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Back to September 2011 Motorsports News Archive
| 27-09-2011 at 07:00: Spencer Returns Home To Be The Surprise | |
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Originally from Grafton just 80kms up the Pacific Highway from Coffs Harbour the now Brisbane based Spencer saw the opportunity of running in the Rally Australia/Coffs Forest Rally as a chance to return to the forestry roads where he cut his rallying teeth. Spencer was overlooked by many because he had not run any of the previous rounds of the Bosch ARC this year and because while he was registered for the Australian Championship he elected to compete in the World Rally Championship field flying under the radar, with most observers not realising Spencer’s red Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX was also competing against the locals. His rapid and consistent drive rewarded him with 15th in the WRC field just one place behind the World Rally Car of Norway’s Henning Solberg but also meant that he and co-driver John Goasdoue were placed fourth in the Bosch ARC field at the end of the second day when the Coffs Forest Rally concluded. “I competed in my first rally in Grafton 30 years ago and never thought for one minute the coast would host a round of the World Rally Championship so it was an opportunity I simply couldn’t pass up,” said Spencer. “It’s an incredible thing to compete in a World Rally Championship round on home soil, definitely an opportunity of a lifetime that only a few drivers get,” he added. Spencer has paid his dues in the sport as a privateer competing in a variety of cars at state championship level revelling in the chance to share the track with the world’s best. “It was a rally of firsts in many respects for us, it was the first time I’ve rallied this particular car, which I bought especially for Rally Australia, and it’s also the first time I have had John Goasdoue as my co-driver. “To have been the first Australian home in the Production World Rally Championship, to have finished 15th outright and also pick up fourth in the Bosch ARC were all things that were well beyond our expectations,” said Spencer. “At this level, the highs and lows of rally are amazing and I am just so glad that we were able to come away from what was an extremely tough rally on an absolute high,” he said. “When you get a precision corner right in a heavily forested rally like those at Coffs it’s such a great feeling, but with the slightest over read it all goes wrong very quickly,” he said. “I said before the rally that with 100 cars competing someone would crash and I hoped that it wasn’t going to be us and that we get would get through unscathed and we did, I just couldn’t have done that to the new car,” Spencer laughed. Spencer and Goasdoue also won the Bosch ARC’s Privateer Cup category, were first home in the Bosch ARC Premier League and also won the International Cup for Group N in the Bosch ARC. Ironically Spencer’s co-driver John Goasdoue who competed as a driver in the Queensland and South Australian Bosch ARC rounds, is now sitting equal 14th in the Driver’s Championship as well as being 17th in the co-driver’s title thanks to their strong result in Coffs Harbour. |
Queensland driver John Spencer proved the biggest surprise package at the recent fourth round of the Bosch Australian Rally Championship, the Coffs Forest Rally run in parallel with Australia’s round of the World Rally Championship, Rally Australia.
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