Rally veteran to take on Rally of the North

Rally veteran to take on Rally of the North

New Zealand’s most experienced rally driver, Brian Green, will be amongst the entries that will take on Tanoa Paihia Hotel Rally of the North on August 17.

Palmerston North’s Green has been a stalwart of rallying in New Zealand since the 1970’s and still competes at the top level of the sport both nationally and internationally at 66 years of age.

Without having kept count, Green estimates that he has contested between 600 and 700 rallies over the course of his career, which has seen him national rally championships both in New Zealand and throughout Asia.

Green was recently awarded the Motorsport New Zealand Rally Founders Trophy, which recognises the rally driver who performs with distinction either nationally, internationally or both, has a sportsman like attitude towards the sport and others and displays the qualities of a true sporting ambassador.

After more than 10 years of absence on the roads around Paihia, Green has taken the chance to slot the highly regarded event into his busy schedule which sees he and co-driver Fleur Pedersen competing in Canterbury the weekend prior and Malaysia the following week.

“We have to fly out from Auckland for Malaysia on the Sunday, so I thought that we may as well come up on Friday and shoot up to Paihia to do the rally,” says Green.

Green is realistic about his potential for results for the highly competitive event.

“Obviously I’d like to finish as high up the leader board as possible but I have to be realistic, I’m getting older and a certain amount of self-preservation also comes into it.”

The Tanoa Paihia Hotel Rally of the North returns to some of the best gravel roads in the country on August 17, running two months earlier than its traditional October date. As well as Tanoa Paihia Hotel, the event receives support from stage sponsors, including LJ Hooker Manurewa, MRT Construction, Suspension Direct and RCK Contractors also supporting the event.

ENDS

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