Canberra rally driver Adrian Coppin admits the first two races of his comeback season have gone "terribly" but is determined to turn things around at his home event this weekend.
Coppin quit the circuit last year to focus on his motorsport company and move to Brisbane, but has returned to the Australian Rally Championship in 2018.
Adrian Coppin is looking to get his season back on track in Canberra this week.
Photo: Jeffrey Chan
The 31-year-old ran into trouble in the heats of the opening legs of the season in Victoria and Western Australia, but he believes home advantage will give him an edge at the National Capital Rally.
"The first two have gone terribly, I had dramas at both in the first heat," Coppin said.
"In the first the person in front of me got a flat and I almost ran into them and then I had to follow them in a cloud of dust for 10km and lost two minutes.
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"In Perth I slipped into a corner too tight and hit a tree stump, it ripped off all the suspension arms, drive shaft and broke the whole front corner, I was stuck in the forest."
Coppin is hoping it proves "third time a charm" in the third round of the season this week.
"I'm an ex-Canberran so I grew up rallying on those roads and I'm pretty comfortable with them," Coppin said.
"I know the lay of the land, it's very fast and big straights on Saturday but then on Sunday it's technical and twisty.
"So it's two rallies in one really, you need to pick a strategy to push hard on Saturday but still keep yourself in the hunt on Sunday."
Coppin will take on fellow Canberrans Harry and Lewis Bates, the former the defending champion who has upgraded his car this year.
Harry and co-driver John McCarthy won in Canberra last year in a Toyota Corolla S2000 – now driven by younger brother Lewis – but this weekend they'll be in a turbocharged Yaris AP4.
Bates won the opening round of the season in Ballarat and then fought for a spirited second-place on day two in Busselton.
Bates said he was looking forward to driving his new car on the twisty mountain roads this Sunday.
"I always look forward to competing in my home rally," Bates said.
"We had a tough event last time out in the west, so we're aiming to bounce back strongly and go for the win."
"It will be the first real test for the Yaris AP4 on those type of roads. The average speeds in the first two events of the season have been relatively high.
"We're expecting tough competition this year, tougher than when we won last year."
Eamonn Tiernan is a sports reporter with The Canberra Times
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