Adrian Coppin and Erin Kelly will enter the upcoming Make Smoking History Forest Rally in a Skoda Fabia R5, round 2 of the CAMS Australian Rally Championship (ARC) in late April.
The Skoda Fabia R5 will be run by the title winning team at Race Torque Engineering. The team has campaigned Skoda’s in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship for six years and have lifted the winner’s trophy each year.
“I’m very excited and fortunate to be able to drive the Skoda Fabia R5 car. It was always the plan to campaign one of these cars this year, but we just couldn’t make it work before Ballarat. I’m very grateful to Lane and Lindsay for the opportunity.” Coppin said.
The entry of the Skoda R5 will be the first time an R5 spec rally car has been campaigned in the ARC and is another positive step for the Championship.
The team plans to test soon in preparation for the Forest Rally, with Coppin eager to get up to speed ahead of the Netier National Capital Rally. “I grew up rallying in Canberra, and I know the forests well so I’m confident we can get a good result there” he [Coppin] said.
“Lindsay and I are very excited to run Adrian and Erin in the Skoda Fabia R5, and look forward to introducing another brand with a strong rally heritage to the ARC” Lane Heenan of Race Torque said.
The car will continue to sport a striking livery featuring Adrian’s major sponsors Optus and Castrol courtesy of his long-term partners AutoGrafika.
Watch Adrian’s social media sites for footage of the test, and their first event.
