A brilliant first day display from Stuart Bowes and Mark Nelson have seen the duo guide their 1975 Mercedes 450S to a well deserved victory in the AGL Rally SA – Rally of the Heartland.

The duo took out all but two stages during the first day of action in the popular CAMS South Australian Rally Championship’s second round as 26 crews did battle across the weekend. 

Finishing behind the leaders less than two minutes behind were Rob Hunt and Jeremy Browne in their Mitsubishi Lancer, while Queenslanders Ian Reddiex and Mike Mitchell rounded out the podium in their Datsun. 

In the other two major categories taking place over the weekend, Subaru Impreza pilots Stuart and Lincoln Bates took out Clubman honours and Mark and Aimee Lacey guided their Ford Fiesta to a convincing Introductory rally win. 

Out of the blocks 

The rally was effectively over midway throughout the first day as Bowes and Nelson got off to the perfect start to claim the first five stages. 

Right from the first kilometre, they went out with a point to prove, being the only team to break into the 14-minute mark on the first stage and claiming wins of almost 30 seconds on both the third and fourth stages. 

It wasn’t until the sixth stage when the Queenslanders broke the leader's streak, however Bowes and Nelson broke straight back to pick up both the seventh and eighth stages.

Despite the pair only picking up one stage win during the second heat, their two and half minute lead at the end of the first was enough to secure the victory.

Endurance kings 

It took them a while to get into a groove but the eventual runner-ups definitely had the edge over of the rest of the competition during the endurance stages.

The two-day event had 18 stages, with eight of them being over 20km long and all four of the Lancer's wins came in those stages, including two of the three longer than 50km. 

Unfortunately for the crew, it was their opening five stages that let them down as they finished an accumulated total of more than one minute and a half behind Bowes and Nelson, who picked up the first three endurance stages themselves. 

Broken hearts

While there were a number of crews with high hopes for the event, both days saw a significant amount of DNFs, highlighting the event’s difficulty.

On the first day of action, only half the crews managed to make it to the end, while the second day saw just over 17 of the entered field cross the line of the final stage. 

Some big names to drop off were Darryn Snooks and Michael Foreshaw with the Datsun Stanza drivers picking up some top five stage finishes before retiring on the fifth stage, as well as Victorians Brett Ross and Jason Hague who finished every stage but the ninth – ending their charge for a top five finish.

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