Burnard & Margach Secure 5th
Nov
25
Written by:
Wednesday, November 25, 2009 3:10 PM
Andrew Burnard and Tim Margach driving the Supaloc Mitsubishi Lancer EVO VIII secured fifth place in the Modern Category in the 2009 Classic Adelaide event which concluded on Sunday afternoon. After four days of very tight competition the gap to fourth position was only 3 seconds.
Coming into the final day of the rally with a 13 second deficit over Kennard and Grimwood in their 2007 Subaru STI Spec C, the focus was to pull back valuable seconds in the damp early morning conditions.
“I am reasonably confident heading into the damp conditions having noticed we were able to pull back some time on the other competitors yesterday, so it’s all on for today” Burnard said at the beginning of Mt Lofty.
After the first three stages the gap was back to only 2.5 seconds and heading into the long Paris Creek stage. An error early in the stage resulted in the gap slipping back to 14.5 seconds making the possibility of gaining the extra position almost beyond reach.
A concerted effort on effort on the second to last stage of Clarendon had the gap back to only 2 seconds, however Kennard and Grimwood hung on to the end for a well deserved fourth position.
The event has provided significant product development feedback to Oscar Fiorinotto on the new Supaloc Suspension Systems, with the new dampers providing a significant performance enhancement to what is essentially a show-room spec vehicle.
Work has already begun on a number of engineering enhancements with the focus being on vehicle weight reduction together with gearbox and drive line enhancements.
