Rullos bag Heat Two podium in Adelaide

IntelliSpatial Fleetcare Racing teammates Alex Rullo and Peter Rullo completed their Adelaide Hills Rally campaigns after a challenging Sunday, and a fine Heat Two podium was their reward.

The end of the fifth round of the Bosch Motorsport Australia Rally Championship (ARC) was yet another run on the roads in the Adelaide Hills, which are as daunting as they are fast.

Alex Rullo and Steve Glenney picked up where they left off on Saturday afternoon, confidently navigating the opening three stages of Sunday’s proceedings to move up into third at the first Service break of the day.

Alex was consistent throughout the day’s middle stages, but really found form in stages 15 and 16, working his Hyundai i20 N Rally2 into a comfortable place on the podium that was once hard-fought.

Points from an impressive third in Sunday’s Heat Two, coupled with the Heat One results, meant fourth outright across the weekend and 63 points bagged for his growing season total.

“It was a bit better day today, still not without its issues though,” Alex said.

“Went sideways into a tree, bent the steering, and dropped a bit of time. The last two stages was the first time all weekend that we’ve had a clean run, and we could show we had the right pace, we just needed to get some clean runs.

“The roads are really good here in Adelaide, and they’re super fast! We learnt a little bit about the car again, which is great, and all in all it was a good weekend.

“Tasmania will be interesting (at the final round); I’m looking forward to the massive Power Stage we’re going to have there.”

Peter Rullo and James Marquet had a mixed morning in Heat Two of their Adelaide Hills Rally, with two spins in SS9 making it a challenging start for the pair as they chased the best setup on their Skoda.

The pair redeemed the day’s difficult start with trouble-free runs on the subsequent two stages, leaving them in ninth at the first service of Heat Two. 

From there they completed a consistent run of stages, finishing eighth fastest across all of the afternoon’s remaining seven stages to complete their weekend in sixth outright, their best result of the season.

“It didn’t start off the best. We had two and half spins in the first stage and we just completely messed up the setup on the car,” Peter said.

“We progressively fixed it, got better and the last two stages were awesome. Loved it!

“This Adelaide event and the whole area around here is fantastic. I’m looking forward to coming back here for this event next year.

“From what I can hear, Tassie is going to be an awesome finale. The whole field has stepped up, so it’s fantastic to be a part of a big family.”

Crews now turn their attention to the Buckby Motors Rally Tasmania in Burnie, Tasmania on 22-24 November.

Adelaide Hills Rally – Heat Two Results

1. Bates/McLoughlin, Toyota, 45m17.7s

2. Bates/Taylor, Toyota, +5.7s

3. Rullo/Glenney, Hyundai, +1m17.0s

4. Maguire/Brakey, Skoda, +1m43.3s

5. Maguire/Searcy, Skoda, +2m03.7s

6. Luff/Luff, Toyota, +2m45.9s

7. Rullo/Marquet, Skoda, +2m57.7s

8. Reading/Young, Subaru, +2m57.7s

9. Traverso/Carr, Mitsubishi, +5m45.5s

10. Gluskie/Gluskie, Subaru, +6m19.7s