 It's uncompromising, addictive and often unforgiving with an adrenaline rush like no other. There is no practice, no second chances. It's the ultimate motorsport competition on gravel. It is rallying and this is the East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship. It's the final round of the national championship and we're here in South Australia for the decider Scouts Rally SA. In today's program the Australians side-by-side series wraps up another season with the battle going to the wire, Kanan versus Polaris, guest versus Crocker, past champions of rally, Mighty Ferraris. We have a special feature on a classic Mini with a mighty heart and a team with a century of experience and of course we'll feature the Armour All STP Power Stage in the outright championship and four-wheel drive national series some early bonus points. There is only one qualifying run so there's no second chance. Get it right first time to make the cut to the fastest three and guaranteed extra points. Our resident rally expert Dean Herridge has discovered just how important these power stage points are in the chase for the championship this season. Well we've been saying all year how important this STP and Armour All Power Stage is and here at the final round at Scouts Rally SA it's no more time to try and accumulate some of those points. There's been various stages during the season where the points gap has been only what the teams had scored in the power stage. At the moment our championship leaders Eli Evans and Glenn Wesson they are 31 points ahead in Molly Taylor and Bill Hayes so you can see how our five points for the winner of this stage would be a real nice buffer to go into the championship weekend for. The same could be said for four-wheel drives as we look at Mick Patton and Marcus Walkham try and fight it out. Can't wait to see how this power stage comes out. The big news last round was Eli Evans crashing out potentially putting his season campaign in jeopardy. That left the door open for Molly Taylor to make her first final appearance. The fight for fastest though was between Simon Evans in the Honda and Tony Sullins in the Citroen with Evans wrestling the win by a whisker. Mick Patton made the four-wheel drive final three in the Repco Evo 10 but Marcus Walkham and Peter Roberts were both the shade quicker. A blinder in the final run saw Roberts take his first Armourall STP power stage win. Once again the power stage is being held in the Mount Crawford forest but this year uses the infamous jumps that took Jack Munkhouse to dizzy heights in 2014. Just how it will work for the power stage will know very soon. From the start cars wheeled through the low undergrowth up and down to Kumo Cutting and on toward the first split Polaris pass. The second sector continues downhill past the STP Speedtrap and on to a square left. Canab Corner the second split comes up at 1.7 kilometres before a long uphill drag to Coates Crest. The ECB jumps will be the final test leading to a turn and the flying finish at 2.8 kilometres. We've let Can and Maverick pilot Michael Guest loose to give us his opinion on the Armourall STP power stage. Guestie tell us about this STP and Armourall power stage mate. It's a sensational bit of road which is what we expect from South Australia in the first place but traditional pine forest type roads so it's a square turns and turn and burn so I think I think a four-wheel drive car might have a bit of advantage in this one. Also something this rally science for is the jumps. There's plenty of crest in this stage I think isn't there? It's crazy Jack Munkhouse is famous for that one just back up the road there and the air you get there is incredible. The big thing is and what you got to remember on a power stage like this so brakes are still quite cool at least it's at the end of the stage so you're starting to get some rhythm aren't you? You're starting to get that tyre temperature and that big jump so it's like a little double sort of crest and that big air and when you land the big issue is there's pine trees and you've got to negotiate that 90 degree corner and then there's actually a set of gate posts and if you get it wrong you're going to go wide A you're going to lose time B you can actually take that gate post out so it's a very tricky one it's a matter of getting that line right while you're in the air it's a bit like motocross. Of course that's only one aspect of the stage and it's 2.8 kilometres this course around here so probably sounds like going to favour the brave do you think? Definitely favour the brave I think the early part of the stage you've got that bit of uphill that'll suit the full drive cars but then you've got some downhill braking where the front will drive cars with those big brakes and they get their weight on the front wheels that's really going to come into play but it's that cresty bit in the centre that's where it's going to be won or lost and I think a bit of bravery on that jump at the end You're making this out exciting when I can't wait now you've got the new proglide from Armoral here mate it makes you lead the spots off so that's for you you've got to clean your car after you've had a run mate I'm sorted Well that's why you're ready to get on that jump perfectly How clean is my windscratch? I know you're looking good you're good luck through the water splashes this weekend and of course actually you'll recap all the four wheel drive qualifying action for us There wasn't quite the shine on the performance of Mark Beard, Chris Higgs or Stephen Meigh all were hovering around the two-minute barrier and never likely to threaten the fastest cars on track today A dozen cars tried their luck and while Scott Schubert and fellow New South Welshman Andrew Penny were five seconds quicker they couldn't take the cut Adrian Coppin had changed classes this round and was behind the wheel of the 2008 championship-winning Toyota Corolla he was quicker than them all but the leading state contender Guy Tyler knocked him off by 20 seconds McPatten looked likely to book a birth for Repco but Harry Bates, another who jumped from two to four wheel drive this weekend had him by 0.3 of a second With Mark Pedder and Marcus Walkham still to come the writing was possibly on the wall for Patten Pedder was second quickest by 0.6 of a second but Walkham walked off with the fastest qualifying time a massive three seconds ahead of his nearest rival so Harry Bates will face off with Mark Pedder and Marcus Walkham to see who will collect maximum points in the Armour All STP power stage back in a moment Welcome back to the final round of the East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship being held at Scouts Rally SA in the Adelaide Hills Our Armour All STP power stage is set and our slowest qualifier is with Dean Herridge right now The first of our qualifiers in the four wheel drive and he bumped off the current leader in the championship Rusty Harry Bates welcome to the STP and Armour All Power Stage mate how are you feeling? Yeah good, we are quite a good qualifying run obviously really happy to be in the final and look this weekend all about learning for us so this is just a bonus and looking forward to having a crack What's it like to be behind this machine mate? The former championship winning car of your old man must be pretty cool Yeah different to anything I've ever driven before and obviously it's all still a little bit intimidating at this point but it's really amazing car to drive and it does everything quite well so looking forward to learning as much as I can this weekend and taking a look from it Was there any final instructions for the old man before you wound it up here to the start of the stage? Surprisingly he asked me to have a crack Really? We'll see how we go You don't get much better than that good luck mate have a great run Cheers thank you As you know Dean Oh Neil Bates has been on stage he watched the qualifying run from this pair and suggested where Harry might be able to use a higher gear in one section of the stage look at the eyes attacking early 40 hugely excited about the switch to this car 50 k's of testing in Canberra before they came to South Australia just to settle in So different to the car he's been campaigning this season in terms of its lateral grip it's breaking in particular oh nice work over the jump 60 Got a marker now at the Polaris split look nice through Kumo as well now stretching the legs 145 km an hour at the STP speed trap They have left a spare tyre in this car to keep some weight in the back of it many of their competitors try and lift weight out of the car but they felt it would help with stability in the rear Nicely done can and second split This is a tidy run from Harry Bates You can see compared to the qualifying run where he's gone deeper under brakes It's a real mixture of excitement about running this car for him but also nervousness it's quite a significant change get some air Great work by this pairing excellent stuff on the power stage they have not put a foot wrong Quite a good run it was a couple of seconds faster than our qualifying run but still would have liked to have found a bit more time but happy with it it was everything in the car was feeling really good so it's a long weekend ahead and we're looking forward to it take a look at the replay for you he felt they could make some gains it's a gain in the order of two seconds compared to the qualifying run he knows it will be tough to beat the Walkums though on balance a very very tidy run from Bates and McCarthy So the Pettis suspension Maxi Carr is next to go the team in the Armoral STP staging area with Dean Mark, Peter and Darm Oscar on the line and the Maxi Carr mates good qualifying run for you well done with that Yeah thanks mate and it was a reasonably clean run we're still playing around a little bit with the suspension set up in the car so yeah it was nice to get that one under the belt and look pretty close between some of the forward drive cars and Harry's just gone a couple of seconds faster in there probably at the sort of stage that you need a run through to get the taste, don't you? Yeah it is I knew Harry go a little bit faster and look, Mark is behind he's put in a ripper time so he's going to be difficult to beat but yeah we'll cruise through and see how it goes I love that word cruise through mate do you know what that means I mean I had a few obviously frustrating last couple of rounds but it looked really good in the qualifying run mate go and have a dip in it Yeah well I did mate but nah the thing's running good touch wood so yeah well like I said cruise through so here we go yeah alright good luck with the cruising through Do you know you know well this guy knows only one way maximum attack he never cruises Mark Pett up Open zone from 20 5 voice of experience beside him Dale Moskett who has been so busy this season as a co-driver working with Chris Atkinson in China Scott Pett internationally Mark Pett are here in the ARC some significant changes to this car between the last round and here in particular a Motec engine control unit which has really helped them with the tunability of the car the diagnosis of things we come to that Polaris split as you can see there it's been a good run from Bates through that 145 K's an hour Pett is on par with Harry Bates at the speed trap contested the Akademis rally did some testing in the Marysville area in the hills of Victoria coming into this one down at the Cannam split Bates has put in a very good time and they recover something here in this final sector mid-press jump brake maybe 20 in 2 rides big learning curve for this pairing they have a new front sway bar in the car which also changed the way the car behave the first time they felt that was in the qualifying run so they are still learning need to keep that in perspective good air from Mark Pett made a brake balance adjustment as well between the qualifying run and here just to make sure it was a little more settled on the car couple of mistakes I think dropped us a bit of time so that's alright like I said that's disappointing but the car is feeling good so ready for a good rally it's clearly taken a positive step with those improvements between the last round and here they want the weight transfer so important in these cars to be good for the entire rally they'll take lots of positives out of this power stage that's still very encouraging for Pett and Mosquit so Harry Bates hangs on by a hair's breath can he hold off the hard charging Marcus Walkham we'll find out in a moment watching the East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship coming to you from Scouts Rally SA Dean Herridge is with our fastest CP power stage Marcus and Scott Walkham they're getting used to this it's 3 from 3 this year so far in the power stage we can tell you that it looks like Young Bates is 10th of a second in front of Pett at the moment and there are 146.4 so your qualifying time is good enough just got to put it together on this run mate as I said we're same again we know there's a couple of spots where we lost a bit of time hopefully we've got a few nerves out of the way we settle down good luck Rusty I can't wait to see what this thing is like at the STP Speedtrap it seems to have so much torque and power let's see if that translates to overall top end speed as you know consistency is so important in this game same car they had at Coffs Harbour good freshen up between rounds retuned that engine but kept it exactly as they had it in Coffs fast, fast start for Marcus Walkham he reflected to us that after they'd wrecked this stage he knew they could really pull some time here be brave have a go look at them they are attacking longer straights in particular that are a trademark of the Mount Crawford stage really suit this car and it's on edge look at the advantage right to the edge of the road and he has a couple of tents in hand over Harry Bates 159 km an hour at the STP Speedtrap that's a significant gain on our previous two competitors this is fast Can Am split now this is a huge advantage he keeps on building it he felt they'd made a couple of small errors in the first run but they had time up their sleeve a quiet kind of confidence from Marcus Walkham going in he's put a huge emphasis on this power stage to set up the weekend he said they had to turn up and bring it to this power stage and that's exactly what Marcus Walkham has done he and Scott Walkham are on it here this will be a blinding time look at it he has absolutely smashed them hit it out of the park tremendous way to start the round awesome stuff and gets the congratulations from Harry Bates sporting stuff we had a good run we nearly made a couple of mistakes on the last run I think we did a slightly quicker time then and it all felt good looking forward to the survey sounding a little out of breath here and I think that's more about adrenaline than anything else that was a phenomenal run in the Armourall STP power stage from Marcus and Scott Walkham on edge right the way through it was fast from beginning to end and they walk away with the prize check thanks to Armourall and STP check presented by Michael Guest there Marcus Scott what a great job you seem to love these power stages but it is your first win so well done yeah no we we certainly had a plan to have a crack at the win here this weekend we've got nothing to lose so we've just got to get out there and have a crack and see how we end up blinding time from Marcus Walkham more than three seconds quicker than any other car here today Dean is all set with the four wheel drive star from a few years back Michael Guest we've just seen the four wheel drive run through what a run from those three filers quick and look I thought they'd be fast and they are fast it's going to be difficult for the front wheel drive cars to match it's that pine forest turn and burn they've got the grip acceleration and the road is pretty slippery too so it all plays in the favour of the four wheel drive it's going to be really interesting to see what they lie in the guys can do great job by Marcus Walkham and he's blown them apart they did a really good job obviously Petter really close together from that point of view they've all improved their times you'd expect the same thing from two wheel drive in this sort of stage as well oh look I would and I'm going to be really excited to see what the difference is but I'm sort of thinking that the four wheel drive cars are going to have it the front wheel drive cars down in under braking they're slightly lighter than what the four wheel drive cars are most of them they're going to go deeper under brakes but they're going to lose it out of the corners going to be interesting to see and of course Rusty please recap all the outright highlights for us thanks guys well Ashley James finally made it to qualifying for the final Armoural STP power stage for the year and only just missed the cut to the three 154 was the benchmark to make the final three and sadly for Steve Mackenzie his was the slowest in that second missing by just 0.2 Molly Taylor desperately needed to be here and she was betraying the citrons of Sullins and Evans it was Eli Evans though who broke the one minute 54 barrier to take P1 in qualifying so Molly Taylor, Tony Sullins and Eli Evans are all through to the final of the Armoural STP power stage all that when we return in just a few moments welcome back to the East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship coming to you from Scouts Rally SA our third fastest qualifier in the Armoural STP power stage is with our Dean Herridge right now very close in our outright qualifying and Molly you've just bumped in you must be pleased about that yeah we made a few little errors it wasn't like our cleanest run so yeah really happy that we made it through but I think we can have a lot need to run this time does that give you a bit of a confidence going into the final now to know that you've got a couple of points to focus on and that's what's a bit different about this stage you can focus on specific corners but I think the general consensus when we all got to the finish was that every driver thought that they could improve I think we'll all be improving and now we've got a bit of a swept road so it'll be more interesting to see the difference that that makes so we know a bit more about how it's going to play out on the rally and obviously Eli and yourself both in for points here and it'll be a good way to start the weekends good luck through here thank you very much on paper it should suit them good combination this Molly Taylor here is Gilhaze made some minor suspension changes to this car in the wake of the last round at Coffs Harbour remember there were a bit of a puzzle bear on the Sunday after the last round they were chasing traction oh look at the way Molly is attacking here awesome stuff from Molly Taylor tested the car a week before this event up in Bathurst Bill had a massive smile too when they arrived here proper power stage he loves this one he did say that he felt the first run the qualifying run wasn't quite clean enough hoping to improve here 140 kilometres an hour at the STP speed trap look reasonable through Kumo and the Polara split as well this will give us a benchmark for the competitors he really enjoys working with Molly Taylor he said you will not find a more dedicated competitor she puts in so much effort into the professionalism so important to get the pace notes right and she spends a lot of time with Bill on that aspect of the game and they're very straight up with each other almost at the end now it's been a very good run it looked a little wild in that first sector didn't it but nice some tidy now 52.7 great work when you consider that they qualified 2 seconds slower they've made a big gain it's very difficult to know we tried to break a bit earlier in a few places and keep it neater but the time was quicker better than the first run but it's still tricky to know it will be interesting to see how the other guys improved take a look at the replay here she's probably being a little tough on herself because they've made some big ground when you look at the time from the qualifying run relative to where they've ended up here but Molly has flagged the question how much will the Citrins improve in their final runs in this power stage 152.7 is quicker than any of the qualifying times but is it quick enough to keep the Citrins at bay Dean is back on the start line with one of them right now Tony Salons and Julia Barclay in the Citrin second qualifier made a great fantastic job and it was so close to get into this final wasn't it yeah I'm proud of Mackenzie she's out by a tenth of a second and we're all in the same second pretty much so yeah well unless in a second between the three of you in this final and I can tell you that Molly has done a 152.7 so she's gone about a second and a half quicker you got that in you yeah I reckon we'll try you've been going pretty good in these two and you're feeling good and at home with the car aren't you yeah I am this stuff scares me I don't like this stage at all so I was a very very tentative look so this time I'll see how we go I don't know I just asked Molly a similar question do you think you're different to a normal rally when you look at an entire stage you can focus on these you know 2.8 kilometers there are some pretty gnarly sections in there that wasn't it oh yeah and one line wrong and you might as well give away the whole time like the worst we are is third so that's pretty that's pretty good don't have that attitude mate go for one good luck with it thank you what about the reaction from Julia Barclay once she learned of the time laid down by Molly Taylor it's game on here in the power stage this is actually the first run in this car for these guys since the coughs harbour round qualifying run as well they've essentially kept the car exactly the same with the exception of trying to resolve the hydraulic pump issue they had there he parts arrived from France just the week before this event fitted them up and ran them on the hoist just to make sure the gearing up and down was okay so far so good 30 up at the split not much but it is an advantage of about three tenths good start by Tony Sullins and Julia Barclay here 144 kilometers an hour at the speed trap it's about on par in speed terms with Molly which is interesting she's in the naturally aspirated car remember this is the turbo citron now to the can-am split they've been able to build on it here significantly in the second sector look at how much time they've found Tony said over history I really haven't done this stage very many times maybe two or three times in the last eight years but this pairing have known each other for over 20 Tony Sullins has known Julia Barclay since she came here from England and they work very very well together ultimate trust between this pair this will be a good time look at it found some time in the second sector they lose a little bit in the final but it's enough to put them at the top of the order I just tried to be a bit neater pick the lines do what you need to do I had a bit of a run over how fast to go over the jump didn't know how fast to go into some of the braking zone so just gives you a benchmark a bit like a circuit racer you know you pick it up as you go along the lines probably a bit better now a bit more grip there so if you're in the good part of the range you probably can make up time he kept the pace notes with Julia exactly the same but it was in his own mind he knew certain parts of the course where he could make the improvement as the driver and it showed he gets the advantage over Molly Taylor and moves to the top of the order well done to Tony Sullens and to Julia Barclay Renault out Citroen in all the remains is to see how much Eli Evans has left in the tank we will find out right after the break welcome back to the Armourall STP power stage at the Scouts Rally SA can Tony Sullens and Julia Barclay retain their top spot in outright two-wheel drive their teammates and fastest qualifiers are on the start line championship leaders Eli Evans and Glenn Weston in the Citroen mate congratulations fastest qualifier you do like these stages how's it all feeling yeah look it's pretty loose we're the first car out there so first corner I missed the apex and pushed wide and thought okay it's going to be a little bit slippery than what I thought but when I saw everyone else's times obviously it was a bit slippery for them too so happy to qualify fastest but now I suspect it's Molly and Tony have put the pace on and I reckon they're probably gone my guess is probably three or four seconds faster you're about to tell me I'm about to tell you they were faster they both went a couple of seconds faster Molly about a second and a half but as your teammate who you're going to chase mate he's on a 151.4 two seconds faster you're qualifying run so you're going to have to push pretty hard still yeah look look Tony's been doing really well he's got the grips of that car and I'm not surprised so I reckon I've got a 49 in me let's not get too quick up in the time just let the five points will be good enough yeah that's right look if I can keep in front of Tony it's nice that Tony's now in front of Molly so all I need to do is make sure I'm in front of Tony then and we've got another little points buffer on Molly so keep the pressure on him this weekend good luck with it hey go get him and Rusty he's spent quite a bit of time actually deciding where he's going to start it's getting a bit chopped up here you can sort of see that and he's decided to stay out of the ruts he's just going to try and start off to the outside and he suspects he will then sort of drive into the ruts as he tries to get his maximum traction off the start line let's see if it works for him I reckon you're right Tony and the other thing he's done is had a think about the angle of attack on some of the corners he and Glenn Weston have really paid attention to where they can use the strength of this car fire it out of the corners and make some time look at it from the outset he's run a little bit wide there maybe not quite as much grip as he was anticipating in that first turn but it hasn't slowed him up still 10 tenths 50 portion left six line over easy jump uppermost in his mind of course will be what happened in Cross Harbour but this is a more fast flowing stage the crest's in it you've got to make sure the car is perfectly positioned torque of the Citroen really can help it pull out of the corners set it up, line it up for the next one he's up at the first split 143 kph fractionally down at the STP radar or speed trap but look at the attitude of the car that's what caught my eye then nothing's changed on this car between the last round of the championship and here they have also changed the hydraulic pump in this car much like they've done with Tony Sullins just to be on the safe side they had no issue in coughs unlike Sullins but they've done it for safety get some nice air there the pair of them they said from the outset if they can they want to control this rally from the front set the pace very early, set the tone and think about the championship they have absolutely hit it out of the park of 48 was possible he joked with Dean it was possible yeah what a relief I pumped myself up at the start line I said I've already got a 49er now I'm going to go for it I turned into the first corner completely missed the apex, went really wide Glenn and I both laughed at it I've got to get it right from here I managed to just nail every corner from there on and it was enough to beat Tony and beat Molly so love driving this little Citroen DS3 it's such a strong car threw it into the trees last event it's still going strong so it hasn't missed the beat since so credit to the team and well done to Glenn this was a mighty, mighty effort the grip, this must have rattled him a little the grip wasn't quite there in that first corner but certainly beyond that he kept the car at 10 tenths and was rewarded he kept building time across the sectors the net result a 1 minute 48, a mega time getting the check from Michael guest, winning the power stage congratulations guys Eli, mate what a run through there yeah, after the first corner I obviously talked to you every power stage get way too excited missed the apex the first corner went wide Glenn had a little bit of a laugh I said sorry mate and we're going to have to make it up from here and we just went flat out and we got every other corner perfect so I couldn't have done a better run really and look I was speaking to Simon after testing on Wednesday and he just said how you going and I said yeah car feels good and he said do me a favour make sure you win that power stage and said Evan's clean sweep for the year so here you go Simon I did it gone are the days where minis dominate the top step of the podium but once they were a force to be reckoned with in both rally and circuit racing but the age of this old girl is outmatched by the driver and co-driver this weekend as they celebrate get this 50 years behind the wheel both Rob and I started rallying in 1965 I borrowed my mother's mini for my first event and promptly put it through a fence and she said it was never the same again but I bought this car in 1969 and in fact I ran it in this event the ARC in 1972 so it's 43 years ago Rob and I both celebrating 50 years in the sport this year almost a shock for Brownie to say how long have you been rallying mate and I said oh I don't know I started in 1965 in fact I didn't even have a driver's license so I had to navigate from my father so I started at the age of 15 and it was hooked immediately the first event I was in was actually in a rover three litre bench seat no safety belts so it was when you saw a corner coming you stuck your knee up against the door or up against the tunnel in the middle and hung on we didn't have seat belts so the first event I did the co-driver said look I'll never go for you but you've got to put a seat belt in for me so I had to buy a seat belt drill a hole in the floor and bolt a seat belt in this is my first experience with the Hans I've only ever heard about them before and seen other people wearing them at times and then being a bit rigid in the car if you talk to people generally they think well safety is most important and of course it is and you know it's not just the Hans it's roll cages and great seats and harnesses and so on and all the other bits and pieces that you put in a car to make you safe we're older now and the bodies don't work quite as well as they used to so once you bolt it in with a Hans and a helmet you're actually there for good but when you put a car from upside down in one of these things you've got to do it the first time and I just wonder if it was upside down and on fire what I'd do when I rallied many back in the 70s I tended to break it all the time because I was driving too quickly and I think a lot of our challenge now is getting around the course without a problem many of these days is very slight let's be honest a Hyundai XL beats it normally I'm sure it was much quicker in the 60s we enjoy it, we enjoy having a perfect event making no mistakes and going as quick as we can from a mini-story to maximum attack the Astralian side-by-side challenge is up next old rally foes Michael Dest and Cody Crocker go head-to-head Polaris vs K&M in the decider that's all coming up in just a few moments the final round of the Astralian side-by-side challenge took place at Scouts Rally SA the decider and it would be a decider for K&M and Polaris Michael Dest has had the upper hand in speed all season but reliability has left the door open for his opposition Cody Crocker right on his hammer in the Razor 1000 and this weekend would prove little different as the ambassador Michael Dest is counting in favour of K&M pushing his machine well beyond its original expectations it's about developing these cars in extreme situations and we're talking standard vehicles that are setting unbelievable stage times if you look at the times against other cars it's amazing how fast these things go they're incredible cars but we're pushing them upward and beyond what they're ever designed for like every stage he finished this year guest beat all his competition on the opening heat one stage his teammate Nathan Shivers next quickest and not unhappy with his times Adam's going great he's going really fast and suited to these roads and just charges up the hills and really happy with the car and how the boys have prepared it Cody Crocker had to settle for third fastest through the telephone road stage but won through gum flat by 0.3 of a second over his teammate Ian Hughes Shivers and Adam Tillett took third for Cannan but the power of the factory machine is silenced when the bell broke mid stage trying to replace it as we speak unfortunately occasionally you can just get a bad one maybe it was that I'm not too sure but I'm really disappointed that we broke it in there I think that was the stage that was going to suit us we were pushing to try and build a bit of a lead and then try and manage the day but you know that's racing racing continued for one more stage Crocker again fastest to use bringing a heat win with Shivers second in the Cannan that was all Crocker needed to lock away his title defense in the side-by-side challenge now his focus shifted to keeping a hard charging Nathan Shivers from spoiling his weekend overall with heat 2 providing the greatest chunk of points on offer Michael Guest came out of the blocks firing ahead of Crocker by 2.5 seconds at the end of the repeat special stage gum flat 2 the Polaris pilot had his measure through the long Crawford stage unbelievably after 20 Ks Crocker had his nose in front by just half a second there was no coming back for the Maverick though very next stage Guest and David Green rolled to a stop once again heat from the exhaust affecting his Maverick's clutch the Cannans challenge now in the hands of Nathan Shivers they're really frustrating for him at the moment because he's the fastest guy out there he's whenever he finishes the stage he's beating everyone by a mile so yeah, I don't know what's going on there but we're just trying to keep it as stock as we can and just a little alloy shield under the exhaust there and trying to get the heap of air down into the clutch and it seems to be working so far so it's all we can do to derive time for Crawford and enough service to fix the Maverick Guest bounce back to lead a 1-2 finish for Cannan through Chroma the pressure from Guest might have been off Crocker but he couldn't afford to drop his guard everybody will tell you that as soon as they it's just ease off their pace or ease off the concentration things go wrong so you don't do that you keep going flat out basically and that's our plan what Crocker hadn't expected was a dark horse Nathan Shivers had been playing second-finals like a guess for the last couple of seasons but when it counted they were stepped up three personal stage wins for the day combined with three for his teammate kept Crocker from a second-heat win Shivers collecting a well-deserved heat victory Even Ian Hughes was surprised that Goliath's understudy to Crocker usually has the measure of Shivers but not this heat at the end of that stage and we knocked a few seconds off our first pass through there today and thought oh we might have a bit of a chance on him there then the times came up and we're absolutely blown away it's yeah Heat 3 and Nathan Shivers was full of confidence we had a great day yesterday everything went to the plan and yeah just really enjoyed it just felt confident in the car so I just got to repeat that again today and we'll be laughing but the long repeat Crawford stage served up yet another blow for Cannan first Michael Guest and another belt that ended his charge back up the leaderboard it was up to Shivers but a header broke in the exhaust stopping the Maverick from producing its phenomenal boosted horsepower he bled a full minute to Cody Crocker the stage winner and despite a valiant effort could not haul the deficit back from Polaris for the remainder of the heat Polaris on the top step for the weekend and Sealy's podium with no disgrace for Shivers or Hughes neither have the experience in case-noted events of their experience rally driver teammates the 2015 season finale highlighted just how far they've come Hughes even sneaking a stage win from the Gala Super Special Master Cody Crocker Stay tuned next week for all the action from the main competition in the East Coast Australia Rally Championship coming to you from the Decider Scouts Rally SA Hope you can join us then in the meantime keep up to date with all the latest rally news at rally.com.au Today's coverage is made possible by Kumo Tyre Better Suspension Armour STP Koutyre Cannan Polaris and our supporting partner East Coast Bullbars World's Best Alloy Bullbars