 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 Four Vars Australian Rally Championship. Hi everybody, I'm Greg Rust. Welcome to Rally Victoria coming to you from Gippsland. In today's show we'll feature the classic clash when Ford and Porsche take on Toyota. Bring you the East Coast Four Vars four wheel drive national series that's gone to the wire with Henry Knot battling Richard Alton. And of course we have the final round of the Armour All Power Stage. Can Brendan Reeves even up the scorecard and keep his championship chances alive? Let's find out right now. With the scores 3-1 Reeves was eager for a win at Coates Higher Rally Australia last round and that's exactly what happened when Scott Pettis spun himself out of qualifying. With the pressure off Reeves grabbed the bonus five points and leveled the championship while Tony Sullins edged out his Citroen teammate Adrian Coffin for the three bonus points. Only championship registered competitors can qualify for the Armour All Power Stage and they have just one qualifying run to get themselves into the fastest five. The show grounds here at Lardin Park is the setting for the final round of the Armour All Power Stage. Now the result so far. Scott Pettis has three heat wins in the Renault and Brendan Reeves has two in the Mazda. Now Brendan is mad keen to equal Scott's score and also keep him in a chance to win the Australian Rally Championship. But the cat has been thrown among the pigeons. With the return of the current Australian Rally Champion Eli Evans in the Honda. So Throttle Springs will be stretched for the final showdown of the Armour All Power Stage for 2014. So Brenda wants to even up the score in the Power Stage stakes. Let's take a closer look at it now. The start is at the top of the complex meaning the run to the first corner is downhill, longer and faster. Two loops of the showground arena will lead to Polaris Split at the 800 metre mark. There's a dog leg at the end of the lake through Coats Hire Hairpin before cars pull up to a square left that is Canaan Corner. The final sector skirts back along the lake incorporating a kink and jump before a climb uphill to the finish. In all, a distance of 2.3 kilometres. Ross Duncan has been driving the course and is about to catch up with our Dean Herridge. Now five times Australian Rally Champion Ross Duncan and once again on the Armour All Power Stage. Tell us what it is like out there. Dean, I feel like I should have a dog in the back. It's a bit like driving around somebody's farm. But I tell you what, the first time ever I've seen it so dry in Victoria. Yeah, we've been here very, very wet. We've been to London to play before. This is a really great little special stage. It's got the lot, hasn't it? It has. And especially those gates. There's very narrow entrances and exits of those gates. And when they get down the bottom and they do a bit of circle work, because of the dust, they're going to have trouble finding where they're going. Of course, there's a couple of long straights, a couple of tricky hairpins. And of course, as I said, those narrow gates, we've seen competitors hit them before. And I'm sure they're going to hit them today. And our champ is on the line. This is the final round. Very important for our key stakeholders, Scott Petter and of course, Brendan Reeves. Well, gee whiz, you know, this is, it's down to the wire. And this stage is so important for them to do it. Let's hope both of them get through it and start the rally proper. Certainly it's important and saying that rusty qualifying is very important to get one pass at that. And it's over to you for the highlights. Thanks, Dean. The Auckland Shore Performance Renault was first on the track, but not fastest after Scott Petter drove back into his own dust in the showground arena. It was an early dust-up between Eli Evans and Petter, and the current champion found himself driving blind thanks to the man laying claim to the title. Evans just made the cut, equal fourth with Tony Sullins in the Citroen. Adrian Coppin choked on dust in the other Citroen, but it was oversteer at the coach's higher hairpin that left him outside the fastest five. And a 219 wasn't enough for the day-coat focus of Alan Rowe to make it through either. Dust did bring a temporary halt to proceedings, benefiting Glenn Raymond, but the flu-row Orange RX-7 could still only manage a 216. Steve McKenzie blew through the dust to secure third fastest time for the Opti-Coat Fiesta, but it was the rally school Mazda 2 in the hands of Brendan Reeves that set pole for the final. So, Eli Evans, Tony Sullins, Steve McKenzie, Scott Petter and Brendan Reeves will challenge for the bonus championship points, the Armour All Power Stage, coming to you from Rally Victoria. Welcome back everybody, we're at Lardner Park for Rally Victoria. They're sitting third in the championship, but couldn't qualify for the Armour All Power Stage. The Inheritage is with our wild cards on the start line right now. It's Adrian Cobben and Tim Bannon. Adrian, very tough conditions to qualify, mate, very dusty for everybody. Yeah, it's really tricky. We're really unfortunate. We just got, you know, shouting dust by Rameau and then create our own dust and stop a couple times and I couldn't overshot the hairpin and look, it was just one of those things that saved everyone and we've got some TV time with the wild card and we'll settle it in the forest. Yeah, look, it is a classic stage as well. Your first car out now, so dust won't be an issue. It's got a lot this stage, hasn't it? Yeah, it's actually, it's a really, really good stage and it's to get used again tomorrow afternoon. So it's a fantastic special stage, a bit of everything for the fans, so it should be good. And the good thing is, in those dusty conditions, you've kept the car square, because of course you've got to be out there for heat one this afternoon. That's up to your right. It's a very unique value. It's one we get to start on in only a few hours' time, so I've got to make sure we bring the car home, okay? Good luck, mate. Have a good run. Cheers, Dano. Three, two, one, go. 43 by 3. It's a good stage this month. It offers a bit of everything, some tight, twisty stuff as well as a real chance to max the car out, go over the crest and down the hill. Smooth so far from Poppen, when he's made a rare blue there, rare. Recovers, recovers well. Headed now for the Petters Luke. Not a shot cut through there. Took the grass out and just clipped that inside corner there. Very nicely done as he sets the car up once again. This is a full 360 loop they've got to do here. Lovely stuff there from Adrian Coppen, a two-minute 25 and qualifying, but as he said prior to the start of the stage, a lot of dust to contend with. This should be a big improvement to the very narrow area. Clarissa is our first split time, does very nicely through there. And a great addition to the championship, these citrons, the high shot shows you. Adrian Coppen and his co-driver Tim Batten, unleashing that DS3. Handbrake on there, lost a bit of time. The chatter is it. Punts for traction into this left-hander uphill at the Can-Am split. That's our benchmark time for now, Ross. This is the fastest part of the circuit. It's a long straight with a slight kink and the hay bale is right on the apex of the corner. He's got through high tech oils. Let's see what speed he's doing. 16 kph for Adrian Coppen. Big jump there. They've made it a lot by the last year. The call of conservative so far, he's by and large tried to keep it nice and tight, hasn't he? He certainly has. He's looking good at the moment. His comment to Dean Herridge before he got going was, let's do the talking in the forest. So wants to get safely through this Armor All power stage and does it in a 2 minute 11, just a fraction over. That's a massive gain compared to the time that Adrian Coppen banked in qualifying. Good effort to start the power stage. And tidy. A bit of a bit of a frustrating on this morning, especially before the points on offer and got snacked with some dust and rainbow, but look that's rowing. It was a trivial stage, but the real rally starts until God's afternoon. Bit of analysis here now with the ECB replay. How about that? He's sort of gone to the right hand side of the jump. He didn't actually go over it. So second look at it from the replay. That's quite clever, isn't it? Isn't it? So good work by Adrian Coppen, who for now finds himself in the prime spot with the Armor All power stage as we go back to Dean Herridge. So car number one is back, our last year's champions, Eli Evans and Glenn Weston. Great to have you back, your local rally, and the smallest is it all. Yeah, I can't wait. It's been a long time since I've done an ARC, so I'm really excited. I think we've got our tank form is civics sorted now, so it feels faster testing. So let's see if we can put it together on this power stage. Now, you're just scraped in, but it was dusty. I'm assuming that doesn't mean the full potential has been shown just yet. No, it's a slow down a few times just to be safe. So I was pretty thankful we qualified. I thought I'd probably gone a little bit too slow on the run, but we're here now with the first guys at it. So nice clean run. The wind's picked up, so we'll just go flat out as usual, Dino. We're looking forward to it. Everyone's wrapped up. Have you back, mate. Good luck. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Yeah, fantastic to see them back in the sport they love. In a familiar car, a great combination. They're underway. He is certainly a fast man, and this will be a fast time. He's out wide. For 50, turn right three narrow. Stay on farmer. 100. Touch the handbrake slightly, pulls it back nicely, comes up to the right hander, and now starts doing the circle work. Touch the corner, of course. Now, he's going to be quicker than Coppano would think, so he might even have more dust problem because he'll be quicker back into his own dust. 50. Left three, tightness two. Weston looks like he's getting dizzy, doesn't he, as they come through the penis loop, but love the sound of this car. It's on the money. Left three. Eli even showing no drama since he comes through the Polaris split here. Oh, yeah. 56.77s. Very fast. Great work at the split and showing his time away from the sport has not hurt the reflexes at all. Now, down to this tricky corner, let's see how he goes with the handbrake. This is where they're going to lose time, anyway. Oh, very fast through there. Turn left three. He's got some grunt this car. Now wide. He cuts that corner nicely. Big gain. Big gain in the Can-Am split. Look at the advantage over Adrian Poppin and Tim Batten. He is on a mission gritting the teeth. Eli Evans. Oh, how close was that? High-tech oils. 123Ks an hour. That's a significant gain at the speed trap and get some good air there too. Big jump. Now he's got to be on the picks very, very early here and set it up and nicely down through there. I tell you what, he is on fire at the moment. Great run. It had it all, didn't it? The car sounds fantastic in full flight. Lots of attitude for hometown advantage. 2045. That's going to be hard to beat. He's very happy with that. Jump was good. Yeah, you could take it flat now if I had another go out. That was pretty neat. I don't know if it's the fastest, but look, it was a tidy run. If I had one more go out, I reckon I can extract a little bit more, but that'll do for now. I think we were faster than Adrian, so that's a good start. Straight to the replay. Check this out through the Polaris pinch. Beautiful line. Here's the master of positioning the car. I tell you what, that was close. And what about the big jump? Here we go. Lands in West Australia when he came down there. So the benchmark set. Eli Evans with a two-minute 4.5. Tony Sullins equaled Evans in qualifying, but now has to go one better to bump him out. We'll find out after the break. Watching the East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship and our coverage of the Armoural Power Stage current leader, Eli Evans, but Dean Herridge is at the start line with an ex-qualifier. Tony Sullins and Julia Barclay made it into the final here again, mate. It's an exciting stage, isn't it? Yeah, it's really tricky. I've never been around here before, being the first time doing Rally Victoria, so it was a bit of an eye open of all the dust. Now, you had plenty of stuff going on at Rally Australia over those three days. I'm sure you're looking for a trouble-free power stage and also, obviously, moving on to the rally as it starts this afternoon. Yep, hope so. Completely different start. We didn't test. We didn't do anything at the car. Basically, rolled off the trailer. This is the first time I've driven it, so come for the relaxed, but go fast approach. Is that working for you so fast sitting here right now? Well, I'm happy. So that's a good thing. As long as you and Julia happy, mate. Hopefully, you have a good run. Good luck. Very good. Thank you. Rye Smaa from Julia wasn't all convinced that she thought he was taking it easy. It's the difficult thing. This isn't because there's great points on offer from the power stage, and they all want to chase those points, but they've got to think about the rally proper, starting in just a few hours' time as well. It's a really interesting scenario. And look at the eyes on now, nice and relaxed from cellans before they took off, different cat now. Well, you can lose the rally here, of course, Rusty. You've got to be sort of controlled, but you've got to be fast. Completely. Lost a lot of time there. He has improved over the year in the Citroen. He's going pretty well, but lost, I reckon, a second or two on that being too wide. Got to remember, too, that in recent years, he's largely been a tarmac competitor. It's fantastic to have him back on dirt, but it's wild to hear him say first crack at rally Victoria, so he exits the Pedder's loop here and will start to work towards now the Polaris pinch. Wow. He's got his hands forth at the moment. Doesn't look as tidy as Evans. Evans did a brilliant job and has really laid down a benchmark as we take a look at the split time. No, he hasn't done it, and the dust is getting worse and worse as he comes down now, this long straight before the tight left-hand hairpin. Resting that speed under brakes. 100. Barkley looks so cool under pressure, doesn't she? Just watching the road up ahead, making sure that she's in the right place on the notes. He did that corner pretty well, comes up, goes wide. As all the other cars have done so, come through the hand-amp split there. He's a bit wider than the other two cars. It's soaring the wheel, Wastley, but it's 125 kph at the high-tech world's radar trap there. Fastest top. Oh! Big jump! Big jump! Up to this right-hander, out wide. This has kind of been a stage in two parts for this combo, hasn't it? He kind of was a little bit erratic just dialing himself in in the first part, but a strong finish here. A strong finish in this pairing, but they lost the time to begin with, and that's the net result. Bottom right of your screen, it's a hell of a mark laid down by Eli Evans and Glenn Weston. Yeah, well, you know, I've never been rounder before, so the first one was my first run and the second one was my second run, so there's a bit more in it, but I, you know, long rally, you know, the usual story, so we're happy just to be here. Some analysis on the Kumo replay, and this was critical, wasn't it? It certainly was, laid on the brakes. He sort of didn't read that road too well, and down there at the coach's hairpin, lost a bit of time trying to get back onto the road. Love this, though. Big jump, hey! That's horrific stuff. All right, so no change to the power stage leader, Eli Evans and Glenn Weston standing firm, but Steve McKenzie is not on the start line. So we've made it to the service park to Steve McKenzie, and young Steve made awesome job in qualifying, and you're not out there now for the run? No, no, really, just for next morning. We had a real good run in qualifying. Over the jump there, we've obviously bent the strut, though. I thought it took it quite well, but apparently hasn't, so we're in here, putting another set back in, and then we'll be back out there to Salvo, hopefully putting in more good times. And the thing, well, there was a good time. You were in the mix there, and we got the championship, you know, guys fighting for the lead, only guys in front, the former champion, qualified fifth, so you're right on the mix with this very new car as well. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's a stage I think suits both me and the car, so I was expecting to put in a good time, I guess, but very disappointing not to be out there again in the power stage, but I guess that's it. We're not in it for the championship, so we'll be out there to Salvo, going for the rally, I guess. Yeah, well, like I said, it's not a big drama, you fixed it, so good luck for that. Cheers, thanks, Dan. So disappointing for a good young team, Rusty, but they'll be back out there no doubt. I think the smile hides the disappointment, Dean, doesn't it, for the McKenzie brothers? Their qualifying time was two seconds faster than Eli Evans. It's Scott Pedder, though, waiting on the line to see if he can knock the current Australian champion off his perch. You are watching the East Coast Bullbars ARC as teams do battle in the last Armoural Power Stage for the 2014 championship. Gee, we've seen some excitement throughout the year with this addition to the series. Dean is with the team that clocked the most wins so far in 2014. So, championship leader Scott Pedder and Dale Moskett made his last year's champ your old foe you have to beat, a 204.5 he's done through there in the clean run. Yeah, every time I turn up, there's an Evans to beat, so we just have to have a nice smooth run through here. These stages reward nice smoothness, and the first run was quite good apart from the dust, so it's a matter of repeating that, not doing it stupid, because obviously we've still got a reasonable point lead. Now, you say that obviously Evans was the guy that knocked you off in these stages last year. This year you've got three to Brenda's two. Now, he's out-qualified you. Championship wise, what are you thinking sitting here right now? What are you going for? Yeah, look, no doubt it'd be handy to knock Brenda off here and bag some more points. That makes the calculations a little bit nicer, but you know, at the end of the day, I think, you know, this doesn't matter a huge amount for the overall, just a matter of getting through a nice run and see where we're at. Good luck, mate. Thank you. So there we go guys, the first time I've had Scott Pettit talking about the championship, he's gone all about the outright pace of this stage, and he's the big picture. Interesting observation, Dean. I reckon there's a little switch down low somewhere that Dale Moskut hits, that transforms him from cool Pettit to competitive Pettit, and he is away. And he can smell the Australian rally championship. Look at his eyes. He's on fire as he goes down into the first right-hander. Lovely line. Let's see if he clips the corner here and I like the brakes. That's pushing a bit, isn't it? Yeah. Good, good, good as he goes through there. Through the Pettit's loop now. Stretching the legs of the Renault, chasing it. Look at him hustling, chasing it. What about the dust when he comes back? The dust will be bad. Up to the Polaris. Split time as he comes through. Let's see how he goes. This is going to be good. Oh, yes. How about that? He's on fire. Bevins and Weston are under serious threat here from Scott Petter and Dale Moskut. We head now toward the coach's higher hairpin. He needs this to be tidy. This is the important bit. Grab the handbrake there. Just pulls it round. Oh, lovely. I would say he'd be another second or so up on his run at the moment. The engine is actually screaming. Now we're into the fast part of the track, and let's see how he goes through here and what sort of speed he'll hit. Build that advantage. Look at it sideways. Oh, no. Calming influence. Good work, Dale Moskut. Let's take a look at this on the replay. What went wrong? It was looking so fast at this point. Amazing that he didn't go over. He's dropped that right-hand wheel down into that gutter and that's thrown him off cue and pirouetted. That's our time now. Yeah. He's had problems. I just came from a little bit further out wide than I should have, probably, and it kicked the back of this car out into the gutter, and then it obviously brought us back around, and we pivoted in the air. So quite lucky not to roll, actually. So a bit of a wake-up. Hopefully the boys can fix it. It looks worse than what it probably is, I think. Oh, you've got to feel for him. He's livid with himself, I think, more than anything else, but thankful the damage isn't too bad. Let's go back to Dean. Ben and Reeves, different for us. You're outside the car. We've just had Scott Petter, who's pirouetted, hasn't rolled, but they're okay. Good news for them. Difficult for you, though. You've still got to run this stage and, of course, points and champions. You've got everything going through your head right now. Yeah, for sure. The points are what we're here for, but glad to hear they're okay. These power stages are tricky. I've come unstuck on a couple of them myself this year, but you can see the road here. There's two trenches, so I'll try and stay within them and get the grip. The car's sat here now for a lot longer than the other competitors, so I'll have some really cold brakes and a cold engine, but we had a good qualifying run with a lot of dust. We're looking for a clean run now with no dust. Ironically, Reeves had wanted Eli Evans to set a good pace to help separate himself from Scott Petter. Right now, though, Evans and Western stand between Reeves and five championship points. Yeah, it's interesting. Well, we've got three championship points, so whether it's five or not, I'm not sure, so Brendan needs the five, so I'd say he's going to go for it. So obviously, it's Scott Petter's car clear. We're now going down to our final runner in the stage. We chatted before, Brendan. Now how are the nerves sitting in there with the helmet on ready to go? Yeah, I'm glad this is not the end of the rally and we're sweating it out, but good. Look, clean run. We had some gearbox issues during the weekend testing, so that was my first run in the car and the collings felt really nice. So we'll just be trying to be smooth and fast and have a smart drive. It's all about being clean on this line because it's like a granite sand base, which is extremely slippery. And yeah, we'll try and not hit too many of those hay bales down there and have a good run. Are you thinking about Eli's time or not? Not too much about Eli. I'm just thinking about where Scott's crashed, making sure my notes are right in that position. I know that's a really tricky spot. It narrows. I think it's a six left and there is a hole on the outside and a big fence. And I think that's probably what is here, probably that hole. So I'll try and keep it clean in there and then it'll be all my own race. Have a good run, mate. Thanks, fam. I guess that's the irony, isn't it, that it's the reminder now. Unfortunately, what has happened to Petter will be a reminder for this guy. He can't afford to have a similar thing happen here, Ross. Exactly, Russie. And he's got it in his notes, you see. He sort of said there's a hole there. So he would have written in there. Maybe Scott didn't pick it up when he went through. But anyway, sad for Scott. But this guy is going to be trying. Got to admire Petter's tenacity for chasing. And as you say, this guy will be giving it his all. He can sense an opportunity in championship terms here now. Remember he's chasing Scott Petter for the title. These points could be valuable in the final analysis. Nice wide approach to that corner and kept on the bitumen. You know, got an extra second to sell off the rest of the competitors with that. That's a great little car. It just sounds fantastic and they've done a great job the whole year in this car. And of course, Brendan's been overseas and competed and has been doing very, very well up through the first split time he's down. Not by much. Not by much relative to Evans and Weston, but it was very tidy through the pinch. We head down now to the coach's higher hairpin. This is where it all counts. He's a bit wide, but carried a reasonable amount of speed. The next split time will tell the story. But that said, you can just tell it's enough. He's mindful here, I reckon, of what's going on, unfortunately, for Scott Petter. And Rhiannon's voice does not change no matter how serious the moment. 126Ks an hour at the high-tech radar. That's very impressive and a good jump as well. Good jump. Cuts the corner. Oh, washes a lot of speed. Bit of understeer there. Comes up to the final two corners. It's close. I don't know that it's going to be enough to take it, but you know what? This is the kind of drive he needs if he's to try and win this championship. That's really fast stuff, but he doesn't. Final sector gets there. It didn't look at, through the first two splits, water recovery from Rhiannon Gelsimino and from Brendan Reeves. That's a critical Armour All Power Stage win for their 2014 championship. Fantastic stuff. Five big points for him too. He'll be happy with that. Have me sweating in there and puffing. Like, there's a lot of pressure. I don't need that this early in the morning. That's one box tick. Now we have two more to go. The Maz has done a great drive. Look, the team was working till really late last night. We had this gearbox still out of the car. We had a lot of problems in testing. Hollander and Rowley School, thanks to them. Such a beautiful car today considering we basically did no testing at all. His power stage has had it all as we take a look at the Kumo replay. This is what I was saying, Ross. It was just lovely. Perfect line, wasn't it? Certainly was. And Russi, you know, he made that time up in the last two corners. He was breaking later than the cars in front, of course, and has done the business. Great speed in that final sector. So Brendan Reeves and Rhiannon Gelsimino level the score in the Armour All Power Stages for 2014. It was a good run. I was looking for where Scotty had gone into the bank there. We didn't worry about it. We hit the jump absolutely flat and we had photographers running. It was a lot of fun and the car performed awesome. We've decided that we're taking each part at a time. So power stage with one now we've got heat one to look at then heat two so you know we've got 22 more points to catch up now so we've just got to break it down and do the best we can and go flat out and see what happens. Smart play for the weekend and what happens of course now is the Armour All Power Stages dance. That's it for the final Armour All Power Stage for this season. Three apiece for Heather and Reeves with a championship decider still to run. Coming up next, the final round of the East Coast Bullbars four wheel drive national series. Can the Irishman Richie Dalton fend off Henry Knot and Gerald Schofield? You'll find out in just a few moments. Welcome back to Rally Victoria and the final round of the East Coast Bullbars four wheel drive national series. The tussle at the top was between Richie Dalton and Henry Knot, New South Wales versus South Australia. It should have been a three way battle with Queenslander Jay Davidson but a crash in testing had him border bound before competition even began. Gerald Schofield was also a mathematical chance at the title but the real battle should have come down to Dalton and Knot. It wasn't to be. Just five K's into the first stage a circlip broke on the main input shaft in the transfer box, side lining Knot and co-driver Tanya Wearing. After a stellar performance in only his first ever rally last round, JJ Haddon showed his woody status was not to be ignored. Because now we've finished half a second, push a bit higher and if I come over this one I come over this one but I guess I'm slowly starting to figure out a pace Knot. I know what the pace Knot is to our but I'm slowly starting to trust him. It was his countryman Richie Dalton though who was showing everyone a clean pair of heels but before he knew of Henry Knot's drums he'd scared his experienced co-driver John Allen. Still a 21 second lead over 18 kilometers showed he was determined to win. Mark Pedder was second quickest in the S2000 VW Golf. Nearly imported four-wheel drive, looked and sounded the part, Pedder a new co-driver John McCarthy coming to terms with a very different kind of car. It is a little bit different yeah four-wheel drive, yeah so it's quite a lot of fun to drive it just at the moment lacks a bit of power still needs a little bit of development so but yeah a huge amount of fun to drive and yeah apparently sounds pretty good out in the forest. And it went pretty well as well. Pedder and McCarthy third in hit one ahead of the car's owner Justin Dal. After an absence from ARC competition in recent times Dal and regular co-driver Matt Lee returned in an Evo 10 but with a continuation of the issues last rally when a sticking accelerator led to a crash. It's pushing us into corners and therefore you know that basically the brakes have to fight against the engine so we just can't stop it. SS2 guns was uphill so Dal did take top spot across the 13 kilometer stage by just one second. Another of the old ARC guard returned this round. Darren Winders campaigning an early model Subaru with international co-driver Alex Gelsomino pointing the way. The pair recorded times in the top three each stage in heat one handing them a second for the heat. Dalton's huge early lead was never reeled in and he and John Allen finished with a 22 second advantage. The best Gerald Schofield could manage was fifth for the day extending the odds on the fibre tech medical drivers chances at taking out the ECB four wheel drive series. Heat two and the temptation of winning the rally versus winning the series was front and centre for Richard Dalton but so too was the issue of tyres. Tires are a big problem so we're going to I'm going to have to pull it back big time because I went through eight tyres yesterday so in four stages and now I've only eight tires to do in nine stages so. It was a popular theme but Henry Nott who'd rejoined for heat two had plenty of kumos that wasn't his issue. We don't have a LSD in the front so we had to change our transfer case and yeah so we're lacking in that respect so it's got to be 10 tenths from here on. It was 10 tenths all right but Darren Winders had the upper hand leading Nott home by 1.9 seconds in the opening stage. Justin Dowell was right in the mix as well now with a different engine tune to overcome the conflict between stop and go pedals. Next stage was Henry Nott by 12 over Richie Dalton but this time no Winders. I started the first stage beautiful 24k and I did a set of very good time fastest and four wheel drive but two k's from the end unfortunately the power steering went. Our rally rookie JJ Hatton continued to punch above his weight leading the times of many more experienced drivers but the temptation to chase his hard charging countryman Richie Dalton was too much and he paid the price running wide through SS8 to Raga Reverse. Fortunately nothing more than damaged Irish pride ironically Hatton had specifically not fitted his new roof vent to the car for this round because he had a feeling. With Henry Nott leading the heat Dalton became the third winner in as many stages but Justin Dowell had found form with the new tune and took the next four stage winds to cement himself as heat leader. Mark Pitter stayed close to the fastest four in four wheel drive until SS9 when a spark plug failed and he dropped out of contention. At the start of the event Brett King had suggested everyone sign the bonnet of his car but by the end of the event the Subaru RX resembled a mobile graffiti billboard was due for a repaint anyway so why not. Like everyone in the field Franco Liucci was doing everything he could to conserve the kumos. When it gets a bit loose we need to back off and just yeah conserve and make sure we bring it home so. He and Nile Gavin took third equal for the rally with Mark Pitter. Improved performance in heat two rewarded Justin Dowell and Matt Li with second for the weekend but when the chips were down it was the Irishman from New South Wales a heat first and third enough to win the rally and with that the East Coast Bullbars four wheel drive national series. Gerald Schofield held on for third ahead of Jay Davidson who never got the chance to make it a three way battle. Fellow Queenslander Michael Bailey rounded out the fastest five for 2014. Coming up next Grant Walker brings in reinforcements from across the ditch an effort to beat the bait silica or the combination of that and the Jeff David Porsche 911 apply sufficient pressure to team Toyota. We'll find out in just a month. Back it takes an enormous effort to run the Australian rally championship including critical support from our major supporting partner. They proudly lay claim to making the world's best alloy bullbars but what does that all mean we come here to East Coast Bullbars to find out. G'day Paul. G'day Craig. Good to see you. Normally we see one another on the stages of the Australian rally championship. We do indeed yeah. We're nice to come into your backyard here today. Thank you. Big statement. It is indeed. What goes into making a bullbar? Well it's a formula that we've perfected over the last 40 years and for us it really comes down to quality and strength. Why don't you come in and we'll show you how we make them. Let's have a look. The start of the process for us really begins in R&D. We utilise computer technology as well as being in front of the vehicle hand crafting the product. The next step of the process is to begin the creation of the parts. The six nautic high tensile alloy plate is generally twice as thick as any other bullbar on the market. We then move to the section where we're folding that into what we call a channel. We can then begin racking the channel. At around 350 degrees the plate softens to a point where the material forms into a quite a nice rolled radius edge. Not the same time as the channel is being folded. The tube is being precision bent using our mandrel bender. The mandrel bending process ensures that the wall thickness through the bend is maintained. This is important to us because the tube not only looks good but also maintains its even wall thickness which is really important for strength. By this point the channel and the tube come together ready for welding. We go to the extent of using a pure welding wire which enables maximum strength. Once the product has been welded it can go one of two ways. To the polishing section to get a mirror polish finish. The alternative option is one of our premium and durable powder coat finishes. The bullbar is now ready to go into its box to move to the warehouse where it will finally be loaded onto the truck and on its way to the customer. A lot more goes into the making of a bullbar than I ever realised. Built with a blend of craftsmanship and cutting edge technology the end result is a quality Australian made product that is a little bit like the Sydney Harbour Bridge engineered to last a lifetime. And it probably seems a lifetime since we saw cars like these at the top of the main Australian rally championship. For years on the classics are still entertaining as they did in their high day. First car on the road Neil Bates discovered just what this weekend would bring. Slippery. It's what you get to be the first car on the road. I got to the end of the first day and I said I was like chasing a cake of soap around the bathtub it was just so amazingly slippery. Jeff David and Grant Gieland gained little benefit from the swept roads but after their last round misdemeanor the 9-11 was staying shiny side up third in stage. Clay Badenock started well in the sister silica but the competition was hot and the best he could manage was fourth. Grant Walker was making a statement about being local he occupied second early on. Next stage though the Baden motorsport entry was sideline with terminal engine issues. By the start of the second heat Walker's imported co-driver Dave Neil was acutely aware of just how different rallying is in Australia and in this car. It's scary in parts because as you've seen and you know yourself if you get a bit wider a lot of timber on the outside and you don't want to do that so different feel on the car completely so the RX-7 where the escort quite sideways with the RX-7 back home with Marcus is very direct and you know pulls out of the corners quite tight where these little babies get a little bit lucid and takes a little bit more to get the momentum going. If the momentum wasn't the same in the Volvo cab the smiles were just as wide. The tortoise was catching the hairs and Ross Kingham was returning to roads made famous by another legendary rally. Did our point last year so we know the roads are great here so we just give it one more run and see how we go and expecting nothing other than to enjoy it and drive the car on the trailer at the end and so we're still going so fingers crossed. No smiles though in the second silica trailer bound before stage end with a broken radiator mount. Strike two for Toyota but a chance for the Porsche. We just saw Coral at the spectator point holding the old cable and so we assume it's mechanical. He wasn't just stopping to watch the cars go through. Well he might have you know and then he's going to catch us all up later. David and Giel and raced off to a well-deserved victory in the 911 with the Anzacs Walker and Neil forging a credible second place. The dominance of Bates and Taylor throughout the year though meant no one could rest the classic rally challenge from the most formidable driver-co-driver combination in the history of the sport. And wraps up the first part of our coverage from Rally Victoria. Watch out for all the action from the East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship in our final program of the year coming up same time next week. Just check your local guides for details and as always keep up to date with the latest info at rally.com.au. For the team, I'm Greg Rust. Today's coverage is made possible by Kumo Tire, Heta Suspension, Armour Oil, Co-Tire, Pan out, High Tech Oilers and our supporting partner East Coast Bullbars, World's Best Alloy Bullbars.