Skip to Navigation
Home ›

James Rodda

Submitted by rally_power on Tue, 13/04/2010 - 01:16
in
James Rodda - One Big Hill Jump 09

History:
James is 20 years old and lives in Prospect Hill, South Australia. Coming from a non-motorsport or car oriented family, motorsport interest was not a natural thing. He became interested in motorsport, mainly rallying, by spectating at the local Kuitpo Forest rally as at age 10, after convincing parents to take him down to see what all the noise was in the forest.

His motorsport path took off when at this Kuitpo rally he found out about Southern Districts Car Club and the CAMS Junior Development Program which was in planning stages. From there James bought the 1994 1.3L Daihatsu Charade to start competing in grass roots motorsport such as motorkhana's and khanacrosses, aswell as participating in the CAMS Junior Development program. James showed great driving potential, and was the outright winner in his third ever motorkhana.

As it was clear motorsport was not gong to be a passing phase, the charade was converted into a rally car as part of a Personal Project assignment in year 9 at Woodcroft College. This lead to outstanding competition results with numerous class wins and ever increasing outright position.

Once James was able to gain a Learners permit road licence he was able to receive a special dispensation through the Australian Rally Commission to compete at the 2006 ASP Kuitpo Rally on his L's. Competing in his first rally he was able to achieve 11th outright and 1st in P1.

In 2007, James, paired with co-driver, Naomi Tillett and won the P1 class in his first season of rallying.

2008, saw a step up to the 1999 Maximum Motorsport built Subaru Wrx STi. 2008 was a big learning curve for the team, getting used to car and gaining further experience by setting top 12 Australian Rally Championship times at Rally of Canberra. James was also selected for the CAMS Junior Driver Development Program at the Australian Institute of Sport.

In 2009, co-driver, Marcus Piristi joined the Rally Power team. James and Marcus combined, proved to be a very successful crew, and by the end the year they had received a great number of titles. These included, 2nd Outright SARC, 1st class N4 SARC, 1st Outright Clubman Series, 1st Outright SA Autocross Championship, Equal 1st Rallysprint Champion, Most improved driver, 2009 CAMS SA/NT Future Star, selected for the 2010 CAMS Rally Driver Development program at the Australian Institute of Sport.