The BOTT Adelaide Hills Rally has released the seeded entry list for the CAMS Australian Rally Championship (ARC) field ahead of round five in South Australia on 21-23 September.
With only two rounds remaining in the 2018 ARC, things are getting serious for the Championship contenders. View the list here.
First on the road in SA will be Championship leaders Eli Evans and Ben Searcy, again in the Tankformers Skoda Fabia R5.
There were whispers that the Mini Cooper AP4 may be back in action this round but Evans will no doubt be looking to wrap up the 2018 title before the final ARC round at Kennards Hire Rally Australia in November. He would see the Skoda as his best chance of achieving that.
On his tail will be Harry Bates and John McCarthy in the Toyota Genuine Parts Toyota Yaris AP4 and Contel Communications’ Steve Glenney and Andy Sarandis in the Subaru Impreza WRX STi.
Both Bates and Glenney have been able to match the pace of Evans and the Skoda at times over the last couple of rounds but have struggled to string together a full event without mechanical issues or errors.
Glenney is the closest challenger to Evans, trailing by 51 points, and will need to keep the Skoda in his sights to have any chance of catching him in the championship points. The ‘Flying Orange’ Subaru WRX STi is a dark horse however, with the Contel Communications crew continuing to work their magic between rounds to reduce weight and improve the handling of the Subaru, so expect Glenney to come out firing.
Subaru do Motorsport’s Molly Taylor and Malcom Read are fourth on the road. After a difficult start to the season, the pair have gained some good momentum and are coming off a strong second at Subaru Rally Tasmania.
They will be followed by the first of the cross-entered SARC crews of Declan Dwyer and Craig Adams, the pair fresh off a win at the SARC Copyworld Walky 100 in their Mitsubishi Lancer EVO VI.
Lewis Bates and Dale Moscatt are sixth on the road in the Neal Bates Motorsport Toyota Corolla S2000, followed by Brumby Bar & Grill’s Chris Higgs and Daymon Nicoli.
Higgs and Nicoli return to the ARC after more than 12 months absence, the pair suffering a horror crash at the Narooma Rally in July last year that destroyed their Subaru WRX GC8. While Higgs continues to build a VW AP4 for the 2019 ARC, seat-time is the name of the game for the pair as they ease their way back to competition in the Mitsubishi Lancer EVO VI.
Behind Higgs will be the SARC crews of Zayne Admiraal and Matthew Heywood, Jamie Pohlner and Ken Moore, both in Subaru Impreza WRXs, and Dale Cagney and Mark Dycer in their EVO VI.
ARC 2WD Championship leaders Adam Kaplan and Aleshia Penny are 11th on the road in their Nissan 370Z, followed by SARC’s Nicholas Cagney and Adam Branford and the second Contel Communications entry of Luke Anear and Eddie Maguire.
Rounding out the field will be the 2WD crews of Damien Reed and Guy Tyler in a Nissan Silvia (SARC), Haowen Chu and Glen Alcorn in the Ford Fiesta and Kevin Raedel and Lisi Phillips in the Ford Falcon XR6.