After the Sydney-based Alliance Motorsport team’s success at the 2017 National Capital Rally—third round of the Australian Rally Championship (ARC) and second round of the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship (APRC)—the team has started crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s to achieve dramatic performance changes.
Peter Dunn explains:“The STi is inherently a Group N car, and has a suspension setup revolving around the relatively lower power output and standard brakes. Also a collapsed exhaust really hampered us on day one of Canberra. Strangely for us the rain on day two brought the conditions back to the car and the new AP brake system came to the fore.
“Unfortunately the car needed very substantial reworking of the headers and downpipe, which Subaru owners know is not easy to do yourself, but we did!
“Due to the extra power we have had to go back to scratch on the suspension settings. Before the car was set low for corner speed, but we now need to set the car for entering the corners up to 30kph faster! It’s a compromise game, but a strong third outright at the HDCC Khanacross at Hampton showed we were going in the right direction. Being fastest-non buggy on several of the tests was a good baseline, especially as we found the cause of the exhaust/power issue at this event.”
In addition to upgrades, it’s Peter’s persistence and passion for the sport, manifested in many late evenings and weekends working on the car, that has seen him continue to improve with each major event.
“There have been moments when I’ve been behind schedule in preparation for an event and I’ve been close to giving up. If it weren’t for the support of the Alliance Motorsport crew and the prayerful support of my wife, I don’t think we would’ve got this far.”
Navigator Dennis Neagle hasn’t been sitting back either. Working on the basis that “practice makes perfect” he has filled in the time between ARC events with both gravel and tarmac rallies, with results that include a win in Targa Tasmania Sports Trophy class and most recently setting the second fastest stage time alongside Tim Wilkins at the Rally of the Bay on the River Road night stage.
The Alliance Motorsport team runs a creative “Sponsor a RallyCar for $30” to allow friends and fans to get involved and support their efforts to compete with the “big boys”.
“We are very grateful to our partners in “Sponsor a RallyCar”; major sponsors GT Tooling, Woollahra Tyre Garage, Energise Home Loans and our volunteer service crew, who help us create chaos and success to come eight at the Australian APRC round.”
Alliance Motorsport is looking forward to travelling to Adelaide for the Lightforce Rally SA in September. Members of the team come from the Barossa area, and Peter has always wanted to do this event.
“And I’m going to take some time off and go visit a few of the wineries!”, Peter said.