The Motorsport Australia WA Rally Championship (WARC) will reach the final round of the 2020 season this weekend with the battle for the title expected to go right down to the wire.
Taking place in Jarrahdale on Saturday, there are 25 crews confirmed for the Safari Darling Rally but just three of them are in the running to claim some silverware.
Leading the way are reigning WARC champions John O’Dowd and Toni Feaver with the duo just 101 competitive kilometres away from taking out the three-peat.
Standing in between them and championship honours is New Zealander Mike Young and his co-driver Scott Beckwith. The duo would be confident entering the round having won both events they entered this year and only now trail the leaders by just 16 points.
Photo: CMR Photographic
As for Ben Searcy and co-driver James Marquet, they are a further 10 points behind the second placed Subaru WRX STI but would need a lot to go their way if they were to take out the title, however they are certainly still with a chance and are likely to be major impact the title fight.
Fortunately for O’Dowd and Young, it’s a far easier journey to the top with the former simply needing to finish second or higher and Young needing to win, as well as requiring O’Dowd to finish third or below.
With 80 points on offer to the round winners, 68 for second and 60 for third, there is no doubt it's going to go right until the last stage on Saturday afternoon.
The Safari Darling Rally is a combination of both the Safari Rally and the Darling 200 after the WARC was forced to reduce the season's total rounds from six to four.
With the event hosted by the Light Car Club, Clerk of Course Ann Percival was pleased to see this weekend's running help the Safari Rally reach a significant milestone.
Photo: Tim Allot
“That’s 55 years in a row, and according to our historian Steve Vanderbyl, it’s an Australian record,” Percival said.
“Other events are indeed older, but they have not run consecutively, interrupted by wars, economics, and weather.
“Naturally in order to continue our historic run, we chose to run LCC Safari – making 2020 the 56th running rally. The area available to us was Jarrahdale, however the area and time of year was usually the LCC’s Darling 200, hence the name the Safari Darling Rally 2020.”
The 2020 Safari Darling Rally 2020 takes place in Jarrahdale on Saturday 7th November.