Rally championship highlights talent depth

Vantage Aluminium Joinery 2009 New Zealand Rally Championship, on behalf of The Motorsport Company

Round one: Tomoana Warehousing Rally Hawkes Bay (4-5 April).
 

Rally championship highlights talent depth

The weekend’s opening round of the Vantage Aluminium Joinery New Zealand Rally Championship has seen a number of teams shine in the light of competition following the two-day Tomoana Warehousing Rally Hawke’s Bay (4-5 April).

Won outright by former champions Richard and Sara Mason in the BNT Subaru Impreza, they won ten of the 13 stages in the 301 kilometre event.  However a two-hour television package will highlight the trials and tribulations of many in the 31-strong field entered for the first of five rounds travelling New Zealand.

With only 20 teams classified as finishers in the weekend rally, the all-gravel series has long been the envy of off-shore competitors who revere in New Zealand’s classic style of fast flowing road for testing the mettle of man and machine.

Heated competition amongst the Mason/Paddon/Gilmour front-runners was over-shadowed by the necessity of finishing to maximise point’s collection for the six-month season.

Including New Zealand’s first ever bio-diesel competition vehicle, Rangiora 16-year-old Matt Summerfield and co-driver Dave Neill debuted the Skoda Fabia vRS to finish second in the new premier group two field for two-wheel drive cars.

Finishing seventh outright and first championship two-wheel-drive, Patrick Malley and co-driver Malcolm Read (Ford Fiesta) were displaying form beyond the pace of teams in their first event of the season.  Fresh from contesting a round of the British Rally Championship the weekend prior, Malley said despite only completing nine miles before their car caught fire in the UK, their New Zealand pace proved they could foot it anywhere:  “We obviously didn’t do well in our last round (of the BRC), so this gives us the opportunity to show everyone in the UK we have the pace that I can go compete against them.”

Malley (25, Auckland) and Paddon (21, Geraldine) have earned the most points in the first event counting towards Rally New Zealand’s Rising Stars Development and International Awards respectively.
The two new Rising Stars driver development programmes provide the eventual winners with expert support and funding worth $50,000 towards the drivers’ 2010 rally campaigns.

Nelson’s Ben Hunt won the inaugural Rally New Zealand Rising Stars Scholarship held in March, and Rally Hawke’s Bay was his first event driving the Ford Fiesta provided as part of his scholarship prize. The 20-year-old was competing in just his third event however a broken engine mount ended the first day of competition early.  But Hunt was back into the action on day two to set several top-15 stage times and finish the event as the second-placed Ford Fiesta competitor.

An interesting twist came out of the classic field, with former champion Euan Fuge (Feilding) and co-driver Donna Elder the only team to complete the event.
Finishing second in the points after stopping with differential failure in the opening day, Rob Wylie and co-driver Paul Turner (Nissan 240RS) headed off Stratford’s Mike and Helen Cameron (Mitsubishi Lancer) for third in the classic category.

Cameron’s last visit to the podium was in 1977 and while the couple had issues with contaminated farm fuel shortening their event he was happy to receive reward for perseverance.

Kiwi-2 campaigner in the orange and iridescent blue Nissan Micra, ever-green Reg Cook and co-driver Mark Ballentyne maintain their championship chasing dream – following leader and title defender Aaron Cook (no relation).

Stunning on debut, rookie Matt Jansen and co-driver Jason Farmer in the Christchurch Casino Subaru Impreza finished fifth overall in the rally – placing fourth in the Goldstar outright championship – a result that surprised the 21-year-old.

Show-casing the weekend’s action, TV One show Powerbuilt Tools Motorsport will feature an hour of Saturday’s highlights on Sunday 3rd May (between 3 – 6pm) and the Sunday footage the following weekend on 10th May.

Freeview Sport Extra will also show coverage on Sunday 10th May.

Ends.

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