UPDATE: Wedderburn siblings Brendan Reeves and Rhianon Gelsomino were in the thick of the action as round two of the Australian Rally Championship began on Friday.
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After qualifying fastest, the series leaders finished second in the Power Stage of the Quit Forest Rally near Busselton in Western Australia.
Reeves tweeted that he broke his hand-brake in the warm-up but drove as smoothly as he could in the the 5km shootout among the top six drivers.
He finished just 1.2 seconds behind the winners, Scott Pedder and Dale Moscatt in their Renault Clio.
The tarmac street stage included three hairpin corners and a corner where drivers had to negotiate a barrel, so having no hand-brake made it tough going. But Reeves was happy with his performance.
Repairs were being made ahead of Friday night's start of the rally proper.
Crews will complete two runs of the Super Special Stage near the Busselton foreshore in the evening before the gravel rally stages start on Saturday morning.
With many of the stages being used more than once throughout the weekend, Reeves expected tyre preservation and avoiding punctures to be a major concern as the surface chops up.
After a near-perfect performance at the ARC series opener in Canberra in February, Reeves said his RallySchool.com.au team had made only a few small set-up changes to the rear end of the Mazda2 ahead of the weekend.
"We made some really positive steps with the set up in testing and are constantly finding more grip," he said.
Heat two of the rally kicks off on Saturday evening with another two runs of the Super Special Stage.
A further eight stages will be held on Sunday before the winners are crowned.