A new sponsor and a new series!
This year saw the real start of a bold new experiment, limiting the ARC to 2WD cars. The concept was developed by ARC CEO Scott Pedder and tested the previous year with a dual series – separate 2WD and 4WD champions. This year the 4WD forest racers, almost exclusively Lancers and Imprezas, would be competing for their own national title, but not the coveted Australian Rally Championship. There would also be a separate series for classic cars, and the Side x Side series continued from the previous year. Additional spice was added by qualifying and Power Stages prior to each round with up to 5 extra points on offer, but only for the 2WD cars.
The main contenders were Eli Evans and Glen Weston in their already tried and tested Honda Jazz with Mark Pedder and Claire Ryan in a similar car. Victorian hotshot Brendan Reeves, together with experienced co-driver Glenn Macneall were running a Mazda 2. Previous 4WD Champions Michael Boaden and Helen Cheers ran a VW Polo together with Mick Patton and Bernie Webb. And Scott Pedder put his money where his mouth was with co-driver Dale Moscatt in a Renault Clio, with Tom Wilde and Bill Hayes as team-mates in another Clio. These were all G2 cars, with some degree of factory support. Adrian Coppin and Tim Batten ran an R2 Ford Fiesta. Several rear-wheel drive cars entered under PRC regs including Will Orders/ Toni Feaver and Jack Monkhouse/ John Allen in Nissan Silvias, with Glen and Matt Raymond running the Mazda RX7. Brett Middleton and Andrew Benefield continued to run their Subaru Forester and were unchallenged for the SUV Award.
The National 4WD Series was not so well supported with the 2WD ARC certainly attracting the top drivers. The previous year’s less restrictive ARC category was discontinued, with 4WD cars having to revert to PRC or Group N. Others mostly stayed with their state ARC rounds or those in neighbouring states, as well as state titles which continued to get good entries. No crews contested all six rounds of the National 4WD Series, which was mostly because of the points system (see below). The series was won by John Mitchell and Jo Cadman in a Lancer Evo7. It was rather Similar for the Classic Series, but Neal Bates and Coral Taylor did five of the six rounds in the Celica and won that series again.
Most pleasing for the 2WD ARC was that all rounds were won by 2WD cars. In fact there was only one heat in WA where a 4WD car bettered the winning 2WD car (excluding of course at the APRC Rally of Queensland and at WRC Rally Australia). This was in part because of the dominance of Evans and Weston who won every round in their Honda Jazz, to easily claim the title with one round spare. Their nearest rivals were the two Renault Clios of Pedder/ Moscatt and Wilde/ Hayes. Pedder won a couple of heats but unreliability robbed them of second in the ARC, which was taken by Wilde and Hayes.
Honda won the Manufacturers Championship for the third successive year.
To see other years of the ARC, go to the series page.
