Local Rising Star Lodges First Entry For Repco Rally Australia

A rising young Australian driver has lodged the first entry for Repco Rally Australia, hoping his results in the FIA World Rally Championship round on 3-6 September will launch him into an international professional career.

Nathan Quinn, 23, a motor mechanic and university business student from Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, entered the rally today as a Privateer in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 9 – but also has his sights set on challenging some of the world’s best drivers in other categories.

Quinn has asked WRC and event organisers for wildcard entries in the Production World Rally Championship (P-WRC) and Pirelli Star Driver competitions within Repco Rally Australia.

Up to 60 crews and cars from overseas and Australia are expected to contest the rally, which will be round 10 of 12 in the 2009 WRC, in the New South Wales Northern Rivers, around three hours north of Quinn’s home.

Entries opened yesterday and will close on 5 August.

Quinn said contesting his country’s WRC round had been his main goal since starting as a rally driver in 2006 and he was thrilled to claim the honour of the first entry.

Wildcard acceptance into the P-WRC round and the Pirelli Star Driver program would offer the chance of a lucrative boost to world level.

The winner of the P-WRC round in Australia will earn a 50,000 Euro (approx. $A100,000) cash prize from the WRC’s official tyre supplier Pirelli.

And in the Pirelli Star Driver competition, young drivers from the Asia Pacific region will vie for one of five places worldwide in a fully-funded campaign in the 2010 WRC. The value of these places has been estimated at around $1 million each.

“Everything I have done has been with this in mind. Everyone knows how hard it is to get from the Australian championship into an international team, but if you win either of these prizes it pretty much takes you straight there,” said Quinn, who works two jobs to fund his sport.

“We’ve only had our car for one rally so far, so we’re going to have to work hard to get up to pace, but I’m pretty confident we can.

“I think we’ll have a lot of people from Coffs Harbour following us up to Rally Australia. We’ve got a lot of support here, so it will be pretty much like a home crowd.”

Quinn has entered only two international rallies before, with a best result of fifth outright last month in the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Queensland round.