Mazda2 driver Brendan Reeves has capped off a wonderful weekend with second place in leg 3 of the Coates Hire Rally Australia. With a win in leg 2 and second place in leg 1, today's result gave the 25 year-old Victorian second outright for the event. His wide-tracked Mazda2 G2 rally car is equipped with the MZR 2.0-liter engine.

Based out of Coffs Harbour in New South Wales, Rally Australia was round five of the Australian Rally Championship (ARC) and round 10 of the World Rally Championship, attracting the cream of drivers from around the world. Competitors in the ARC contested three stages on the final day totaling 61 kilometers after the repeat of the morning stages was cancelled due to time constraints because of a dust problem. Reeves won the longest stage of the day, the 24km “Shipmans”, and finished the leg second behind Scott Pedder (Renault Clio). After 18 stages and almost 300 kilometers, Reeves was just 16.1 seconds behind Eli Evans (Honda Jazz) for the overall rally victory.

“We started leg 1 on medium tires and lost a bit of time as a result,” Reeves said, “On leg 2 we picked up the pace and were able to manage our tire wear better than our competitors and take the leg win. Today's result was very satisfying, although we would have liked the chance to repeat the three stages again. We won the three longest stages of the rally, and endurance is proving to be one of our strengths. The Mazda2 ran faultlessly all weekend and we are really happy to bring home a podium result for all the team.”

The final round of the Australian Rally Championship for Reeves and his co-driving sister Rhianon Smyth is Rally Victoria, which will be based out of Warragul in November.