Steady start to Rullos’ Adelaide Hills campaign

IntelliSpatial Fleetcare Racing teammates Alex Rullo and Peter Rullo delivered confident Saturday performances at the Adelaide Hills Rally, finishing in top-10 contention in the penultimate round of the 2024 Bosch Motorsport Australia Rally Championship (ARC).

Alex Rullo and Steve Glenney had a trouble-free run across the day’s opening two stages, a fifth-place SS1 finish behind the Bates brothers, keeping the pair in touch with the leading pack, followed by with a repeat result of fifth overall in SS2. 

Consistency was the word as the pair navigated the afternoon’s stages, maintaining fifth position across the subsequent stages, then going one better with a fourth place finish in SS6 – beating out Eddie Maguire and Zak Brakey for the first time over the Charligate special stage.

Peter Rullo and James Marquet were also able to kick off their campaign in confident fashion, coaxing a seventh-place SS1 finish out of their Skoda Fabia R5 followed by ninth in SS2, resulting in an eighth outright position at the first service. 

Trading places with Jamie and Brad Luff over Saturday’s schedule, it was a fierce battle that carried on throughout the afternoon for seventh position.

Alex Rullo finished his day in fifth outright, fine tuning the setup on his Hyundai i20 N Rally2 in anticipation for a big Sunday showing.

“It was a bit of a rollercoaster … up and down,” Alex said.

“We rolled out there with probably the wrong set up, the car was good but just not comfortable for me and we made a few tweaks to that.

“We had a spin during the morning, and then we figured out we had a shock absorber problem. We fixed that and the last two stages were feeling good. I think it will be good to reset and go again tomorrow!”

Peter Rullo was able to work his way up to seventh after some trial and error on his Skoda, the replacement vehicle while the team’s Hyundai is repaired of its engine issues.

“The first couple of stages, we didn’t get in sync, but on the last stages it was perfect,” Peter said.

“It came good over the day. We went back to our original setup at the last service and the car felt great in those last two stages.

“It’s completely different to the Hyundai,” he added.

“Adelaide’s a fantastic event, I really like these fast, flowing shire roads. I can’t wait to get some more of it.”

The IntelliSpatial Fleetcare Racing team will resume their Adelaide Hills Rally campaign tomorrow, with the first stage kicking off just before 8am.