Piloting the Rallyschool.com.au Mazda2, Brendan Reeves and Rhianon Smyth were pleased with the performance of their car at the International Rally of Queensland, held July 12 to 14, despite failing to finish the second day of the rally.

The Victorians were fourth on the ECB Australian Rally Championship points'table heading into the event, and started the weekend strongly, finishing second on the Power Stage that started the rally on Friday night. However, a driveshaft failure in each day of the rally saw them unable to complete the event. Lying sixth after day one, Reeves was hopeful of a better showing in Heat 2, and pushed towards a podium finish. He was third after the opening stages of the day, but was then forced to withdraw from the event after driveline problems.

“The day started really well and at the lunch break we were within striking distance of the leaders and in a solid third place,” Reeves said. “But on the second running of the Million LA stage - possibly the roughest stage in the whole championship - our rally came to an end.

“It would be easy to come away from the event totally disappointed, and while we wanted a better result, there were some strong positives to come out of the weekend.

“The suspension and set-up changes we made to the Mazda2 heading into the event have provided us with a real performance gain, and that's something to build on as the championship continues.”