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Experience has paid off for a classy Canberra crew, who've won the first round of a new national Australian rally series.
Simon Arthur and Martin Notaras shared the podium of the inaugural Alphera Dutton Rally Queensland with two local (Queensland) crews, after three days of competition against the clock at venues near the Gold Coast, Brisbane and Ipswich.
The Alphera Dutton Rally has previously been contested in NSW and Victoria but this is the first year it is being run as both a national series and three separate stand-alone events.
Notaras and Arthur are no strangers to success in the Alphera Dutton Rally, taking their 2004 Mitsubishi Evo 8 to victory in last year's NSW event and third place in Victoria.
They have entered all three rounds of the new 2005 series so the weekend's win was a handy start. Their nearest rivals in Queensland were Shane Topping and Mick Jones (2003 Subaru WRX STi) who took second place, and Dave Beard and Phil Holzberger (2000 Porsche GT3) in third, all from around Brisbane.
In what promises to be an interesting battle for the championship, however, Canberra's Bernie Wilson and Greg Sutton - who were second to Notaras and Arthur in NSW last year - were fourth in Queensland in a matching Evo 8. They too, have signed up for the three-event series. Around 50 cars and 79 drivers entered the event, which started on Friday (April 1) at Queensland Raceway and finished on Sunday afternoon in the heart of Surfers Paradise.
The Alphera Dutton Rally comprises timed driving challenges such as hillclimbs, skidpan sessions, sprints and motorkhanas, with drivers and co-drivers taking turns at the wheel, and is designed for road-registered sports and touring cars. There is no navigation involved. Each competitor has two timed runs on each challenge, with points awarded for every stage. Trophies are awarded to individual drivers and co-drivers, individual class and event winners, and the ultimate - the Teams Trophy - as won by Notaras and Arthur.
Venues for the Queensland event included Queensland Raceway, the Holden Performance Driving Centre, the Mt Cotton Hillclimb and the Darlington Park motorsport facility. Competitors also competed in an auto test under lights in the heart of the Gold Coast on Saturday evening, before taking part in an auction which raised $20,000 for The Sunnyfield Association, which is the Rally Series' charity of choice. Entrants came from Queensland, the ACT, NSW and Victoria - and one from Canada.
Cars in the field ranged in age from 1973 to 2005 models and included everything from a Toyota LandCruiser and a Porsche Cayenne 4WD wagon to three Westfield 'clubman' cars, a host of rally-bred Evos and Subarus, exotics such as Ferraris, Porsches and Lotus and a hybrid petrol/electric Toyota Prius.
One competitor who posted some impressive results was Winter Olympics gold medallist Steve Bradbury, fast proving himself to be just as quick at the wheel of a race car (he was fourth in the Grand Prix Celebrity Race) as he is on ice. Prime TV reporter/weatherman Daniel Gibson also proved himself to be a dab hand behind the wheel, posting several top 10 times and picking up a swag of individual event trophies.
The next two events in the Alphera Dutton Rally National Championship Series are in NSW (June 3-5) and Victoria (July 29-31) - and entries are already open for the 2006 Queensland round.
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