As a professional skydiver, the only way is generally down for Richo Healey.
But in a rally car, the only step is up.
For 2025, the Australian is moving from the Limited 2WD class he won last year to Open 2WD in a bid to further improve himself.
“We were very rarely the fastest car on the road last year,” Healey confessed to DirtFish.
“We progressively got faster all year, which was awesome – obviously that’s the trend you want to see. But I think Ojibwe was the only round that we unambiguously won by driving faster than everyone else.
“I think ultimately, our season result was excellent primarily due to consistency and strategy, which is still great. Love that for me, don’t get me wrong. But it is not as satisfying as just straight up being faster than everyone else.
“That really was a source of conflict for me about moving up. It was really tempting to stay in Limited 2WD for a while and try to win a season by being dominant, but we also want to challenge ourselves.”
Healey and co-driver Michelle Miller will continue to drive their Lexus IS, even if they’ve had to pull out of 100 Acre Wood Rally in the run-up to the second round of the season.
“I actually read the interview you did with [Matthew] Nykanen, and it was funny because I was just nodding along the whole time, like right down to using the word big dogs a lot. Because I feel exactly the same way, right?” Healey laughed.
“There are some drivers in Limited 2WD who are extremely talented and have been at this for a very long time. I feel like we stumbled into probably the best competition that existed last year.
“But you look at the Open 2WD field and there’s plenty of people who’ve been doing this for 20 years, plenty of people who have been in that car for quite a long time, and realistically are probably approaching the limit of what’s possible with what they’ve got. And I think there’s a lot more people who will just show up and cause a ruckus for one round.
“I cannot wait to get back in the car but looking at the entry list [from 100 Acre Wood] like… woof, it is gonna be very fierce at the pointy end! Just immersing ourselves in this new field is going to be mega.”
But just because Healey proved himself to be a winner in his first full season of rallying, he says we shouldn’t expect the same again this time around.
“I think it’s also a case of tempering expectations,” he explained. “Last year, we went to 100 Acre, it was the first time driving the car and we sort of stumbled onto the podium. Like, we really didn’t wind up there through raw innate talent. Unfortunately, two competitors just had sort of bad days, and that left us sort of bubbled up there.
“It’s very clear that that is not going to happen this time around, right? Like, the field is just so deep, and I think it will stay that way all year, so the only way to the top is going to be by being excellent – which is awesome, but daunting. I am so excited for that challenge.”
Spectators should be excited too, as hearing Richo coming is now going to be a lot easier thanks to the new regulations his car is built to.
Healey's Lexus is going to be sounding very different this year, thanks to its move to O2WD
“We’re going to the 350 drivetrain, so we will hopefully make the same obnoxious noises as [Michael] Hooper,” Healey smiled. “Which was not the reason to go to Open, but it sure was a compelling aspect of it!
“It will be nice to no longer have people be like, ‘Is there something wrong with your car? Because we saw the other white Lexus, and it sounded great, and then you came past, and we weren’t sure what was happening’. So that will be fun.
“We’re going to a sequential gearbox too, which I’m very, very excited about. A little bit antsy, just because it is now a very expensive thing that I need to not break, but everyone I talk to about it just sort of starts grinning. It feels like it’s just one of those things that is pretty neat, so I’m super excited about that.
“With that said, I think as far as making the car more competitive, probably the weight that we’re allowed to take out of it now is gonna be the big thing. The Open 2WD rules are very, very permissive – the rule book basically boils down to the car must be two-wheel-drive!
“So the fine folks at River City Rally have cut quite a substantial amount of car out. I don’t think we have a number for the amount of weight that’s come out, but I’m guessing sort of in the order of like 100kg or so, maybe even 200. And so it’s an amount of weight that will definitely make a difference in the way the car handles.
“But I think the biggest thing for me is that this is not a big unknown. Hooper is wildly successful when he’s having a good weekend. And so hopping in sort of the same car as Hooper, it is at this point kind of a proven formula. So there’s not too much ‘will it, won’t it?’ It’s really just a case of trying to catch up to him.”
Healey laughs that co-driver Miller is often like his babysitter!
Healey is also delighted to be sharing the car with DirtFish instructor Miller again this year. She’s been a key part of his story, having taught him at DirtFish Rally School and then stuck with him when he made his step into competition.
“I’m so excited to be hopping back in with Michelle,” Healey said. “There really isn’t anyone else I would like to hop in the car with.
“We have built a really strong partnership. I feel like as a team, we operate really, really well together. If something happened and I had to roll with someone else for the year, I would come out of the gates at a massive disadvantage. I think rebuilding what we have would be extremely difficult and time-consuming. So yeah, super excited that we’re getting back in the car this year.
“Especially as we’ve grown together, she does a really good job of sort of pinning down what I need in the moment, even if it’s incredibly stupid. I always give the example that sometimes she basically is babysitting an eight-year-old, because we’ll get to the finish control, and she’s like, ‘do you want a snack?’ And I’m like, ‘no… yes’. It really is like interacting with a child sometimes!”
Though Healey and Miller have had to pull out of 100 Acre Wood, team-mate and DirtFish alumni Ryan McGrath will start his first ever rally in a Lexus IS 250. His co-driver, Crystina Coats, is also a School graduate as well as a previous participant of the OzRally Pro program.
