Skip to Navigation

Selley pleased with Adelaide Hills Tarmac Rally shakedown

Matt Selley in action at the 2012 Adelaide Hills Tarmac Rally

Finishing second outright in their ex Ralliart Evo 9, Matt Selley and co-driver Hamish McKendrick are delighted with the result of their first full test of a new competition vehicle at last weekend’s Adelaide Hills Tarmac Rally.

“We attempted to run the car in January at Targa Wrest Point but an engine failure only 13 kms into the first stage brought that to an abrupt end,” said Matt.

“The team have spent weeks since then getting the car to where we want it to be and I reckon we are nearly there.”

Selley and McKendrick were plagued with boost issues until half way through day 2 of the event when an obscured leak was finally detected.

They also suffered the misfortune of a burned section of loom after finishing the last stage on day 1 which, although repaired on the side of the road, cost them nearly 2 minutes in late penalties.

“Obviously it’s disappointing when issues like these arise but they were hardly unexpected in a car that has not yet been proven,” said Matt.

“The great thing to take from the event is that once the car was on song we only bled 30 seconds or so to the Sims’ GTR over a total of 15 stages and even won a couple,” remarked co-driver, Hamish McKendrick, an experienced tarmac rally driver.

The pair has set its sights on competing in the full 2012-2013 Targa Championship and is confident that they can be competitive. Matt with co-driver Claire Ryan finished second outright in the inaugural Classic Targa Adelaide in Matt’s classic 1974 Porsche 911RS but now that the event has been opened up to modern, the Porsche has found a new home.

“The AHTR roads predominantly favour high horsepower supercars, like the R35GTR. We had to push very hard to keep up with it and all credit to Matt and Dennis Sims – Matt drove faultlessly and never gave us a break”, said Matt.

“But the tight, challenging roads Octagon have set for this year’s Classic Targa Adelaide are more to our liking. It’s a big ask to pitch a 2 litre Evo against the likes of Lamborghinis and late model GTRs but we’re looking forward to the challenge.”