Difficult weekend for Brendan at Rally Germany

Round four of the WRC Academy Cup, Rally Germany, proved to be a frustrating event for Australian rally pair, Brendan Reeves and Rhianon Smyth. The brother-sister team went into the event equal second in the overall Championship standings and had high hopes of adding to their points haul in this, the first tarmac event of the series.

The tricky tarmac roads of Germany's Mosel region provided plenty of challenges and Brendan was amongst those who bore the brunt. The 23 year old started day one of the rally on the pace, recording split times that catapulted him into the top two fastest drivers in the WRC Academy Cup. He then lost time after slipping off the road on each of the opening two stages, costing him valuable minutes to the rally leaders.

 

Brendan recovered on the following stages on Friday with top 10 times on all of the afternoon stages, despite nudging a wall on Stage 6 and having to cruise to the finish of the day.

 

On day 2, Brendan showed some good speed in the first loop of four stages, but was still finding the changing surfaces tricky. The first three stages of the afternoon went well for him but the Pirelli Star Driver suffered a puncture on the final stage of the rally which cost him more time.

Having finished in the top four on all three previous rounds of the WRC Academy Cup, Brendan was disappointed to finish Rally Germany 13th in the series but still maintains third overall in the Championship standings.

"We had another long day in the car yesterday with some incredibly challenging stages," Brendan said.

"There was four stages each run twice. It was a really hot day and the competition was once again strong. We pushed hard all day and had some promising times but unfortunately we couldn't quite match the pace of the tarmac specialists."

Brendan and Rhianon will now return to Australia to prepare for their next event, Rally Australia which starts on September 8. The Coffs Harbour-based event is the next round of the World Rally Championship but is not included in the WRC Academy calendar. The Aussie team will return to Europe for the next round of the Academy Cup, Rally France, in late September.