Crocker and Guest to resume battle

The 2014 Australian Side by Side Rally Challenge will again pit adversaries Cody Crocker (Polaris) and Michael Guest (Can-Am) against each other for the third year in a row, with all the action to begin in Western Australia from April 4-6.

In the debut season for the side by side challenge, Crocker's Polaris was the vehicle to beat, while last year an updated machine from Can-Am gave Guest the edge. Now with Polaris releasing its new challenger in time for the opening round of the 2014 season, Crocker believes the playing field is more level than ever.

"Last year we ran our older 900cc machine and it was a bit down on power to that of the Can-Am," explained Cody. "This year though we're both in 1000cc machines and that's going to make it really interesting!

"The new Polaris is a bit bigger, it's a bit wider, it's up on power and to me it's a real machine now. Last year Guesty had us at the last couple of events, he definitely had us for outright speed. This year though it's going to be of a level playing field, it's looking to be more even between us."

Guest is expecting a bruising fight again this year, and he's looking forward to getting back out onto the stages in WA to let the battle begin.

"It's going to be very interesting to see what this new car of Cody's is going to be like. I know our machine was a fair bit faster last year, so it'll bring the Polaris and the Can-Am more in line," said Guest.

"The power might be the same but they are very different machines still. Their car seems to work better in the rough stuff, ours seems to work better in the fast stuff, it's always really amazing how close our times are at the end of every stage.”

Crocker has had a brief chance to test the new car ahead of the opening round, and said: "It's really good to drive, I've been able to set it up a lot like a rally car, although it looks anything but a rally car from the outside.

"They are amazing vehicles; I can do things in the Polaris that I would never have been able to do in a rally car, some of the lines I can take only Possum (Bourne) in the old world rally car would have been game enough to take."