Kennards Hire Rally Australia Day 3 – Midday Update

With only three special stages remaining of Kennards Hire Rally Australia, Eli Evans and Ben Searcy just need to bring the Skoda Fabia R5 home to be crowned 2018 CAMS Australian Rally Champions.

While Contel Communications’ Steve Glenney and Andy Sarandis lead the event outright by more than ten minutes, Evans and Searcy have a big enough points buffer to take out the title by just finishing the event.

Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia’s Harry Bates and John McCarthy did not restart the event this morning following engine dramas with the Yaris AP4 yesterday, putting an end to their championship campaign.

The final morning of the three day event proved tricky for competitors, overnight rain producing slippery conditions out on the stages, catching some competitors out.

Young gun Wayne Morton, with co-driver Kirra Penny, slipped from their third outright position when they slid off the road on SS19 and hit a stump.

Their misfortune paved the way for Andrew Penney and Rhys Llewellyn to move into third outright, behind rally rookie Luke Anear and Jon Mitchell in second outright.

Evans leads the way on day three times, just 0.8 seconds ahead of Glenney with Lewis Bates third fastest.

Kennards Hire Rally Australian conclude this afternoon with a second pass of this morning’s three stages. A podium presentation will take place at the conclusion of this afternoon’s final stage.

ARC Top 10 Outright – after SS21
1. #74 GLENNEY/SARANDIS 2:57:50.2
2. #89 ANEAR/MITCHELL 3:08:02.5 (+10:12.3)
3. #86 PENNY/LLEWELLYN 3:17:30.5 (+19:40.3)
4. #87 DUNN/PRIEST 3:27:33.5 (+29:43.3)
5. #90 COLLITS/DAWSON 3:34:14.8 (+36:24.6)
6. #71 EVANS/SEARCY 3:46:13.0 (+48:22.8)
7. #80 BATES/MCLOUGHLIN 3:51:28.1 (+53:37.9)
8. #93 RAEDEL/CARR 4:00:12.7 (+1:02:22.5)
9. #85 HATTON/LONG 4:33:17.3 (+1:35:27.1)
10. #92 HAYES/HAYES 5:29:29.5 (+2:31:39.3)