Hyundai WRC driver Freddy Loix predicts that conditions in the Australian Rally will be slippery and unpredictable and has dubbed the September 3 event “the Monte Carlo of gravel rallies”.
Hyundai WRC driver Freddy Loix predicts that conditions in the Australian Rally will be slippery and unpredictable and has dubbed the September 3 event “the Monte Carlo of gravel rallies”.
The Australian round of the WRC traditionally takes place near the end of the season and next weekend will mark the earliest date that the rally has been run in the 14 years it has been included as part of world series.
Because the rally will be held a month earlier, Australia’s typically higher September rainfall could turn the loose-surfaced gravel roads of the region into slippery mud with deep ruts.
Loix this week told that tyre choices will be critical at this year’s Australian Rally, just as was the case on the ice and tarmac of the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally.
“If the first stage that we had rain last year is anything to go by, where the first kilometre or so was dry then at a corner there was lots of water and mud and very slippery as a result, then we could be in for an incredibly slippery event,” said Loix.
“It could be a bit like a gravel version of Monte Carlo and tyre choices could be really hard. But I like the rally and the challenges it presents so I’m looking forward to it,” he added.
Loix’s co-driver, Sven Smeets, added: “To start with it will be very, very slippery and probably quite muddy – I would imagine it to be a bit like Indonesia in the wet. The ground under the stones is actually quite sandy so in the wet there will be a top layer of mud which will require a very different kind of grip than we are used to.”