A Shire resident was in final preparation mode in Portugal last week, readying himself to compete in a round of the World Rally Championship.
Dale Moscatt, 41, called the pace notes for Victorian driver, Scott Pedder, as the pair started a second year of competing in selected rounds of rallying’s equivalent to Formula One.
Moscatt and Pedder have signed with a new team, and spent last week testing their new car, a Skoda Fabia R5, as well as official testing with their rivals and doing reconnaissance of the route of Rally de Portugal before the event started last Thursday.
“We’re really looking forward to this year, and to seeing how much better we can do, given we’re going back with some experience on the events we’ve chosen to do,” Moscatt said.
“We’ve signed up with the team for Portugal, Poland (July 1-3) and Finland (July 28-31) and we’re also hoping to do China (September 8-11). Obviously Rally Australia in November, at world championship level, is part of the plan too.”
The Kirrawee resident described Portugal as one of his favourite rounds of the 14-event world series. He enjoys the challenge of the roads, which are very technical, and says the atmosphere of the event, and the passion of the Portuguese rally fans, is an amazing experience.
“We’ve chosen our favourite events, pretty much. We’re hoping for a top five finish in Portugal because only about seven kilometres of the event has changed from last year, so it will feel very familiar for us.
“Scott’s family company Pedders Suspension does some work in Poland so it makes sense to use that to our advantage, but we really like the roads there.
“Finland is the grand prix of gravel. The roads are just fantastic, and of course we finished fourth in our class there last year, so we’re definitely aiming for a podium this time round.”
The pair has entered the second-tier WRC2 category of the world series, which is as hotly contested as the outright game.
Aside from the 25 international drivers contesting their category, including factory teams from Ford and Skoda, they will be driving the same stages as world-famous drivers such as three-time world champion Sebastien Ogier and his VW teammate, Jari-Matti Latvala.
The rally takes in 19 stages, totalling 368 competitive kilometres, over four days of action. It began with a ceremonial start last Thursday near the northern city of Porto, before three days of forest road competition.
Sunday was just three stages, including the classic Fafe stage, famed for its spectacular jump and huge crowds.
Moscatt started rallying in 1993 and turned professional co-driver in 2004.
Since then he has worked with local and international drivers at events all over the world, including the famous 14-day Dakar Rally in South America in January.
He has two Australian Rally Championship titles on his CV (2005, 2014), and has also won the 2011 European Production Championship.
Aside from his WRC2 commitments this year, he is contesting the full Australian Rally Championship series with Pedder’s brother Mark, and the Chinese Rally Championship with fellow Australian, Chris Atkinson.
When he’s not travelling the world, Moscatt loves being at home with wife Selina and their children Kye, nearly five, and Chloe, three.
UPDATE: A message from Scott.
“A big thank you to all the Aussie support back home! 4th WRC2 and 13th outright should have been a great result, especially after the rollover on Thursday and punctures on Friday - but we should have been 3rd. I made my only mistake of the event with 20 corners to go! ..and lost an 18 second 3rd place by 0.2 seconds on the last stage. That one will burn for a while but we take so many positives from our first event of the year and our first in the awesome Skoda R5. A WRC2 stage win was a great moment. Thank you Dale Moscatt for another faultless performance.”
