When Tony Sullens finished last month’s Toyota Gazoo Racing Rally of Canberra, he was inside the outright top 10 and had stood on the top step of the ARC 2WD Cup podium – a much better result than first anticipated.
In what was Sullens’ first EROAD Australian Rally Championship (ARC) round since his big crash in Tasmania last year, there was some uncertainty about where the New South Welshman would end up – especially as he was driving a newly rebuilt Citroën DS3 that had barely been used, and most of his experience came in a 4WD Peugeot.
Thankfully, Sullens and regular co-driver Kaylie Newell produced a mostly consistent performance throughout the highly challenging 14-stage event, ending Heat 1 in sixth outright and Heat 2 in eighth outright.
Despite some unavoidable spins and damage to the wheels and tyres on a couple of occasions, Sullens and Newell made it through the event with the car fully intact.
So consistent were they across the weekend that, at one point during Heat 2, they were a chance to secure an unlikely outright podium – that is, until a minor incident on the third-last stage of the event caused them to lose significant time.
Despite the setback, Sullens and Newell made it to the end of the rally, their confidence in potentially winning the ARC 2WD Cup and challenging the outright contenders sky high.
“The event went really well and way better than I expected,” Sullens said.
“The fact that we pulled the result that we did in what was the first event for that 2WD car was fantastic. We stayed mostly trouble-free and were rewarded with a pleasing result.
“We had never done traditional testing before, and that was a new experience, but it held us in good stead for the rally itself. If we took away some of the minutes lost on the second day, we would have been around the top three or four, which is just awesome.
“The way the roads are – inherently a sort of crowned camber – makes it very difficult to run in a 2WD car, so it was about managing the car and making sure we finished every stage.
“Canberra definitely gives us a lot of confidence heading into the rest of the year – not just from a class point of view, but in an outright POV too. In fact, I would say that we were nearly as quick in the 2WD car as we were in the 4WD.
“Obviously, we don’t have the advantages of all the full-time top-level drivers, so the plan for me is to run the Citroën for the next three rounds and try to pick up three ARC 2WD class wins.
“That way, we can fix up the Peugeot for the remaining two rounds and get a couple of events under our belt ahead of next season. Essentially, this season is a developmental year so we can learn from a number of events in the slower car and come back stronger in a year or two.”
Sullens and Newell will rejoin the EROAD Australian Rally Championship for the second round of the 2025 season in Western Australia, with the popular Forest Rally taking place on 23–25 May.
