Scott Pedder and Glenn Macneall will be eager to use this weekend’s Forest Rally to build on a rocky start of the 2024 Bosch Motorsport Australia Rally Championship (ARC) season.
After finishing the Techworkz Automotive Rally of Canberra in fifth, Pedder and Macneall made significant changes to their Pedders Suspension and Brakes Skoda Fabia R5, which they will test on the Western Australian roads of Nannup and Busselton, which are considered some of the most famous rally roads in Australia.
Ahead of the second round of the season, Pedder was positive in a mindset was looking forward to the opportunity of improving.
“We’re going into Western Australia with quite a different car for the second round,” Pedder explained.
“Hopefully the stuff that we’ve done between events has worked – we’ll find out, sometime on Saturday morning, if it has or not.
“It’s good to see some traditional old roads which we’ll remember from ten years ago or longer. So, it’s always a good rally and it’s very, very rewarding when you get it right and it can bite you if you don’t. It’s a long rally, with hot and dry conditions, so it’s going to be tough.
“It’s typically very loose on the first run and a lot more twisty than Canberra’s stages are.”
After multiple interruptions during the opening round, with a day cancelled due to extreme weather, Pedder believed he season would begin this weekend, while also keeping one eye on the remainder of the season.
“I think we were fortunate considering where our car was at and also where my driving was at that the first day in Canberra was cancelled,” Pedder added.
“It might sound strange, but we probably gained some valuable points in Canberra with the cancellation because of that.
“So, for us this is now round one because this is the first opportunity that we’re going to get a chance to see where we are at versus other drivers like Harry (Bates) with the car setup we have now.
“We’re very eager to mix it with the best drivers on stage and can’t wait for this weekend to get underway.”
This weekend’s Forest Rally takes place on 17-19 May, with a ceremonial start held at the iconic Busselton Jetty on Friday evening before competitors head on to the stages on Saturday and Sunday.
