Orders marching up rally ladder

By Marc McGowan
BERWICK’S Will Orders stormed to his best performance of the Australian Rally Championship as round three moved to the nation’s capital on the weekend.
The Rally of Canberra is a favourite stomping ground of the local star as his team manager Michael Thompson lives there.
Orders and co-driver Toni Feaver, with the benefit of a new motor and gearbox, were confident of making a good account of themselves.
A dust-raising third-place finish in the opening heat provided the impetus for a successful visit and, despite dealing with a broken gearbox, the Orders-Feaver combination managed sixth in leg two.
“I am pretty happy with the weekend. We scored good points and moved from eighth to fifth in one round, so we couldn’t expect much more out of the weekend,” Orders said.
“I broke the gearbox on the very first stage on Sunday morning, which basically meant I couldn’t use fifth gear and had to go straight from fourth to sixth.
“It probably cost us a position.”
As well as moving into fifth on the overall driver standings, Orders also sits in third spot in the Privateers Cup behind West Australian Dean Herridge.
“Dean’s had good consistency so far and will be hard to catch, but I’ll give it my best shot,” Orders said.
“I think I will get better as the year progresses.”
Orders’ improved output can be put down to the work pumped into his Subaru Impreza STI in between rounds and he will have plenty of time to make further enhancements as the Australian Rally Championship enters its midseason rest period.
The next event will be the Rally South Australia from 10 to 12 August.
“You are limited to what you can and can’t improve to make the car faster, so you just have to go over everything again and make sure everything is set and reliable,” Orders said.