Rally Xtreme Heads North for a Dramatic Finish

Rally Xtreme Heads North for a Dramatic Finish

The inaugural season of the Total Lubricants Rally Xtreme Challenge is heading for a dramatic showdown on Saturday 13 October as the competitors head to the picturesque Bay of Islands for the final round, at the Rally of the North.

Based in Paihia, the crews will have 186km of gravel roads over 8 special stages to prove who will be the 2012 champion. Making for a tough test to finish off what has been a fantastic season of competition.

Although this event sees the return of Stewart Taylor as top seed for the rally, the ones to keep an eye on will be Geof Argyle and Graham Featherstone as they sit equal on points, leading the challenge overall.

Featherstone has been very consistent over the season, finishing every event within the top 10, and after taking a career best 3rd overall at this event last year ,he will be looking for another top result. However Argyle is a former national champion and he has the outright speed to finish in front on the day, if he doesn’t strike any of the problems that have hampered his earlier outings.

Mind you, with 52 points for a rally win and the next group of three drivers between 18 and 30 points away, it would only take a small error for the whole table to be turned upside down.

The 2WD Escort mounted Craig Stevens is in third and he is expected to retain his consistency, while the two 4WD pilots of Quentin Palmer and Neil Marshall behind him have shown some real bursts of speed in the past, and they will be expecting top results.

This means that there is everything still to play for in the top 5.

However........ There are a few drivers looking to gatecrash this party and a number have the ability to snaffle valuable points away. This includes Stewart Taylor, who has already won two of the rallies so far this season. Dylan Turner won this rally last year and was second overall at the last event. Shannon Chambers has steadily got faster through the year and is now showing a real turn of speed, if he can put his problems from earlier in the year behind him.

This means any attempt to make predictions for the Rally of the North and the Challenge overall is fraught with danger.

In the classes the most tightly contested will be XT1, for pre2000 4WD cars. Quentin Palmer leads Clinton Cunningham by 10 points, with Matthew Jensen only 21 points off Palmer. Jansen showed he had the speed in the last event, when he led the Maramarua forest rally for a time. But both Palmer and Cunningham have the more consistent results.

Again it will be a matter driving fast enough to compete and conservative enough to survive.

With the scene set for a spectacular event, and everything to play for, the Rally of the North will be a fitting end to the rally season. Make sure you get out to support all of the drivers, and keep up to date with the results on-line as this drama unfolds.

For more information visit www.rallyofthenorth.co.nz

For full up to the minute results see www.chrissport.co.nz

Graham Featherstone on a charge
Photo Credit: Jody Seabright
Calendar: Total Lubricants RALLY XTREME Challenge
Shakedown - 24 - 25 March - Whariti Hillclimb, Woodville
Round 1 - 28 April - Trusthouse Racetech Rally Wairarapa
Round 2 - 9 June - Tomoana Warehousing Hawkes Bay Rally
Round 3 - 14 July - Daybreaker Rally, Manawatu
Round 4 - 15 September - Maramarua Forest
Round 5 - 13 October - Paihia Rally, Rally of the North

Featherstone Daybreaker

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ENDS

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