Competing in the final round of the ARC at Coffs Harbour on the New South Wales north coast, Guest and co-driver, David Green, have retired from the second heat after just the first stage.

Having finished the first day of the Coffs Coast Rally in an encouraging sixth place in their Subaru Impreza WRX STI, a gearbox problem materialised on just the very first stage of day two, and Guest took the option of retiring from the rally.

“The gearbox got stuck in second gear about two kilometres into the stage, and that was it,” Guest said.

“I was looking forward to today, but it simply wasn’t to be. I made the decision to park the car, rather than rejoining the rally in last place and risking doing further damage.”

“The problem was a simple five cent ball bearing in the shifter mechanism of the gearbox,” a disappointed team owner, Les Walkden, said.

“While we could have changed the gearbox and got the car back out there, Michael made the decision to withdraw from the rally.

“It’s a really disappointing way to end what has been a frustrating season for the team,” Walkden added.

The 2009 Australian Rally Championship begins in February with the all-tarmac Rally Tasmania.

Source: Team Release

After a slow start in dry and dusty conditions, Guest and co-driver, David Green, fitted harder compound tyres to their Subaru Impreza WRX STi, and were immediately back near the pace of the front runners.

Having been as low as 11th after the first three stages, the Lake Macquarie driver stormed back through the field to take sixth, three places ahead of newly crowned Australian Rally Champion Neal Bates.

After rain leading up to the final round of the national championship, hot and windy conditions greeted crews for today’s nine stages, held in the hardwood forests around Coffs Harbour.

A lack of grip hampered Guest and his Les Walkden Rallying-prepared Subaru early in the day, but their speed improved considerably after the first service break.

“While we struggled for grip, I really had a lack of confidence on the first few stages,” Guest admitted.

“This is my first gravel rally since the big crash we had in South Australia in August, and the first time I’ve driven a left-hand drive car on gravel for some time, so it’s all taken a bit of getting used to.

“After the first service we went for a harder tyre with a more open pattern, and that seemed to work a lot better.”

Rain on the final two stages made conditions treacherous for crews, but Guest showed the consistency and experience that has seen him compete in the World Rally Championship. While others backed off to ensure they made it to the finish, Guest pushed hard and moved up several places in the process.

“To be honest, I really struggled today, which is disappointing,” Guest added. “But the car has come through the day unscathed and I’m confident of being in a better position to push for third or fourth place tomorrow.

“A lot will depend on the weather. It’s been really hot and sticky today – about as close to an Asian rally as you’d ever get. If it rains tomorrow then it should be to our advantage, but we’ll just have to wait and see.”

The Heat was won by Toyota driver and 2007 Australian Rally Champion Simon Evans, but his team-mate, Neal Bates, finished in ninth place, giving the Canberra driver enough points to secure his fourth national title.

British driver, Guy Wilks, took a remarkable second place in his front-wheel drive Honda Civic Type R, 10 seconds clear of Eli Evans in a Subaru.

Tomorrow sees a further 112km of competitive driving, and with this being the final event of the season, Guest and Green are determined to push hard and move even further up the leader board.

Coffs Coast Rally, Heat 1 Results:

1. S. Evans / S. Evans, Toyota Corolla S2000, 1h05m07.5s
2. G. Wilks / B. Pugh, Honda Civic Type R, +30.1s (diff. to leader)
3. E. Evans / C. Murphy, Subaru Impreza WRX STI, +40.1s
4. N. Quinn / B. Atkinson, Mitsubsihi Lancer Evo V, +1m21.4s
5. M. Boaden / H. Cheers, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI, +1m39.9s
6. M. Guest / D. Green, Subaru Impreza WRX STI, +2m19.5s

Source: Team Release

Guest, from Lake Macquarie on the NSW central coast, has had a mixed season behind the wheel of his LWR-prepared Impreza WRX STI, and after the tarmac of Tasmania last month, he’s looking forward to returning to the gravel in Coffs Harbour.

While the region has hosted a round of the ARC in the past, the Coffs Coast Rally is a new event.

Guest says he is looking forward to the challenge of a tackling some new terrain.

“Although Coffs Harbour hasn’t had a round of the ARC since 2000, it’s great that it’s back in the championship,” Guest said.

“The stages will be new to all the ARC regulars, and that means that nobody will have a real advantage when the event gets underway.

“I really enjoy the natural, hardwood forest stages as they are similar to the roads I grew up driving on, so the plan is to push hard and finish on the podium.”

After the disappointment of the last round in Tasmania where his Subaru suffered drivetrain problems, Guest is determined to put his season of bad luck behind him. Mechanical problems, collisions with kangaroos and accidents have thwarted his assault on the championship, but he remains confident ahead of the final round.

“We had a really good gravel set up for the car at the last two gravel events in Queensland and South Australia,” he added. “We picked up second in Queensland, but then had an unfortunate accident in SA.

“The set-up for the car was really good for both those events, and it gives us a solid platform to work with for this weekend.

“We expect conditions to be dry for the rally and that means we’ll need to run a harder compound Pirelli tyre, so we’ll work on the suspension set-up during this week’s pre-rally test session.”

Guest, with co-driver David Green alongside, will drive the same left-hand drive Impreza WRX STI that he had in Tasmania, and like all events this year, he knows the competition will be tough.

“The Toyota factory drivers, Simon Evans and Neal Bates, will be hard to beat, as will privateers such as Eli Evans and Spencer Lowndes. Local Coffs Harbour driver, Nathan Quinn, should also be on the pace of the front runners.

“But I enjoy the types of roads that this event offers, and I’ll be driving flat out to give the team and our sponsors a fitting result to end the season,” Guest said.

The Coffs Coast Rally will be held over 223.70 competitive kilometres and 14 special stages. Two of the stages will be run four times; the Sherwood and Bucca Long tests make up over 70 per cent of the total event distance.

After a ceremonial start in the centre of Coffs Harbour on Friday night, the competitive stages will take place on Saturday and Sunday. The event headquarters and service park will be at the BCU Stadium.

With the event promoted by LWR team owner Les Walkden, the team was keen to have a good showing at their ‘home’ event. But mechanical problems plagued them all weekend, starting with Friday’s shakedown which Guest and co-driver David Green were forced to miss after a gearbox problem was discovered on the Pirtek Subaru.

“The boys did a fantastic job getting a new gearbox fitted and getting us to the start line”, Michael commented before the start of Saturdays stages. “We’ve had a bit of bad luck across this season, so we’re hoping that is all behind us now.”

But his optimism was a little misplaced. Having set the third quickest time on the opening stage, the pair set out on the 17km Hellyer Gorge stage, only to lose first and fifth gears during the stage. They did make it back to service park, but problems with a second replacement gearbox forced them to have an early finish and miss the afternoon stages.

“We lost first and second gear in the first Hellyer Gorge stage this morning, but surprisingly we were still fourth quickest. When the new gearbox was put in the rear diff ratio was then wrong, so that created more work for the service, and as a result we missed a few stages.”

Back out for Sunday’s six stages, the differential problems continued, Guest battling a centre differential problem that provoked handling problems. The last thing required on the tricky Tasmanian roads!

“We had a centre differential problem all day, which was making the car understeer badly,” Micheal offered at the end of the event. “There are four different settings in the centre diff and it was switching between them for no reason. It made the car very difficult to drive, and very dangerous if it switched under braking or in the middle of a corner.”

But determined to complete the event for the LWR team, Michael and David crossed the finish line in 6th for Leg 2, although a long way off the pace of eventual winner Neal Bates.

“The team checked everything over at service, but the problem persisted and, as a result, we’ve had a really frustrating day. It’s fair to say that luck certainly hasn’t gone our way.”

Michael, David, and the rest of the lWR team will be looking to put this result behind them when the ARC visits the NSW north coast for final round in mid-November.

Photos courtesy of www.joelstrickland.com.au and www.rally.com.au

The Australian Rally Championship (ARC) ventures onto tarmac for the first time, and as one of only a few regular ARC drivers with experience on the black stuff, Guest is confident of finishing on the podium. The Lake Macquarie driver spent two years on the World Rally Championship in 1999 and 2000 and contested a number of tarmac rounds then.

The Burnie-based event is the fifth round of the national championship, with Guest currently lying in fifth place on the series points’ table. Round four, in South Australia, ended abruptly for the Subaru driver when he hit a tree, but he’s determined to bounce back this weekend.

Launceston’s Les Walkden Rallying team have built a new Subaru Impreza WRX STI for Guest, and while it was the biggest accident in his 20 year career, Guest says it won’t affect his confidence.

“Crashes have never dented my confidence in the past, so I don’t see any reason why this one will,” Guest said.

“The new car looks great – we’ll have a test session before the weekend, where we’ll mainly concentrate on tyres and suspension.”

With more grip and increased lateral forces when competing on tarmac, tuning the shock absorbers will play an important role in setting the car up for the two-day, 177km rally. Similarly, using Pirelli’s tarmac tyres will be new for the team.

While the new surface will be a challenge to all crews competing for ARC honours, Guest says that his previous experience will help, but he isn’t expecting an easy time of it.

“Having tested both a Group N Mitsubishi and a Super 2000 Fiat in Europe earlier this year, I know that the factory-backed Toyotas will take some catching.

“I drove the Fiat and the Mitsubishi on tarmac, and the Super 2000 car was much quicker than the Group N car – in the region of a half, to one second per kilometre faster,” he added.

“I’m expecting our Group N Subaru to be fast, but the Super 2000 Toyotas will be very hard to beat. They are lighter than our car, which means you can brake a lot later. On tarmac, it makes them an awesome package.

“But having said that, I’ll be pushing as hard as possible to stay in touch with them, and hope to be on the podium at the end of the event. Given that it’s the team’s home rally, that’s the aim.”

The Tasmanian Tarmac Challenge is based on the Apple Isle’s north-west coast and utilises many of the roads used for both Targa Tasmania and Rally Tasmania.

The rally covers 176.8 competitive kilometres and features 13 stages.

Source: www.leswalkdenrallying.com.au

Driving their Pirtek Les Walkden Rallying Subaru Impreza WRX STI, the pair had been fourth after the opening two super special stages on Friday night.

They maintained that position after the first forest stage of the rally on Saturday morning, but in treacherously wet conditions, they left the road on stage four, hitting a tree.

Guest and Green were shaken and sore after the crash, but fortunately uninjured. However, the same couldn’t be said for their car, which was too badly damaged and they were forced to withdraw from the rally.

Lying fourth in the Australian Rally Championship prior to Rally SA, Guest had been confident of a good result in South Australia, but it wasn’t to be.

“During the stage I felt really comfortable with everything. In fact I think it was the best I’ve driven the Pirtek LWR car all year,” Guest said.

“The conditions were terrible with heavy rain and thick fog. I misheard a pacenote and we came in to a corner too fast and hit a tree very hard on the driver’s side of the car.”

The Subaru bounced back on to the road and Guest was able to drive the final 5km to the finish control, but with substantial damage to the chassis, they were forced to retire from the rally.

“It’s a real testament to the strength of the car and the work that Les Walkden Rallying have done that we were able to emerge relatively unscathed, but we’ve paid a huge price today,” he added.

“It’s the biggest hit I’ve had in the 20 years I’ve been rallying.”

The Pirtek Les Walkden Rallying team will re-shell Guest’s Subaru in preparation for the team’s home event, the Tasmanian Tarmac Challenge, in Burnie, on October 4 and 5.

Source: Team Release.
Photos courtesy of www.joelstrickland.com.au and www.rally.com.au.

Rally SA is the fourth round of the 2008 Australian Rally Championship, and will be held in the Barossa Valley, situated in the Adelaide hills.

Driving their Subaru Impreza WRX STI, Guest and co-driver, David Green, had their best result for the season at the last round, and with a better starting position this weekend, they’re confident of repeating that result.

“We were really happy with the set-up of the Pirtek LWR Subaru in Queensland, so we won’t play around with it too much leading into this event,” Guest said this week.

“We may run the car a little bit lower than in was in Queensland, but I’m confident the car will be fast out of the blocks.”

The Subaru was fitted with a new engine for the last round, and that, combined with Guest getting more and more familiar with the Group N Impreza, enabled him to show just what he and the car are capable of.

At last year’s Rally South Australia Guest, who was driving a Ford, and was plagued by problems. But he showed the speed that will make him a challenger this weekend. In 2007 he was able to set a number of top three stage times, and he predicts that a number of new stages for this year’s rally will hopefully give him the chance to shine.

“I generally do well on new stages – stages that drivers who have been competing in the ARC for the last few years don’t have knowledge of,” he said. “And for this event we’ll start as the fourth car on the road, which is just about ideal.

“Our main rivals – Simon Evans, Neal Bates and Eli Evans – will all start in front of us, and that’s a big positive as we can monitor their stage times throughout the rally.

“And with those guys sweeping the loose gravel off the roads - particularly the shire road stages – our starting position should be just about perfect.”

Traditionally, Rally South Australia is one of the most popular events on the ARC calendar. With smooth, fast conditions, Guest rates the roads as the best in the championship, and can’t wait to start the rally this Friday night.

“I’d love it to pour rain, as I usually do well in the wet, but the roads are so good at this event that it doesn’t really matter what the conditions are like,” Guest added.

With the car now to his liking, Guest will push hard as he tries to move further up the ARC leaderboard. He currently sits in fourth place in the championship, and a good result in South Australia should see him move into a podium place.

“I changed my driving style in Queensland and I think that really helped to get more speed out of the Subaru. I had a test in the car in Tasmania last week and I’m really happy with how things are going. I can’t wait for the rally to get under way.”

For 2008, competitors will face 20 special stages covering a distance of nearly 220km. The rally starts on Friday night with two tarmac spectator stages around the Angaston sports ground. Although only 1.46km in length, Guest knows that the stages can prove vital, as was the case last year when Steve Glenney lost victory after a small driving error cost him vital seconds.

“It’s only a short stage, but it’s pretty tricky, and with thousands of spectators on hand to watch, it’s important that we do a good job and give Pirtek and LWR some great exposure.”

Heat One continues on Saturday with a further eight stages using the fast and undulating shire roads, and sections of the Mt Crawford forest.

Saturday night sees the second heat start with a further two stages around the Angaston sports ground, before competitors tackle eight stages on Sunday. The highlight of Sunday’s tests will be the 21km Eden High stage, which is arguably the most popular in the Australian Rally Championship.

Keep up to date with Michael Guest’s progress by following the live results at www.rallysa.com.au.

Source: Team Release

"I think it’s a fantastic opportunity, and not only for myself. When I did the WRC, the one part of my game that was lacking was the tarmac rally experience. So it’s a great opportunity for young drivers to be exposed to tarmac rallying. It gives them that experience when they head over there, and I think it adds another dimension to the championship. It’s an exciting development."

Guest is one of the few Australians to have competed regularly in the World Rally Championship, and that should give him an advantage on the fast Tasmanian roads. "The last (tarmac) event I did was San Remo in 2000. I’ve done a lot of testing in the UK, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, in Group-N Subarus, and Formula 2 and WRC Hyundais. I did Rally Catalunya in ‘99 and finished 5th in Group-N, which was the best result Subaru had in a P-WRC round."

"I did Spain again in 2000 in the F2 car, and was running second to (Philippe) Bugowski until I had a big accident; a front-left rim broke as I turned into a 6th gear corner and I ended up cutting down a whole heap of trees down. But running 2nd to Bugowski wasn’t too bad; he won that rally two years in a row."

Although some of his rivals for the ARC title, in particular the Toyota pair of Neal Bates and Simon Evans, have recent experience at Targa Tasmania, Michael doesn’t think that will provide them any advantage. "…Targa is based around R-spec tyres, where you’ve got to conserve your tyres. But proper tarmac rallying is the same as gravel rallying where your throwing tyres at it and pushing as hard as you can."

"Targa is a different type of rallying where it’s more about conserving tyres and running clean stages. This is just ‘hell-for-leather’. So I’m not disadvantages in that respect. If anything, I’ve probably got the most experience of anyone in proper tarmac rallying."

Adding to his previous tarmac experience in Europe, his Pirtek Subaru is prepared by Les Walkden Rallying, no strangers to the tarmac rallying in Tasmania with two top-10 placings this year at Targa.

"We’ll definitely be tarmac testing; it’s an extremely important part of it. We’ll just be running my gravel-spec car in tarmac trim. And the good thing is that I’m coming from a good stable of cars that Les (Walkden) is running. So I’ve got no doubt that we can come up with a good setup to start with."

"The S2000 cars will be very fast on tarmac. But if it’s between 180-200km/h, then that will suit us. The S2000 cars are only good for around 175 km/h, so that will help us if it’s very high speed."

The Tasmanian Tarmac Challenge will be held near Burnie in northern Tasmania, on October 4 and 5.

Photographer Nathan Hubble has captured some fantastic images of Micheal, David and the Pirtek Subaru in action and on their way to a podium finish.

Driving his Pirtek Les Walkden Rallying Subaru Impreza WRX STI, Guest and co-driver, David Green, once again showed that consistency is what counts, never being outside the top three over today’s eight special stages.

Guest’s Subaru ran faultlessly for the entire two-day, 18-stage event, which was round three of the Australian Rally Championship.

Having finished second in yesterday’s first heat, Guest pushed hard right from the outset this morning. With his Subaru being fine-tuned more and more to his liking, he was able to challenge rivals Neal Bates (Toyota) and Eli Evans (Subaru) with renewed confidence.

Guest and Green won two of today’s eight stages, including the event’s longest test, the 35.43km final stage of the rally. This was despite a flat tyre near the end of the stage.

After a testing previous round of the championship in Canberra last month, Guest was keen to put his bad luck behind him and bounce back into championship contention.

“We pushed really hard today and it paid dividends,” Guest said at the end of a tough rally. “I changed my driving style today. I tried to left-foot brake a lot more and drive in more of an understeer style.

“While I don’t particularly enjoy driving that way – I much prefer the oversteer style – it seems to be how you have to drive these Group N cars to make them go fast.

“The Pirtek LWR team once again prepared a perfect car for us, and it didn’t miss a beat all rally. We had a tyre explode about two and a half kilometres before the end of the final stage, but apart from that it was all good.”

After yesterday’s last stage disappointment, today’s second heat was won by young Subaru privateer Eli Evans. Neal Bates had led the event in his Toyota, but punctured a tyre on the day’s penultimate stage to eventually finish third, just ahead of Mitsubishi privateer Spencer Lowndes, with Glen Raymond’s Toyota fifth.

Guest’s double podium finish now sees him lying fourth in the Australian Rally Championship, only three points behind third placed Spencer Lowndes, and within striking distance of second placed Eli Evans.

Although Neal Bates has a strong lead, Rally Queensland has shown that nothing can be taken for granted, and that one slip up can turn the championship table upside down.

The Pirtek Les Walkden Rallying team now have a five week break before the next round of the championship, the picturesque Rally South Australia, held in the Barossa Valley wine growing region.

Results, Rally Queensland, June 20-21, 2008

Heat 2
1.    Eli Evans, Subaru Impreza WRX STI, 1h12m34.4s
2.    Michael Guest, Subaru Impreza WRX STI, +18.7s
3.    Neal Bates, Toyota Corolla, +38.2s
4.    Spencer Lowndes, Mitsubishi Lancer, +53.8s
5.    Glen Raymond, Toyota Corolla, +1m37.2s

Heat 1
1.    Neal Bates, Toyota Corolla, 1h14m43.8s
2.    Michael Guest, Subaru Impreza WRX STI,  +1m07.7s
3.    Eli Evans, Subaru Impreza WRX STI,  +1m20.8s
4.    Stewart Reid, Toyota Corolla, +1m40.4s
5.    Nathan Quinn, Mitsubishi Lancer, +2m06.8s
6.    Spencer Lowndes, Mitsubishi Lancer, +2m29.4s

Points after Round Three, Australian Rally Championship
1.    Neal Bates, Toyota, 217
2.    Eli Evans, Subaru, 156
3.    Spencer Lowndes, Mitsubishi, 132
4.    Michael Guest, Subaru, 123
5.    Simon Evans, Toyota, 112

Photos courtesy of www.joelstrickland.com.au and www.rally.com.au. Source: Team Release.