Cunningham takes plenty of positives from Canterbury

West Auckland’s Clint Cunningham is focusing on the positives after cruely being stripped of his first podium finish in the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship at the Joe’s Garage/Lonestar Rally Canterbury.

Cunningham came to the event off the back of a strong run at Rally Whangarei and teamed up with new co-driver Thomas Thexton for the Christchurch based rally. The pair started well with a sixth fastest stage time, while another strong time in stage two saw the pairing move the RCK Contractors Mitsubishi Evo Proto Car into fourth place.

In an intense battle with Carl Davies, Cunningham dropped to fifth in stage three before jumping up to an exciting third place after stage four.

Stage five would unfortunately cause confusion and controversy. After Cunningham came across a car stuck in a water crossing blocking the route, he stopped to warn fellow competitors of the upcoming hazard, having barely been able to pull his car up. Unfortunately a technicality in the procedures around the hold up saw Cunningham retrospectively not given an assessed time, costing him 13 minutes and with it, any chance of a podium finish.

Despite recording a string of times knocking on the door of the top five across the afternoon, 13th was the best result he could secure.

“Obviously I’m gutted. We didn’t find out until after the rally had finished, and thought we were on the podium. It’s disappointing, but at the end of the day our speed over the event was really, really good, so there are plenty of positives and that’s what we’ll take away from the event,” said Cunningham.

The team at Possum Bourne Motorsport now turn their focus to Rally Gisborne, where Cunningham will look to repeat the speed shown at Canterbury and improve his top ten championship placing.

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