The team was happy with the performance of the car, completing in excess of 100 kilometres of testing. The oil leak which hampered their performance at Rally Australia last year has been solved and the car ran faultlessly all day apart from a couple of flat tyres and a close encounter with a hidden rock that left a gash in the passenger door.

“The pacenote said Right 5 Don’t Cut but I guess I was closer than I thought given that it’s left hand drive and it’s been 5 months since I’ve driven it”” driver Adrian Coppin said. “But it’s nothing the credit card won’t fix” he [Coppin] joked.

The team spent most of the day getting a handle on the suspension settings and coming up with a base setup for Rally Calder as well as evaluating the Kumho soft compound tyres.

Rally Calder is a new event in the Australian Rally Championship conducted entirely within the confines of the Calder park motorsport complex west of Melbourne. The stages use the banked Thunderdome and the race circuit as well as the gravel roads around the complex.

“It is the first time we have had to test the car since it arrived in Australia and we were searching for a starting point in our setup for Rally Calder” co-driver Tim Batten told rally.com. “But I guess everyone is doing the same, given the unknown nature of Rally Calder”” Batten added.

Coppin also spent time with mentor Neal Bates developing his understanding of the impact of the suspension settings on the cars performance.

The team will contest the Rallyschool.com.au Australian Junior Rally Challenge as well as the Australian 2WD Rally Championship, the Privateers Cup and the International Cup.

The teams sponsors and new livery will be revealed next week.

Photo By Kelly Pearce