The last time Cody Crocker and Dean Herridge raced, at the Subaru Rally of Canberra back on ANZAC weekend, they both finished on the podium, and the two Subaru Rally Team Australia drivers are looking for the same result this weekend at Falken Tyres Rally Queensland.

Crocker has been in the best form of his life this year, victory in the Asia Pacific Championship round in Canberra coming on top of a win at the Forest Rally, the opening round of the 2003 Australian Rally Championship.

He also finished second in Group N at Rally New Zealand, a round of the World Rally Championship.

While the Canberra round didn't count towards the Driver's Championship, Rally Queensland does and Crocker is determined to stretch his lead at the front of the points table. He currently sits on top with 41 points, ahead of Simon Evans (Subaru) on 28 points with Spencer Lowndes (Mitsubishi) third with 26 points.

Of course, much has changed at Subaru Rally Team Australia since the Canberra rally with the untimely death of rally legend Possum Bourne.

While he knows some attention will turn to him because of Bourne's absence, Crocker is in no doubt about what his job is this weekend.

"Possum always said the team had to "do the business", and that is exactly what we will be doing over the weekend," Crocker said.

"The business for the team this Saturday and Sunday is to walk away from here with maximum points in both the Driver's and the Manufacturers' Championship.

"Greg (co-driver Greg Foletta) and I will be focusing on the job at hand at the start of every stage. The car (Subaru Impreza WRX STi) is going really well, we've had some good testing and I can't wait to get out there.

"While we've had Rally New Zealand and Canberra in April and May, the opening round of the championship in Western Australia was 11 weeks ago. This is just the second round of six in the Super Series so it is really like starting all over again. We might be leading now but there is a long way to go with every round counting this year.

"Queensland is always a tough event. The roads are challenging at the best of times and if we get rain then things can get nasty very quickly.

"Plus we know everyone is out to beat us. Dean (Herridge) and Simon (Evans) are going to be quick in their Subarus and Ed (Ordynski), Spencer (Lowndes) and Scott (Pedder) are going to be fired up to prove a point in their Mitsubishis. Then you have to add the Bates brothers in their Toyotas into the equation."
Dean Herridge also enjoyed the best results of his career in Western Australia and Canberra. He finished third in Heat One at the Forest Rally, his first podium in an ARC event, and backed it up with another third in Canberra, his first top three placing in an international event.

The results have seen the confidence of Herridge and his co-driver, Glenn Macneall, soar.

"Things have been going really well this year but we know we've got to maintain this new level for the rest of the season," Herridge said.

"We want to be on the podium now in every event. It's a big task but it is the clear goal we have set ourselves.

"If you can be in the top three every day then some great results are going to fall your way in the course of the season. But consistency is the key. We've had some excellent stages already this year and we just have to string them all together.

"The car is going super well, the team is working well together, so we are going into the weekend with a great sense of anticipation."

Rally Queensland gets underway on Friday night (June 13) with a ceremonial start in Caloundra before the real action starting near Imbil on Saturday morning.

Heat One on Saturday starts at 9.22am and consists of 10 super special stages across 135 competitive kilometres, finishing with the famous Hella Hillclimb near Noosa on Saturday evening.

Heat Two on Sunday takes in a further six special stages and 110.66 competitive kilometres.

The fastest results service can be found at www.rally.subaru.com.au along with the exclusive stage split times which allows you to follow cars through a stage and compare their times to others every five kilometres.

The Subaru rally website also boasts fantastic photographic action and, for the first time, audio grabs from the drivers and support crew at each service park.