Jeff David and Grant Geelan have returned victorious from the Quit Forest Rally in Western Australia with a win in the Classic Rally Challenge.

The event kicked off with a tarmac super special stage on Friday night before heading out to get the gravel rally under way on Saturday morning. For David and Geelan this meant the start of another excellent battle with four time Aussie Rally Champion Neal Bates and??Coral Taylor in their mighty Toyota Celica??RA40.

Pre-event testing had resulted in some suspension changes and adjustments which made a huge difference in their chase, providing excellent gains as they tackled the forest stages.

David and Geelan were within a few seconds of the champs throughout the morning before they decided to make a tyre change to better tackle the tricky surface. The theory was that the harder edges of the hard compound tyre would do a better job of biting in to the ball bearing like road surface. It didn’t!

This cost them some time, but Bates and Taylor were having troubles of their own. A mechanical failure in the evening which they were unable to repair before Sunday’s stages put them out of the rally, leaving David and Geelan without a sparring partner up at the front.

They took the remainder of the rally at a steady, consistent pace, managed the gap behind them and went home with more experience, testing and a round win in the classics.

David was very pleased with the result; “We’re really happy with the weekend and are looking forward to Queensland and the debut of the new car.”

Geelan loved the support of the town and the crowds and was quick to commend the organisation of the event, particularly their choice to situate it on the main street of Nanup.

“The towns of Busselton and Nanup??really gets behind it and there was a great crowd out on every stage. It’s really special.”

The boys will be back for the next round of the championship - the International Rally of Queensland on the 25th to the 27th of May.

Thanks to Stuart Bowes for the photography.