Eight high-speed stages today on the WRC Rally Australia
Friday provides a full day of competition for crews taking part in WRC Rally Australia based at Coffs Harbour on the NSW coast.
Coates Hire WRC Rally Australia gets underway from 9am (NZ time) today with crews departing the Coffs Harbour Service Park and heading to the south of the city.
The itinerary features eight high-speed stages - four stage venues each used twice.
The weather forecast for the rally is for partly cloudly conditions with a high of 20degC on Friday and fine weather with temperatures increasing to 23degC for Saturday and Sunday.
The main feature of the Friday stages is that a significant amount of new roads have been introduced. The new roads are mainly through rolling farmland terrain and reduce the proportion of forest stages used in the Australian event.
The 7.88km Utungan stage which opens the rally is new and so are the following 16.75km Bakers Creek stage and the 8.42km Northbank stage. And a new 6.49km section has extended the Newbury stage to 29.51km this year.
Crews race through two loops of the stages split by a 30-minute service opportunity back at the Coffs Harbour Service Park at 2.12pm (NZ time). Because today’s stages are some distance from the Coffs Harbour Service Park and refuel zone is located in the town of Macksville.
Crews are on the road for just over 10 hours today. The first car departs Coffs Harbour at 9am (NZ time) and will return for the end of day service 45-minute at 7.19pm (NZ).
Rally resources:
www.wrc.com for live results, split times and commentary on World Rally Radio.
www.rallyaustralia.com.au for event information.
Live TV coverage: SkySport3 Saturday 2pm-3pm Stage 10; Sunday 11am-12pm Stage 14; Sunday 3pm-4pm Stage 17 Power Stage.