Stage win caps off first day in Tasmania

The opening day of competition at Buckby Motors Rally Tasmania has been a successful one for IntelliSpatial Fleetcare Racing. 

Continuing their superb form of recent times, Alex Rullo and Steve Glenney drove well to lie in third overall after the 10 special stages.

Their day one performance included a stage win in front of thousands of Tasmanians at the Super Special Stage that ended the day.

It’s the pairing’s third stage win of the season and was a popular one amongst the Burnie locals..

“It's been really cool today with so many spectators out on the stages. This Super Special is absolutely packed,” Rullo said at the end of the day.

“When we were driving into service earlier, there were so many people and we had to push our way through the crowd! 

“I don't know if it was annoying or really cool, but it's great for the sport. Everyone's been loving it so far and people are already asking us if we’re coming back next year.”

For the majority of the stages, Alex and Steve were in the top three on the leaderboard, and it was the improvement throughout the day that had the young driver particularly pleased.

“We changed some things around on the car in the first service to make it better in the high-speed sections, and it worked really well,” he said.

“The Hyundai’s feeling good and it's really sensitive to changes now, so it feels like we're in the window.”

Meanwhile, the second IntelliSpatial Fleetcare Racing car of Peter Rullo and James Marquet encountered a bizarre start to the day with a communications issue inside the car.

To resolve the issue, Peter and James were forced to swap helmets at the last second to temporarily rectify the issue.

Had it not been for their ingenious quick thinking, they would have run the first stage of the rally without their all-important pace notes.

“We had a tricky morning,” co-driver James said. “We realised our helmet problem too late to investigate it and we madly rushed to swap helmets right before the first stage.

“For the rest of the morning run, I taped my transport headset to my helmet so we could make it work.”

Their quick problem-solving kept them right within the fight for the top eight positions through the morning, and after fixing the issue at service, it was onward and upward for the pair.

Battling with the likes of Jamie Luff and Troy Dowel, the #11 seeded Hyundai is within striking distance of those ahead.

More than 100 kilometres of competitive distance will be travelled tomorrow, with plenty more opportunities to improve on the team’s position to finish the season on a high.

The event continues early on Sunday morning, with attrition widely tipped to come into play as the day progresses.

Stages 13 and 16, Mawbanna, is a season-high 43 kilometres in length and will be a true test of man and machine.

OVERALL CLASSIFICATION

Rally Tasmania after Leg One

1. Bates/Taylor, Toyota, 57m25.9s

2. Bates/McLoughlin, Toyota, +24.8s

3. Rullo/Glenney, Hyundai, +1m00.0s

4. Maguire/Brakey, Skoda, +1m43.0s

5. Dalton/Kierans, Toyota, +2m04.8s

6. Maguire/Searcy, Skoda, +2m58.7s

9. Rullo/Marquet, Hyundai, +3m53.5s