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Irish forestry Mark 2 Escort ace Frank Kelly said, "In 2009, Euro M-Sport asked me to test DMS 5-way rear shocks with springs. To say that I was impressed with their performance would be an understatement. These shocks brought me the set up I had been searching for over the previous two years. On our first event, we won our class, finished top 2WD and claimed sixth overall among a host of World Rally Cars. Kick jumps and sequences are no longer a white-knuckle ride. The car is now settled and stable and traction on gravel is greatly improved."
"For years, I was using a 3-way adjustable suspension from another manufacturer and was really struggling," said Kelly. "DMS has made a massive difference. It’s so adjustable and user friendly too - you don’t have to be a mastermind to use it."
"In the forests, you want to run as soft as possible and with DMS, I can run much softer than I usually would. Both DMS and Michael at Euro M-Sport are very helpful - there is always someone at the end of the ‘phone with good advice."
Frank Kelly isn’t alone in his opinion. 2010 Galway International Rally Group N winner Alastair Fisher said, "I wanted to try something different this year and chose DMS Suspension. I really noticed the difference in Galway. I was able to carry a lot more speed over the bumps and jumps, the car was much more stable and I was able to get more traction. Obviously, that gave me more confidence and allowed me to be more committed - which certainly helps the stage times!"
2010 Galway National Rally winner Daniel McKenna commented, "There was a massive rush to get my Mark 2 ready for this year’s Galway Rally, so I was surprised how simple it was to change the DMS Suspension settings to my liking. Small changes to the adjustable settings can make such a difference. It’s very simple to do and it means that if you get a patch of rain, for example, you can alter the settings and save an awful lot of time. It has completely transformed my car!"
Sole European distributor for DMS Suspension, Euro M-Sport MD Michael McCullagh said: "As proven by Alastair Fisher and Daniel McKenna in Galway, DMS Suspension is tried and tested, and it really does work. Many do not realise the advances that DMS has made in recent years, and there are various options available, including 3, 4 and 5 way adjustable suspension."
"At Euro M-Sport, we have a lot of new equipment coming including a dyno and degassing tool, which are both very complex pieces of kit. They will help us provide an even better service to our customers, and we will have some more exciting developments to announce in the near future."
Peter Gazzard, driving the TECH///SPORT Evo IX race car, successfully defended his "Legend of the Lakes" hillclimb title in early November.
Gazzard won the 2009 event outright, and lowered the race record by almost a full second.
Held at the stunning Mt Gambier venue in South Australia, the challenging 1.5km course ran up the twisty mountain road between the lakes, and attracted a full field of 120 cars and drivers from all over Australia
Subaru Rally Team Canada driver Patrick Richard and his co-driver Alan Ockwell are the new 2009 Canadian Rally Champions, by virtue of their win at the Rally of the Tall Pines held November 23rd near Bancroft, Ontario. Their top finish also secured the 2009 Canadian Rally Championship manufacturer’s title for Subaru Canada.
Their stunning victory marked the fourth win of the season for rally driver Patrick Richard and co-driver Alan Ockwell. This is their second consecutive overall rally championship win driving their Subaru Impreza WRX Sti.
"I can’t wait to do it again" said Patrick Richard
"I have been rallying for over 15 years, using various cars on various surfaces.
The past 5 years I have used a verity of MK 2 Escorts with some success which included winning the 2005 Irish 2WD Forest Championship. I was a runner-up in 2006 and champion again the following year. In 2008 I won the BTRDA Silverstar Championship in the UK.
During these successful campaigns I have used several different suspension set ups and manufacturers, and have been continually developing them on events to gain the best possible shock travel, bump, rebound and traction levels that I can. During the 2007/2008 seasons I used a leading manufacturers shocks with remote canisters and their springs. While we got a "safe" setup fairly quickly, we continually had problems with "kick bumps" and a sequence of bumps was always pretty scary! Two seasons, 26 rallies, 4 major bump related accidents, 3 shock rebuilds and 5 different spring rates later we were no further forward.
At the beginning of this season (2009) Eurom-Sport asked me to test DMS 5way rear shocks with springs. With no test time available we fitted them for our first event of the season with a basic setup. To say that I was impressed with their performance would be an understatement. With very minor adjustments at first service halt, these shocks were already a vast improvement and had brought me to the setup I had been searching for over the previous 2 years. We went on to win our class, finish top 2WD and claim 6th overall among a host of WRC's that day. Kick jumps and sequences are no longer a white knuckle ride. The car is now settled and stable and traction on gravel is greatly improved.
To put the difference into perspective, when we tackled a notoriously bumpy stage recently which had caught us out in the past, we were able to carry much more speed and there were sections we were two gears up on last years shocks and approximately and a and a half seconds a mile quicker. The car takes less hurt and I now consider my suspension "sorted", and the time I normally set aside for suspension work can be used on other areas".
Frank Kelly
The Lewana Stages, run by the Ascot Motor Club, made a welcome return to the series and used the slippery and technical Grimwade plantation near Kirup.
Running fourth on the road, Hynes and Percival took their Busselton Subaru Service Impreza to a stage one win by five seconds over John Macara, with Championship leaders Derek Reddie and Lee Tierney a further ten seconds back. Stage 2 saw Hynes and Percival up their pace to take the 23km Roo Dog stage by just over a minute to Reddie in his VR4.
Stages three and four were again won by Hynes and Percival which gave them a lead of 2 minutes and 4 seconds over Macara with Reddie only six seconds further behind.
Dust was starting to become an issue for most crews.
"The dust was quite bad in there - we’re not looking forward to the night stages,” Hynes said at service. "It’s also very slippery with plenty of ball bearing gravel laying on top of the road. On stage one I thought we had a flat tyre but it was just incredibly slippery. I softened up the low speed settings on the DMS shocks before stage two and that made a huge difference, which you can see by our times,” he added.
Stages 5 and 6 were a repeat of earlier stages with Hynes extending his lead to 3 minutes and 36 seconds but a low lying sun and thick dust started to cause major problems for some crews. Stuart Percival explains their fright on stage 5 - "We stopped a couple of times waiting for the dust to clear and at one stage it was so thick we lost the road and went up a fire break for about 50 metres."
At the final service the clerk of course, Phil Growcott, made a very wise decision to cancel the remaining two stages due to the dust.
Hynes and Percival were therefore winners of every stage to take their first Lewana Stages rally together.
Leight Hynes and Stuart Percival are proudly sponsored by Busselton Subaru Service, RMS Service Centre and DMS Shock Absorbers.
"Winning the Canadian Rally Championship at our home event , in front of our home crowd, with a come from behind result has been a fantastic way to cap off an outstanding season for both Subaru Canada as well as the entire team, who have worked hard all year long for this result. We have been competitive on every event we have entered this year, and the fact that we’ve won the championship with one race to go, shows how dominant the new Subaru 2008 platform has been", said Richard.
Held in the rugged and demanding Mundaring Forest the Safari kept its reputation as one of the most exciting events on the WA rally calender.
A high attrition rate saw the leading group change several times with most crews either spending some time off the road or changing flat tyres.
With Hynes and Percival only needing a top six result to take the title they set a very conservative pace to finish in fourth outright, despite losing over ten minutes in the last two stages with a broken wheel and then running in thick dust behind a slower car.
"What a way to end the season" Hynes said "That was one of the most exhausting and stressful rallies I’ve done. We were sitting very comfortable in second with only two stages to go and then before you know it we were struggling to stay in the top six. A harsh reminder of how unpredicatble our sport can be. But we did it; Stuart and the guys on the crew have done a top job all year and without a great team like that behind me it wouldn’t have happened without a doubt. I’m very pleased to winand also very grateful to everyone that played a part in our success".
I would like to say a special thank you to Jamie from DMS Shock Absorbers and Frank from Modena Engineering.
 Leigh Hynes and Stuart Percival have won round three of the WA Rally Championship in their DMS Shock Absorber supported Subaru Impreza. The Experts Cup Rally was based at the South West town of Collie and used the magnificent roads around Wellington Dam. Hynes leapt out of the blocks in the opening 16 kilometre stage to take a commanding 25 second lead over Alex Stone and Toby Heyring in the Nauti Craft Impreza a further four seconds back. This stage used one of the fastest roads in the championship with a four kilometre stretch spent mostly over 180kph and then into perhaps the most technical twisty road in the championship which has claimed many cars in the past. Stage 2 was another very fast one of the 10 kilometres which again saw Hynes and Percival quickest with a time 15 seconds ahead of Stone with Dennis Dunlop another four seconds back. Going into the first service, Hynes held a massive 40 second lead over Stone in second place. At service Hynes put his improved pace down to the new 5way DMS Shock Absorbers and a new setup with the Modena Differentials. "These new shocks just make the car so easy to drive, my concentration and commitment to the notes has increased because of the new setup and the times are there to prove it".
 Brenton Kaitler competing in the Kluger Rally SA with the NEW DMS 3-way adjustable suspension
 The new car was very stable from the first run, however we did struggle with a problem with the rear of the car initially! This was a snap oversteer problem. After looking at the wheel alignment settings and working with our engineers and talking with DMS Head Office, the problem was fixed with re-aligning the rear of the car. After this change and some work with the diff program the car was working extremely well. The conditions were very wet, and during the rally we were able to fine tune the setup with small changes that improved the car even more. EXample: On the very high speed bumps and jumps the car was bottoming out, so we adjusted the high speed bump up 1 position and this fixed that nicely and the car had excellent grip in every part of cornering, turn in, mid corner and exit were all very impressive. This was a great test for the adjustability of the DMS 5 way suspension because it didn't effect the work we had done getting the low speed exactly right for the extremely wet conditions, where good traction and feeling was essential. The high speed stability was also very good.
 Jeff Beaumont and Peter Gazzard, in the TECH///Sport-built Lancer Evo 1X tarmac rally car, scored a fine outright victory in the 2008 DUTTONS RALLY. The 3 day event was held in wet conditions. Held at various circuits and venues throughout Victoria. "DMS performed magnificiently throughout the event".
 Jeff Beaumont and Jenny Cole in the Tech///Sport Lancer Evo 1X . This was a challenging 10 kilometre climb to the summit at Lake Mountain.
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