Darren Windus and Joe Brkic have won the 2021 Till Hino Motorsport Australia Victorian Rally Championship (VRC) after overcoming fuel pump issues in the season finale.
With 40 crews competing in the VRC component of Rally Gippsland, which saw them tackle 124 competitive kilometres over eight stages, it was a tale of two contrasting heats for the veteran, who claimed his third VRC title in four years.
Making Windus’ victory even more impressive was the quality of competition entered in the event, as a handful of VRC and RSEA Safety Motorsport Australia Rally Championship (ARC) stars featured in the rally.
From former ARC Champions Nathan Quinn and Eli Evans, ARC regulars JJ Hatton, Troy Dowell, Richie Dalton and Adrian Stratford to Victorian stars Brendon Reeves and Luke Sytema, there were plenty of drivers capable of taking out the event.
And it was Quinn alongside co-driver Ray Winwood-Smith in the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X who got off to the best start, winning the opening two stages ahead of Evans.
Evans then bounced back in the heat, steering his Mini AP4 to wins in the last two stages – the 2018 ARC champion showing no signs of rustiness winning the stages by enough to claim the opening Heat over Quinn with new co-driver Adam Wright.
Windus meanwhile was unable to find his pace as the fuel pump issue that caused him grief in the VRC’s previous round again caused issues – the Subaru WRX driver still managing to squeeze home to P5 behind fellow title VRC contenders in Reeves and Stratford.
Despite considering pulling out during the service break, Windus decided to continue, as he just needed to finish the second heat in the top five to secure the title.
The move paid dividends as a slow start to Evans, a DNF to Quinn in the third stage and three consecutive stage wins for Windus proved enough to win not only the heat, but the event’s overall time.
Unlike Heat 1, Reeves was unable to beat Windus in any of the afternoon’s stages and all hopes for a title were dashed when a broken fan belt on the final stage forced a DNF.
As a result, Hatton and co-driver Brad Jones ended up claiming the heat’s runner-up position, while Stratford secured the heat’s final podium place alongside Kain Manning ahead of Evans.
Click here to view full results.
Following on from his victory, Windus was thrilled he was able to overcome the mechanical issues and grab another title.
“It’s a good feeling to have won my third title – especially knowing that Arron (son) was the most recent winner, so we keep the Windus name on the trophy,” Windus said.
“The competition was really strong. It was good to have the likes of Quinny (Nathan Quinn), JJ (Hatton) and Eli (Evans) there. I really enjoyed the battle with Eli too.
“Honestly, we had so many issues with the fuel pump even though we thought we fixed it last time. But we found out early in this event that there was something that clogs up the filter, so we have to replace the whole system now.
“Because we knew we needed to score really good points in both heats, we decided to nurse the car through the first heat and keep it at a 30 to 50 per cent threshold so we could just finish.
“I was pretty sombre at the service break. We just didn’t know whether it would last or not and because we didn’t have much of an advantage, it could have been over, and I wasn’t sure if I should go out there.
“But we decided to go, changed the filter and ended up getting through the first two stages before going like hell for the rest. We pulled some awesome times. It was just great.
“It was a really nice way to wrap up the season. To win the title at a fantastic event was awesome. They are really good roads and I can't wait to do them again next year with the ARC.”