An entertaining weekend in the Eudunda Environs has seen Zayne Admiraal and Matthew Heywood claim the Copyworld Walky 100 in dramatic fashion.
The Subaru WRX pilots were up against the event’s current champions in Declan Dwyer and Craig Adams throughout the event with barely anything separating the two crews.
Despite the Dwyer and Adams Mitsubishi Lancer Evo finishing faster on nine of the 12 stages, it was the second stage that had the most influence over the battle, with Admiraal and Heywood crossing the line 46 seconds faster.
As Dwyer and Adams chipped away at the gap over the next seven stages, eventually surpassing the leaders on the ninth stage, the crews exchanged wins on the remaining three stages.
A spanner was thrown in the works in the event’s final stages when the Lancer was handed a five second penalty effectively drawing the two crews closer and setting up an exciting climax.
An eight second final stage win to Admiraal and Heywood all but sealed the round win after the two crews finished within sixth tenths of a second of each other – only for Admiraal and Heywood to be crowned outright champions due to the penalty.
After finishing in the top three on multiple occasions and coming close to a couple of their own stage wins, Jamie Pohlner and Ken Moore steered their WRX to a comfortable third place, more than five minutes ahead of Rob Hunt, Jeremy Browne and their Lancer in fourth place.
Rounding out the top five in the CAMS South Australian Rally Championship’s second round was another WRX crew in Paul Knopka and Neil Branum – the duo finishing just under a minute behind Hunt and Browne.
In sixth place were the Classic class winners in Wayne Mason and David Langfield, as the duo enjoyed a four-minute class victory over fellow Ford Escort drivers Simon and Renee Hoff.
As with most rally events, amongst the stories of elation lie stories of heartbreak and two big crews were victims as both Aaron Bowering and Nathan Lowe in the WRX and Matthew Selley and Hamish McKendrick endured difficult weekends.
Bowering and Lowe were looking strong in the first half of the rally, picking up two outright stage wins, however they had a stage to forget on the 10th, their recorded 24 minute stage time all but ending their chances at an outright victory.
Unfortunately for fourth seeds Selley and McKendrick, the duo had a slow first stage but bounced back into the top five on the second, only to see their day done on just the third stage of the weekend due to mechanical issues.
As a result of the early exit from Selley, Molly Spalding and Liam Bache were crowned CRC class winners as they managed to steer their Honda Integra to an outright 11th.
The next round of the CAMS South Australia Rally Championship will be the Adelaide Hills Rally as part of the CAMS Australian Rally Championship on 20-22 September.
