This year saw close competition between AP4, PRC and R5 cars.
Harry Bates and John McCarthy ran the AP4 Yaris all season, looking promising with a dominant win at the first round in Victoria. They took another round win in South Australia, but an off in WA and reliability issues in Tasmania and at the final round in Coffs Harbour saw them finish third in the championship.
Steve Glenney ran a PRC Subaru for most of the year, scoring consistently except for a blown turbo in Canberra. A major roll in South Australia seemingly brought their season to an end. But they acquired an R5 Skoda for Coffs and took the win there to almost win the championship. The 2016 champion and 2017 runner-up, Molly Taylor with Malcolm Read, struggled for pace in the PRC Subaru but scored consistently and were still in the running for the championship heading into the final round.
Eli Evans with Ben Searcy began the year in the AP4 Mini Cooper that had been tested the previous year, but struggled on the first round in Victoria, only placing third and fourth. They moved into an R5 Skoda from the second round, taking round wins in WA, Canberra and Tasmania to move into a strong points lead. It was not without dramas as they slid off the road in Tasmania and were towed back on by an official, initially being penalised but the penalty with overturned allowing them to place second on the heat. South Australia saw Evans clip a tree on Heat 1 and they were initially excluded and penalised 20 championship points for supposedly failing to warn following cars, but again the penalties were overturned on appeal,
Going into the final round with 100 points on offer, Evans was on 338, 58 clear of Bates on 281, then Glenney 273 and Taylor 260. Evans damaged the Skoda after a jump on Heat 1 but rejoined placing second on the remaining two heats, Bates won Heat 1 but was then sidelined with engine problems on Heat 2. Taylor had a big accident on Day 1 and scored no more points. So despite Glenny taking almost full points for the weekend, he finished 13 points shy of Eli Evans for the championship.
Adam Kaplan and Aleysia Penney again won the 2WD championship, initially in the Mazda RX7 before moving into a Nissan 370Z. A big roll in South Australia forced them to revert to the RX7 for the final round in Coffs.
To see other years of the ARC, go to the series page
