Argyle wraps up open class championship at Wairarapa.

Manawatu driver Geof Argyle has become the inaugural New Zealand Rally Championship open four-wheel drive class champion, wrapping it up with a round to spare on the weekend’s Rally Wairarapa with a convincing second place overall.

Argyle came to the Wairarapa event needing only to finish inside the top three open class cars to take his sixth national championship, the 1998 and 1999 Gold Star champion did so in convincing manner, getting involved in a three way battle with Glenn Inkster and Emma Gilmour for third overall that was separated by less than eleven seconds after special stage four.

After Lee Stringer dropped out on stage four and Inkster on stage five, Argyle only required to finish the leg to wrap up the national championship. Not only did he manage that but took maximum points for the leg in open class and fourth overall, only 13 seconds behind Emma Gilmour, in the older Hunting and Fishing Evo 7.

With his national championship wrapped up, the next mission was to give co-driver Tarryn Cox a national championship to round out a perfect weekend, which required a second leg victory in open class.

After the opening three stages Argyle was holding down second place overall, helped by trouble for Emma Gilmour and Richard Mason rolling out of his home event, although a mere 1.1 seconds ahead of Glenn Inkster, the only driver with a realistic chance of spoiling the teams goal.

However a wrong tyre choice and a charge from Inkster meant things moved away from Argyle and Cox over the afternoons five stages, although third for the day meant second outright for the weekend and open class victory, quite remarkable considering the team only used six tyres over the course of the weekend.

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