Justin Dowel has moved into third place at the end of the second day of Rally Tasmania, the first round of the 2010 Australian Rally Championship.

Dowel and co-driver Matt Lee had a brilliant day in their Activ RallySport Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX, finishing in the top five in all of the day’s eight special stages.

Their second quickest time on the penultimate stage of the day was faster than everyone except three-time national champion Simon Evans, highlighting the improvement in Dowel’s speed. “We had a great day and we’re really happy with third place,” Dowel said. “The car blew a head gasket early in the day and it’s been overheating since then, but we’ve managed it as best that we could. “Rather than change the head gasket tonight, we’ve decided to do the best patch up job that we can, which will limit the risk of other problems if we pulled the head off,” he added.

“We’ll change the radiator and replace the thermostat and water pump, and hopefully that will get us through tomorrow."

While Dowel and Lee are third, a peculiar points system in the ARC sees day two counting as one heat of the rally, and days one and three as another heat. “In reality tomorrow is the second part of yesterday,” Lee explained. “We were fifth after yesterday’s stages, and tomorrow’s stage times will count towards that result.

“At this stage we’re on track for third place for the weekend, and hopefully we can maintain our speed tomorrow.