 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 rally, and this is the East Coast Bullbars' Australian Rally Championship. It's round two of the series coming to you from the nation's capital. Last round in Western Australia, Molly Taylor made history becoming the first female to win a heat of the ARC. She crashed out of the power stage but was consistent enough in the first heat to come out on top. Steve McKenzie failed to realise the high hopes he had for his Opti-Coat Fiesta, fuel issues keeping him down the order. Simon Evans' comeback started well with the power stage win, but he had to settle for third behind Taylor and his younger brother Eli in the factory section DS3. Eli Evans missed the power stage but battled on through the weekend to score enough points to secure the weekend win. The other sutrons of Sullens and Coppin both rolled out of contention in spectacular style but would regroup between rounds for Canberra. So Eli Evans leads the way into this weekend ahead of Molly Taylor, but Simon Evans is just one point behind. Steve McKenzie and Tony Sullens make up the top five in the East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship. In the four-wheel drive national series, McPatten leads the way from Brad Markovic and Doug Tostovan. Justin Dowell finished fourth ahead of Robert Weber, but remember, this series is the best three rounds of five and McPatten's Repco Evo 10 and Justin Dowell are the only drivers in the top five contesting round two. Dowell and his regular co-driver Matt Lee will debut their brand new Hyundai i20 Proto. There's a sneak preview on just what the future of his greatest top rally will be with a move away from production-based rally cars to specific race-built machines. Mark Pedder is also back in a new car, the first of the Maxi cars, again a purpose-built car designed to see in the new era of rallying. For now though, the focus is on the outright championship and that charge is being led by Eli Evans and Glenn Weston in the Citroen DS3. Oli Taylor and Bill Hayes will be hoping to repeat their good form from WA. The high-tech oils Renault said to put pressure on both Eli and Simon Evans, who returns with Ben Sisi in the car that took his younger brother to victory in two previous championships. Steve and Brent McKenzie will be hoping for better speed and reliability this round after the disappointment of WA. Fuel issues playing the brothers from Victoria never showed their true potential in the Optico Fiesta. Tony Sullins and Julia Barkley are back and ready for action. Despite the lack of experience in Canberra, this pairing will be one to watch in their second season in the Citroen DS3. Adrian Coppin is looking for improvement after the trials of round one. He and Aaron Kelly might be a new team, but they've gelled well and made the cut for the all-important Armourall STP power stage for a second time. They collected one bonus point for third, with Simon Evans in his first outing in the Tank Formers on the Jazz, taking out second to his brother Eli in the Citroen. In four-wheel drive, Mark Pedder never made the cut, but he maxi-cars engine dropping into limp mode. No such problems for Justin Dowell and the new Hyundai i20, but he was pushed back to third behind Marcus Walkham. It was the Irishman Richie Dalton though who flew round the 2.8-kilometre track in record time to win his first Armourall STP power stage. Rally proper begins tomorrow. Heat won back here in the Cowan Forest, but not before the ceremonial start in the heart of Canberra. Ross Duncan and Stone throw away from Lake Burley Griffin great atmosphere here at the ceremonial start. It certainly is a container city, isn't it? Rally cars mixed in. This morning, of course, spectacular action from our power stage. There certainly was, and of course, Richie Dalton was the man. He was flying. There's been a lot of damage under his car. They're repairing it, but they're attaching a set of wings for tomorrow's jump. We're heading back to the same area. That Cowan stage is in there. Can be tough on cars. Well, we've driven over it, of course, and over there it's a very hard surface with rocks protruding from the road. There's going to be a lot of damage under motor cars tomorrow. If you get through that and lock away our result, we head to day two, the west side of the city. Clean contrast, very tricky for tyre selection and also grip out there. But they are the best stages. We're in the Pine Forest and it's tight and twisty, very, very technical. And as you said, tyre wear is going to be a big issue. And being round two, they need those points. Roscoe's going to be a great weekend to rally. Indeed it will, Dean, and we'll catch all that action right after the break. Don't go away. Back to the second round of the East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship, coming to you from the National Capital Rally in Canberra. Simon Evans might have made the final of the Armour All STP power stage yesterday, but it wasn't without its dramas. Yeah, obviously we had the problem with the dogs in the gearbox, so we wrecked Hollandshire yesterday morning and he machined up some parts for us and one of the boys from Steve McKenzie's team was flying up last night, so he picked up the parts and delivered them to us at 8.30 and then the boys rebuilt both our gearboxes because when we pulled apart our spare it was worse than the gearbox that was in the cast. For his brother Eli, the power stage was a dream start. Yeah, look, it was nice to qualify for the power stage and then to win, it's an absolute bonus. We had five points there for the championships, so really excited. We had a good set up for that surface and stage one now is actually a repeat of the power stage plus a little bit more, so I'm hoping to be just as fast in the first stage. Yeah, I couldn't believe the time that he pulled out of that. Like, he matched his time, I think, from his qualifying run. I thought, oh, this could be a bit close, but yeah, they pulled that extra three seconds out. I was like, wow, full credit to him. Everything he's capable of doing is fantastic for me. Adrian Coppin is wearing two hats this weekend, one behind the wheel and the other helping behind the scenes of his car club's event. It's always good to do your home rally, you know, family and friends can come out to support you and, you know, it's my car club that puts it on and I'm the president of that, so it's always good to see and hopefully it's a success for everyone and they all enjoy it. Settlement One is a longer version of yesterday's power stage. Eli Evans is first outright car on the road. This time of two minutes 46.5 seconds over the 4.38 kilometres is not fastest and he knows it. Missed a couple of turn-ins, missed the apexes and got a bit out of rhythm, so hopefully we don't lose too much time to the others. Simon, on the other hand, is upbeat. The repaired gearbox is holding firm but there's still some concerns. We found a small problem there. We know what the problem is. We should get the whole event out of it but we're going to have to change something. Are you worried about it in the back of your mind for today or tomorrow at all or it feels solid and you're driving it flat out? Mate, I'm too dumb to worry about stuff like that, so I'm just driving it. Can you get someone down here? Sorry. Tony Sullins is balked on the line. Officials struggling with clocks and their start time is delayed. Still, they equal the Evans Citroen. We had a bit of a stuff up at the start. They got us in the wrong minute and all that sort of stuff so it was a bit of a stress where we had 30 seconds to go and the adrenaline was pumping and we just had a go. Mollie Taylor and Bill Hayes bring the high-tech oils Renault home in sixth but only two seconds slower than the fastest car. That was great actually. We made a few changes in testing and I think really when we get out to these more twisty technical stages we'll see if that worked or not. Steve McKenzie beats Taylor by 0.1 of a second. The next stage is 30k. That's where someone's going to have a drill crack and pull the day I'm sure. Is that going to be you? I'm not sure about that. The first few k's of one-boying river are good for Eli Evans but the 1600cc engine is seriously reduced in power. Died. He and Glenn Weston stop and restart the car in the hope they can reset the electronics and with it, eliminate the horse power drop but it doesn't work. Short left-six line. Any other suggestions? It's blown a turbo pipe off the Citroen is seriously reduced in power. Eli is concerned his dust will affect the next car on the road, his brother Simon. This is going to keep an eye out for your vote. Fortunately, the onboard rally-safe system has a built-in alert for cars needing to overtake but it never goes on. Evans senior meantime is catching the Citroen's dust and he begins to lose time. The distraction of the dust also means distraction from the task of driving and he hits a jump hard. By the time Eli nears the finish Simon has been struggling to get past his younger brother and the temperature inside the Honda Jazz cabin is rising fast. At 12 years his junior, Eli Evans is discovering the downside to an angry older brother who is somewhat later in life than most but he remains calm. The only winner in this battle is Molly Taylor taking the stage by eight seconds from Tony Sullens who has given a derived time after stopping for an incident. Steve McKenzie's time is ten seconds behind the lead effort of Taylor not bad considering his stall on the start. Combined that with a couple of overshoots and Brent would have been close to a stage win. Adrian Coppin has a lucky break. He had already slowed for a suspected flat tyre when the yellow caution was given downgrading the stage. He too receives a derived time with the hose back on the Citroen's turbo and his fuming brother simmering down Eli Evans blasts through the final morning stage. Simon is only 2.4 seconds behind but the hard landing in the previous stage has broken a gearbox mount. Neither Evans brother will affect the end result. Molly Taylor is third in stage but holds a 13 second lead over Tony Sullens. Sullens is neat and tidy only fifth quickest but drops another five seconds to Taylor. In only his third ever round Harry Bates had been fifth quickest through the previous stage and is to seventh with the competition back on their game. He beats Ashley James home who is using the event to set up his new VW Polo. In the four wheel drive national series the big news was Justin Dahl and Mark Pedder both fronting with the new generation four wheel drives. Pedder's start was short lived. The race engine for the Peugeot Maxi was only fitted 24 hours ago and there was no time to dial in the computer. They were doing the same thing though so still cutting out. Start motor died on the way out here so we'll head back to service and download and see what the boys can find. No such problems for Justin Dahl and the Hyundai i20 Proto but he trailed Richie Dalton after the opening stage. SS2 was the game changer though and the fastest man on the road. After a great start Dalton and John Allen had the chip shop Evo 9 on its lid two thirds of the way through the 27K stage. Tony Sullins was next on scene. There was a two left it's a narrow second gear corner so I just turned in too early to compensate for the back stepping out and just clipped inside of the bend put it on its side on its roof and as you can see it's the end result. In the Repco entry by nearly half a second the K from Justin Dahl's Hyundai with Marcus Walkham right in touch with the derived time in the Evo 9. The afternoon stages repeat the three morning stages after lunch and service back in Canberra all that action coming your way right after the break. So back to the National Capital Rally coming to you from Canberra in the ACT. The boil over between Simon and Eli Evans has simmered down back in service. I was pretty frustrated though I'll let him know at the end of the stage. It's unfortunate you know I don't like to drag my brother down but that's what's happened today and he was a bit angry. Meantime Miss Smolley has been keeping her head down and delivering for the high-tech oils Renault team but she too has engine issues. We still managed to crack the sump so the boys have to be careful fast Steve McKenzie's morning hasn't been all bad either and the opticoat fiesta stays in touch through the lunch service. Couple of little mistakes in the second stage there so if we didn't have them we would have been right on Moley's pace so yeah really happy with how it's all going and seeing a few of the other guys parked still parked in the service area just then I think we might be pulling a bit of time back so yeah we'll keep doing what we're doing. Pulling time in service is exactly what he's doing. Moley Taylor is seven minutes late replacing the sump and that costs. Seven minutes unfortunately. 35 seconds so we'll have a crack. They arrived in service with a 13 second lead and before they even start SS4 they've dropped four places outright handing the heat lead to Tony Sullins with Steve McKenzie just four seconds behind him. The short settlement stage is won by Eli with Simon 0.7 behind. Adrian Coppin and Aaron Kelly have a great run finishing just one second behind the older Evans. Into SS5, Womboyne, Eli Evans leads the way eager to drag back his 90 second deficit. 70. Don't know. Simon Evans races past. Just what the gesture means is anyone's guess. A flat tyre in the last two kilometres of the 27k stage doesn't stop him winning by 11 seconds but the gearbox mount replaced in service has broken again. Rally leader Tony Sullins hits the same rock as Eli continues on. Thanks to the stage being downgraded first pass he's unsure of the road ahead at speed. He drops time to McKenzie who finishes behind Simon Evans. Both manage to miss the rock that the two Citrons hit. Yeah, we had a bit of a crack. I thought we had a flat or something towards the end so I did back off a little bit. The third Citron hits the same rock and while Koppen does continue the impact has pushed the driveshaft into the gearbox and damaged the diff in salvage mode just to get to the overnight service. There's always something at every rally that leaves its mark and today it's hidden in the dust. Ashley James is also caught by the rogue rock neatly positioned on the racing line. The McKenzie brothers lead the rally by eight seconds from Sullins as they enter the final stage of the heat. Molly Taylor is once again fast and consistent lifting to third outright. We've got a puncture in that stage before and so we've got a little bit of time on Tony but we've got to find 14 seconds to get to third so we'll just try and do it on the stage and see what happens. What happens won't affect the heat lead but the second Evans is also out when the broken mount forces the fan through the radiator. The car just started overheating and so we slowed down and we were just at a sort of coasting pace to try to get the temperature down and then it just stopped, ran out of compression so it wouldn't restart and here we stopped. The championship chances of the battling brothers might just have been evened up. Things are happening everywhere. Leader Steve McKenzie hits a bump and the left shock sticks in the compressed position. The handling of the fiesta is all over the place and overshoot seals their fate. And now the fight is on between Molly Taylor and Tony Sullins. Sullins is next on the road and is slowed by McKenzie's dust. Molly Taylor is closing the gap with no one aware of what the outcome will be. The car started just wander on straight. I thought I had a flat but I reckon something's gone in the front end then missed the next corner because I was focusing on that. So then we just limped through the rest of the stage. He's had problems because we've caught him. Yeah, and Simon's off. So we could be doing reasonably well. I don't know how Molly went. We had a big job on if we wanted to catch Tony and Steve but they've been doing a good job too so I don't think we've done enough unfortunately but we had to clean run through there and enjoyed the stage and that's all we can do now. It's a heat win for Sullins and Julia Barclay. They're first in the Citroen DS3 by just two seconds. Despite the gearbox noises that continued to come from his Citroen, Adrian Coppin pressed on and is rewarded with third in the heat ahead of Steve McKenzie and Harry Bates, an excellent fifth. Bates Junior's repeat of the morning stages had been smooth and consistent under the guidance of the experienced co-driver John McCarthy. Their aim was to be within a second a kilometre of the main teams and make the finish. Job done for Heat One. And the job's done for Simon Evans. With a blown engine, he won't start Heat Two but Eli should. Yeah, look, I'm 99% sure the boys are going to fix it and we'll carry on and there won't be any issues. They're working on it now. Get the wheel straight so they can get it down in the service area and have a good look at it. McPatten continued his form from the morning winning the short settlement stage. JJ Hatton was next. The rookie relishing the stage he had become quite familiar with even if the flying finish did catch him out. Justin Dahl narrowly beat Guy Tyler point three of a second was the difference but Tyler was happy his handling issues of the morning were now behind him. Patten's charge was hard through the long 27 kilometre womboing stage perhaps too hard when every second counts there's no room for error and the Repco Mitzi finishes just half a second behind Dahl and Lee in the LG Hyundai i20. The proto prototype might not have the legs of the unrestricted forward lives but its poise and presence through the forest clearly shows where the future lies in the competitive rallying. Marcus Wolcombe holds on for third in stage but only just after speeding the turbo hose. Patten grabs back the stage win through the final hibernian stage but the top three spots overall remain unchanged to end heat one. Patten, Dahl and Wolcombe. After the break it's heat two the East Coast Bullbuyers Australian Rally Championship Welcome back to the East Coast Bullbuyers Australian Rally Championship from the National Capital Rally in Canberra. Local ARC rookie Rhys Pinter works two jobs to feed his passion of rallying and while he hasn't featured in the top places he's stoked with the day's outcome. Everyone sees the end result of rallies but they don't see you know exactly how long it takes just to be here like full days reccy testing the whole lot for me it's just getting to that point just the passion just working really hard and you know sometimes it gets hard working two jobs but as soon as you you go five four three two one you just know exactly why you're doing this. While Rhys Pinter represents the passionate enthusiasts determined to realise his dreams further up the rally ladder the dreams just get bigger. Current ARC champ Scott Pedder is fulfilling his dream to compete in the WRC. He's driving in selected international rounds in the WRC to come. Dean Herridge caught up with a few of our drivers here this weekend who've tasted the international stage. Dale Moskut is arguably one of Australia's most experienced co-drivers alongside many people in the world championship. Dale why do you think Australians are trying to make it overseas? I mean it's everyone's goal isn't it. I'm fortunate enough to do this for a living and to do that I guess there's not enough of a sport here that you need overseas to make it a full-time thing but that's the aspiration of everyone here everyone you know as a kid growing up loving motorsport wants to compete at the elite level and it's a fantastic thing to do but it's a lot of hard work to make it happen but here's where it starts. Just from the whole being on a WRC event over in Europe the atmosphere is huge but everything is very stringent and very timed and just me is driving to you know you've just got to work with an engineer and all that sort of stuff to really understand the new insight to me for rally. And having the opportunity to see different terrains and you know jump into a rally where you haven't done it before and try and push from that I think that's helped us come in here and we haven't I mean did the rally six years ago but so they're effectively new rallies so taking I think what we learned from doing that and using it here on the weekend. I helped Molly here when the first year she did the Australian rally championship I was sitting with her and I took Adrian over to Germany last year and yeah it's nice to be able to see the competition coming on. I'm not finished yet but it's nice to see the sort of next crop coming along. Well it's a brisk day here in the ACT for day two and the start of heap two. What a day it was yesterday. Well the crews are going to find it completely different here today because they're moving into the forest just west of the city. Now the roads here are hard packed but loose on the top and also they are tight and twisty and very technical. Well today it's going to be make it or break it. As Dunco just indicated it's almost a new rally today and Eli Evans at least is approaching heap two with just that in mind. We've got two sets of suspension. We've got one set up for yesterday and one set up for today so all the struts got pulled out from yesterday and we've got our basically it's essentially nearly a wet set up we run in these forests out on the other side so mainly because it's so hard packed it's a bit sandy so we've got to try and utilise as much as we can get. Yesterday's heap winning co-driver is certainly aware it's a very new day. Yeah the stages are very very different today I mean they're a lot more technical. A lot more concentration has got to be had I think. I don't know what to expect yet. And for the man who had the heat slip away it's been a long night to find and replace the bent strut. There was one guy who had to drive all the way from bending over the shock so we got it here at midnight last night. It's in the car now the boys have done a good job to get it in within the 20 minute service with heaps of time by the looks of it so it will be good to go today. It's not good though. With mismatch front suspension the Opticode Fiesta's handling is less than perfect and it shows early. At the 12k mark he clips the inside of a corner and hits something solid. Left. It's not a puncture but in fact a second broken strut in as many days. Ian Brent head for an early service hoping to rejoin after lunch. Eli Evans is first on the road and catches everyone napping. His time across the 16km stage is 12 seconds faster than anyone. Olly Taylor the best of the rest with the other patrons close behind. Adrian Koppen is just 2 seconds off Olly's pace the tighter twistier road soothing his driving style. Tony Sullins and Julia Barclay are right there too but Harry Bates is plugging away in the background. While no threat to the championship he's showing definite signs that rallying is in his blood less than a second decay behind the main field. There's no chance the others will bleed more time to Eli through cottage 5. Big crests and brave hearts are needed here and everyone has finishing high on the priority. Olly Taylor is just 2.5 in a rears and Adrian Koppen has the DS3 Citroen another 3 behind. Sullins doesn't feature in the top 3 he runs wide early and things don't improve. He and Barclay are losing time and more importantly confidence in the car and the time reflects it. Harry Bates continues his clean smooth approach in an almost bog standard 2 wheel drive Corolla Sportivo 4th in stage and again only 1 second a case slower than Eli Evans. SS9 Tibbin Billa is not to Molly's liking. She drops 14 seconds to Eli and is lucky it's only that as her co-driver will attest to. Go 200 In slow motion the size and proximity of that rock was no doubt what was going through Bill Hayes mind. Adrian Koppen consolidates again. With the lead entry an identical Citroen it's very clear what these cars are capable of. 2nd fastest over the 20km stage 7 shy of Eli Evans and leapfrogging Molly Taylor to be 2nd in heat. Justin Dahl has softened up the suspension in the LG i20 proto and it paid in spades. 7 seconds quicker than Walkum in the opening east-west stage although the brothers from Tasmania were quicker than rally leader McPattern in the Repco machine. We had a good run through there pushed on a bit so having a good morning so far. Walkum's good form continued but Pattern picked up the pace through cottage 5 and took the stage by 4 seconds. Justin Dahl had been relegated to 3rd after a small spin mid-stage but hung on to the overall lead by 3 seconds. Guy Tyler was the most consistent at performing all the drives with a replaced rear diff the 777 rally sport Evo 5 was holding down 4th overall ahead of JJ Hatton. Dahl spun again in the final morning stage but raced on to win from Pattern by 0.1 of a second so the positions heading into the lunch service were Dahl, Pattern and Walkum. Just 3 stages to go in the 2nd round of the East Coast Bull Bars Australian Rally Championship. That's coming your way in just a few months. Back to the national capital rally from Canberra. Tires play a huge part in rallying and here in the East Coast Bull Bars Australian Rally Championship we have a control tyre provided by Kumo but there's not just one size or compound for that matter Dean Herridge has some tips on what's used where over the weekend. I'm inside the Kumo tyre truck at the service park here. There's a mountain of tyres behind me so many and would you believe they're not all the same. Lots to choose from obviously also sizes. Lots for our teams to think about. The crews, the drivers and the co-drivers to strategise their way through the weekend. Earlier on we heard Ross Duncan and talk that this rally of Canberra is almost played out in two parts. The Saturday stage is being in the Cowan Forest very rough and stony and rocky. Really hard on the tyres and the cars for that matter and then obviously Sunday is going to be in the west side of the city smoother, sandier based, more technical style of road so how do you best handle those things or hards and obviously then we've also got the sizes like I said so a 195 here you can see on your right and if I swing it across to a 205 as a choice you can see it's about half an inch wider. Why would you go for a narrow tyre or a thicker tyre or a wider tyre? You're basically going to use a narrow tyre to try and bite through the service for your first passes less tyre on the road meaning you have a bit more feel and grip through the course. On the second pass when it swept you want a wider tyre and a 16 for the weekend how do you manage all those numbers? Is anyone's guess? And if you'd like the chance to take on the world with CUMO tyre and win a trip to round four of the East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship in September but just head to our website rally.com.au forward slash promotions for all the details. It went to the wire in the four-wheel drive national series at the National Capital Rally Justin Dowell had started the day with a softer setup and it was working but it was too for his opposition. This car is really really good to drive but it's just a bit unpredictable with all that tight stuff. There's a lot of real big crusty jumps that can catch you out and we've got away with a few moments but anyway we're having fun. We gave up fair too much on stage one unfortunately just a little bit to get going and a bit untidy in there but yeah clawed it back on stage two and I think stage three so yeah look there's still we made a few adjustments in our notes we're still just trying to drive the lines that we're trying to achieve and push on from there. We really enjoyed the roads this morning a bit more tight and twisty so yeah we unfortunately had an overshoot in that last stage and dropped a bit of time but still ride in it I think. Guy Taylor set out to repeat his good morning performance but his car had other ideas after the elite tricks got wet and handed JJ Hatton his best finish for the heat fourth. Dowell smashed the field by 16 seconds a second decay with a 21 second overall lead and a weekend win in sight Ian Lee pushed hard next stage another win this time by 13 seconds it comes out short straight 50 this is the one you went to Hatton had this moment and Walken was home by two level pegging on stage wins it all came down to the final stage if Hatton or Dowell won this stage they win the weekend Dowell first on the road had been looking good but double flats slowed his progress and Patton looked a shoe in for the rally win I'm really gutted for them they drove really really well today but it's the bad and the good I suppose unfortunately and unfortunately as is often the case in this sport is more of a story while that battle had been going on Marcus Walken got it together in the final stage taking 14 seconds out of Patton and with it the stage and heat to win it was a tight tussle for the top three positions with Guy Tyler and JJ Hatton filling the lower order in the fastest five this weekend so Mick Patton leads the four wheel drive national series ahead of Justin Dowell with Marcus Walken third remember though it's the best three of five events and Markovic and Tostovan will need to make the trip across the Nullarbor to stay in contention final three stages in the outright championship right after the break the ACT is hosting this second round of the East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship Service HQ is right in the heart of Canberra it's also HQ for our nation's Defence Force and an appropriate place for Adrian Coppin to show his support for our military personnel returning from service overseas it's really great to have become an ambassador for them in the last few weeks so I believe it's a really good cause it's something close to me if we can create a bit more awareness for them that's all a good thing Coppin is soldiering on himself his morning performance having elevated him to second behind Eli Evans Eli sets a time of 11 minutes 53.8 for the nearly 17 kilometres with the weekend win within his grasp points in the bag he laments the fact he should have been faster not over the moon about that would have liked to have been faster but that's alright we got through Molly Taylor is next though 5 seconds behind Eli but her challenge today isn't just coming from Tony Sullins Adrian's on form today as well so we really need to finish ahead of him and Tony to be behind Adrian so we're trying to step up the place and find that balance in between going hard and not taking risks we'll see if it's good enough it isn't Coppin is on fire through the east west stage his notes are good and he and Aaron Kelly are in sync he's driving like he believes in himself and it shows on the leaderboard yeah we had a real big win there and that car just felt really good to start with had a prep and yeah it was the first stage win so that was part of the goal this year so I've done that sweet he still trails Evans for the heat but in rally terms he's now leading the overall event for the weekend and that will be of concern to Taylor and Sullins Steve McKenzie is back in the mix too after robbing a strunt from a Subaru he's back with even more mismatched suspension but somehow pushes Molly back into fourth in stage I was planning to attack at the moment but it sucks you're in that stage a bit so yeah that was good fun Sullins is in fourth for the heat but that's not enough to influence the weekend result but the bonnet pins on his Citroen R they've come undone and that's sure going to have an impact yeah that was a bit of a hairy experience we've probably lost a bit of time there I'd say but I think we will quicker than stopping and fixing it the game of positional strategy by the mother of Molly Taylor all she needs to do now is beat Adrian Coppin and that opportunity comes very next stage he's missing his DS3 Citroen falters 5km into the penultimate special stage he and Erin Kelly link the stricken car to the end of stage Coppin's rally an aspirations of a first ever event win adashed on the side of the road unable to start the final stage of the event got my first ever stage win in east west and went into that one and started okay and about I don't know okay and started missing and coughing and sputtering and pulled over and reset everything and just got progressively worse and we managed to spot her through and get to the finish but I don't know what's happened we had 18 seconds on Molly all we had to do was reserve that and finish and I don't know how it all worked but yeah we've been on track to probably win the rally in a second pretty gut wrenching nothing gut wrenching for Harry Bates though he claims third place through SS 11 again beating Tony Sullins and putting an all important position between the Citroen driver and Molly Taylor now in second place outright under the rules two seconds can't beat a first and third beat Tony Sullins was first yesterday and must finish in third today to win the rally but Harry Bates even though he isn't registered for the championship can claim third position in the rally and that's currently standing in Sullen's way it's exactly what Molly needs though the son of the man her mum has co-driven alongside for more than two decades in only his third ever rally must finish in front of Tony Sullins to ensure Molly makes history becoming the first woman to win a round of the Australian Rally Championship Steve McKenzie leaves his best till last third in the final stage but his late worst of speed won't affect the final result it's even out of Tony Sullen's hands he knows he must finish to gain valuable points and hopefully a podium position up front Taylor and Bill Hayes continue to press on conscious the rally is still up for grabs today was pushing really hard and we had our work cut out for us for sure but it's good more people having a battle the better so makes it exciting ironically even at the finish line the result for the weekend is still out of her control no one can predict this weekend at all it's been insane Harry Bates brings the sportivo home to beat Sullen's time overall by 40 seconds to secure third in heat in the process securing a rally win for Molly and the third spot on the podium behind them both I'm just so proud of the pair of them for what they've done it's quite amazing but obviously for Harry and his third ever rally I'm a little stunned very proud in heat terms Eli Evans bounces back from yesterday in from Molly Taylor with Harry Bates and third Tony Sullen's might rue the decision not to check his own bonnet clips more frequently and Reese Pinter grabs a sensational fifth place finishing when plenty of big guns didn't let's get the thoughts of our multiple Australian rally champion on just who he thought was doing the business this round Molly Taylor may have won the weekend but my vote goes to Irishman Richie Dalton for winning the power stage with that huge jump he started the rally, he was on fire but went off the road on the second state for my vote doing the business was Richie Dalton the cumo tire spirit of the rally award goes to Reese Pinter a passionate and dedicated rally enthusiast lives and works for his sport another first for Molly Taylor leading the Australian rally championship ahead of Eli Evans Tony Sullen's and Adrian Poppin have both had a sniff of success and let's not underestimate the determination of both Simon Evans and Steve McKenzie come round 3 the next stop for the East Coast Ball Bars Australian Rally Championship Express train is the international rally of Queensland June 20 and 21 for all the details go to rally.com.au for everything you need to keep up the great sport of rallying in this country until then, I'm Greg Rust today's coverage is made possible by