Current CAMS Zestino Tyres Western Australian Rally Championship (WARC) leader John O’Dowd is in the box seat to extend his lead at the top of the standings during this weekend’s Better Value Tyres Safari Rally.
O’Dowd and co-driver Toni Feaver currently sit 55 points ahead of the second-placed Kody Reynolds and Anthony Staltar after claiming the opening two WARC rounds in their Skoda Fabia R5.
A victory in the Boddington based event would make life very difficult for the WRX pilots to catch O’Dowd with 80 points up for grabs, however, the current leader is not taking anything for granted.
“We were second last year at Boddington, but I’d like to claim victory this year and make it three-from-three,” O’ Dowd said.
“Boddington is a really intense one-day rally, so we’ll need to be ‘on it’ from the first stage. Toni will be back in the car with me and I’m really looking forward to it.”
With all stages taking place in the action-packed event, competitors will be tackling 91 competitive kilometres across five special stages, all of which will be run multiple times throughout the day.
The event’s Clerk of Course Wendy Walker was confident that fans and crews would enjoy the stages.
“The stages are in a great condition and the weather is looking perfect for Saturday,” Walker said.
“Although it would’ve been good to have a little bit of rain beforehand just to keep the dust down, so let’s see how it goes.
“Lyster is a great stage, it’s well-formed, longer than last year, fast, flowing and nice and open making it easy for competitors to see where they are going, and it’s also great for spectators.
“Marradong stage is tight and twisty and will provide more of a challenge.”
Kicking off from 1pm on Saturday, 1 June, the Better Value Tyres Safari Rally will take place around the forests of Boddington and Nyamup, 130km outside of Perth.
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