Westy Finishes Tough Event on a High

24 June 2012

Westy Finishes Tough Event on a High

Rally New Zealand has proved to be a very tough outing for Timaru driver Chris West.

The event, while part of the World Rally Championship, was also Round 4 of the 2012 NZ Rally Championship and West and co-driver Chris Cobham of Palmerston North were in search of much needed championship points. The rally finished on a high for the pair but the early stages were extremely difficult with West and Cobham failing to finish on either of the first two days.

The third and final day of the rally was much better as West placed third of the NZRC contenders on Leg 3 on Sunday. He and Cobham finished the rally in style winning the final stage, the Power Stage with extra championship points on offer. Westy and the Andrew Simms Mitsubishi EVO 9 were .72 of a second quicker than defending National Champion Richard Mason on the stage.

However, the first two days of the rally proved challenging for the duo. They failed to finish on the opening day after retiring just after the halfway mark, shortly after setting the fastest time on Special Stage 4 of the event. Westy was in third place at the time. The following day he was again in third place when, on the final stage of the afternoon, his day ended.

"At the end of the day we had our fair share of trouble," said a disappointed Westy at the end of the rally on Sunday evening. "It was nice to get a result on the final day. The Power Stage is a great incentive and realistically it was our only real recovery from the weekend. We pipped Richard (Mason) by .7 of a second. We like to finish an event with a reasonable stage time."

Looking back at the first two days Westy said, "we had issues on both days. It's unfortunate and disappointing. We need to refine things and look at what we can do to prevent these issues arising." With one round remaining Westy says, "We need to look at the championship situation and see what we can do there."

The final round of the championship, Rally Gisborne, will take place over the weekend of 25-26 August.

Support for Chris West and the Andrew Simms Mitsubishi Rally Team in the Brian Green Property Group 2012 NZ Rally Championship powered by Brother comes from Andrew Simms Mitsubishi, Castrol, Pirelli, Ralliart and the New Zealand Herald.

CALENDAR - BRIAN GREEN PROPERTY GROUP 2012 NEW ZEALAND RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP
Round 1 - 30 March-1 April 2012: Rally Of Whangarei (Asia-Pacific Rally Championship)
Round 2 - 27-29 April 2012: Rally Wairarapa
Round 3 - 25-27 May 2012: Rally Of Otago
Round 4 - 21-24 June 2012: Rally New Zealand
Round 5 - 25-26 August 2012: Rally Gisborne

ENDS

© Scoop Media