Winning the only goal for van Klink

Winning the only goal for van Klink

Kaiapoi rally driver Marcus van Klink has only one goal for the 2012 New Zealand Rally Championship which gets underway at this weekend’s Rally Whangarei, to dominate the classic class.

Last year, van Klink debuted in the classic class, having previously run in open class two-wheel drive and open class four-wheel drive classes in the national championship. At the opening round, Rally Otago, van Klink had a successful run in the brand-new Group B replica Mazda RX-7, however a broken wheel rim was the only thing between him and victory, taking out third place.

After a dominant class win and a staggering fifth in the overall NZRC classification, van Klink struck mechanical problems at the next two rounds and despite his class lead usually being measured in minutes rather than seconds and another win at the final round in the Hawkes Bay, van Klink and co-driver Dave Neill could only wrap up third in the classic championship.

With all the development issues of the Mico Plumbing supplies Mazda now behind him and his experienced team, van Klink, who will again have Neill calling the notes, has set his sights high, aiming to win each of the five rounds of this seasons championship.

“Basically we want to go out and win every leg and see how far up the field we can get,” says van Klink. “We have already had a good hit out at Westland and we were being a bit conservative with Whangarei coming up,”

Van Klink has already started the season in fine form with fourth outright and top two-wheel drive in the recent Westland rally that included a string of top-three stage times.

Rally Whangarei gets underway with a ceremonial start on Friday March 30, with the action getting underway the following day. Eight special stages will make up day one with a total of 160km of special stages south of Whangarei. Day two sees a further 123km of special stages before the ceremonial finish, including the final stage of the rally which will be a power stage for NZRC competitors with bonus points on offer.

Press Release by BB Media

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