
This year, Cullen will compete at three ARC rounds, starting with July’s Accent Benchtops Rally Queensland and then the Gippsland Rally in August, before wrapping up in November with the Coffs Coast Rally.
And although she will unlikely be in the hunt for any titles, she believes it’s an important year in the grand scheme of her career.
“My primary aim this year is to do a state championship with the ARC being more secondary, but I just want to do as many events as a I can to get seat time to focus on doing a full ARC championship next year,” Cullen said.
“We have built the car to be more competitive over the past few years and we’re starting to move up the order, so the aim this year is to go to new events for us and learn as much as we can.
“It’s been a long time since I have done any national rallies in Queensland or Victoria. I haven’t been to Queensland since 2009 and the last time I was at an ARC in Victoria, I was navigating for my brother in an Excel.
“I am really excited for this year. We really want to get to as many events as we can.
“And at the end of the day, we really just want to have and have fun learning and if we get a result, that’s great, but it’s more about what needs improving.
“We are sort of where we want to be, but now it’s a matter of trying to build on sitting around third or fourth and be in contention for Production Cup victories.”
