Brendan Reeves, Brian Green and Jean Louis-Leyraud all retired from the International Rally of Queensland and its set up an interesting situation for the final round of the Pacific Cup – Rallye New Caledonia.

Hayden Paddon from New Zealand and Glen Raymond from Australia are equal with 39 points and lead the Cup, but are not expected to enter the New Caledonian event later this month. Reeves is 3rd with 21, Brian Green 15 and Jean Louis-Leyraud on 5 points.

With 39 points up for grabs at the final round its anybodies contest at this point and especially when Leyraud is on his home event – an event he’s won outright many times. “This year the event is in the south and I know those roads very well, its where I started driving. Of course I am going too win, there can be no other result!” said an emphatic Leyraud at the end of Rally Queensland. Leyraud retired from the Queensland when he had two punctures and only one spare, while Green retired on Day 1, crashing off in Rifat Sungkar’s dust.

Brendan Reeves and Rhianon Smyth were looking at a great result on their home event, but after sustaining a puncture on stage 6, the brother-sister duo started Day 2 in fourth place in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship. Their day started really well with the pair recording a second-fastest stage time on the day’s opener and Reeves’ speed had moved the pair up to third after only the second stage of the day. It was during the next stage, SS13, that disaster struck. About half way through the stage, the diff broke and Reeves was forced to just cruise to the end of the stage and withdraw from the event.