Monday, 11th September 2023
The Western Australian father and son duo of Rob and Dean Herridge have successfully completed the gruelling Sunraysia Safari Cross Country Rally in a pair of production-based Subaru vehicles.
The Maximum Motorsport team entered two Subarus into the toughest and longest rally in Australia. Competitors tackle over 1,000 kilometres during the four days of competition in the Wentworth region, on the edge of Outback NSW. A wide variety of conditions including sandy farm tracks, narrow bush access roads and rough demanding Outback trails test competitors and vehicles.
Two-time Australian Rally champion Rob Herridge, driving a Subaru Forester XT with experienced co-driver Chris Randell alongside, finished fifth overall after a trouble-free event.
"The Subaru Forester XT performed faultlessly across the tough roads and trails. We didn’t have the outright speed of the purpose-built Dakar type machines, but the Forester certainly proved its an Outback Australia car," commented Rob at the finish.
Son Dean, a former Subaru Rally Team Australia driver, finished seventh overall with co-driver Sam Hill. Driving a production-based Subaru Crosstrek modified for cross country rallying and running a 2.0 litre turbocharged Subaru production rally engine, the pair were running second overall on the second leg of the event before suspension damage dropped the team to 21st overall.
The former Subaru Rally Team Australia driver showcased the Crosstrek’s potential with a stage win and top four stage times to climb through the field to a seventh overall placing at rally end.
"We enjoyed the challenge of this epic event and demonstrating how competitive the Subaru can be against the purpose-built off-road vehicles. There was some seriously challenging terrain, so to come away with a stage win and show our competitiveness was a great reward," Dean said.
Photo Credit: Aaron Wishart at Wishart Media
