Campbell ticks all boxes at Daybreaker

Campbell ticks all boxes at Daybreaker

Phil Campbell has ticked all the boxes at the Daybreaker Rally on Saturday, taking maximum points in both the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship and Total Rally Xtreme challenge.

After taking the early lead, it was not all plain sailing for Campbell and co-driver Venita Fabbro, with a stray rock on stage four threatening to cripple the Letts Construction Ford Fiesta R2.

Ironically that rock would both help and hinder their result, with major rival Josh Marston’s identical Fiesta suffering two punctures while dragging the rock onto the road before Campbell hit it a minute later, damaging the rear suspension and the fuel pump leaving the Fiesta down on power.

With that handicap, Tauranga’s Campbell began to lose time to Marston in the battle for NZRC honours, seeing half of his lead disappear before his team were able to remedy in service, ironically with a new fuel pump borrowed from Marston.

With a car restored to near full health, Campbell attacked the final two stages to maintain his lead and equally importantly, claim maximum bonus points for winning the power stage. With that added to points for the round win, Campbell moves into the lead of the two-wheel drive class of the NZRC, seven points clear of Marston.

The strong performance also saw Campbell extend his lead in the Rally Xtreme XT3 class with a dominant victory of more than two minutes.

“It was another great battle with Josh today, but I’m really happy because we always had the upper hand,” said Campbell. “I must thank him for the fuel pump, there is no way we could have held on without it.”

The Campbell Rally Sport team now head to the Tauranga Clubmans Rally on July 20.

ENDS

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