Unlucky finish to Gippsland Rally for Rullos

It was a challenging end to The Middle of Everywhere Gippsland Rally for IntelliSpatial Fleetcare Racing, with both Alex and Peter Rullo out of the rally early in day two after a strong Saturday showing.

Starting the day’s proceedings in fourth outright, Alex and co-driver Steve Glenney impressed in the 950m Hillclimb stage – closing the gap to Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin in third to a mere five seconds.

Peter and co-driver James Marquet also passed through the Hillclimb stage without issue, maintaining their existing 11th position early in the day. 

Both IntelliSpatial Fleetcare Racing teammates made light work of stage 10, with the first issue coming for Alex in Stage 11.

The No.5 Hyundai i20 team would only make it 10.8km into the stage, coming to a stop after a water crossing.

Their car’s engine took on a lot of water through the crossing, causing damage to the engine which would put an end to their Gippsland Rally campaign.

“There's two crossings, one right after the other, so we came through them pretty cautiously,” Alex said.

“We crawled through and it's scooped a bunch of water up and about 10 meters down the road, the car just stopped.

“Normally when you go through those water crossings, you get a little bit of water and the car coughs and picks back up but it didn't come back this time, which is a shame.”

Less than half an hour later, it was Peter who was stopped in Stage 12 and out of the rally with a turbo problem.

Despite the disappointment, the crews showed plenty of pace and promise on the Victorian roads and the team is eager to fight back at the next round.

The penultimate round of the Bosch Motorsport Australia Rally Championship is in South Australia on 13-15 September.

A media day on the Thursday will take place at The Bend Motorsport Park followed by stages on Saturday and Sunday in the Adelaide Hills.