Mechanical failure has struck Smarty once again and has ended his Australian Rally Championship hopes for 2011. In their second full campaign of the ARC Ryan Smart and John Allen started the season with two round wins at the Forest Rally in Perth and their home event the International Rally of Queensland, setting themselves up to take the title in 2011.

“I’m absolutely shattered” Ryan said, clearly devastated before the final stage of the rally.

“After working so hard the whole year and having the pace,we are just so disappointed. A positive thing is that we have shown that we DO have pace, and it was great to be able to get some stage wins over Simon Evans today. It obviously wasn’t meant to be ours this year.”

The Smart Motorsport Corolla lost drive on the right front wheel in SS13 New Turkey 2, the second last forest stage of the event.

“We’re not sure what the problem is yet, it could be the driveshaft or the wheel bearing, we’ll get the car apart and work it out” said Smart Motorsport mechanic Ray Smart.

Rivals Justin Dowel and Matt Lee will take out the Championship after the final run through the Lardner Park Super Special Stage in Warragul being run as this goes to print.

“All we can say is well done to Justin and Matt, they have been here all season and have had their fair share of problems. Congratulations to them and their team, they worked hard for this win” Ryan and John commented.

Smart Motorsport would like to thank their sponsors and supporters for being a part of their most successful season ever!