Gilmour Ready To Move Up The Field At South Canterbury Rally

It hasn’t been too long between rallies and Emma Gilmour is eager to get back behind the wheel of her Vantage Windows & Doors Citroen C3 rally car at Saturday’s South Canterbury Hydraulics Rally South Canterbury.

The one-day Timaru-based event is the Brian Green New Zealand Rally Championship’s second round and not too far from home for the Dunedin driver, who is fresh from a successful testing day last weekend with the Paddon Rallysport team.

“The Otago Rally was only a month ago, but seat time is something all of us drivers crave, so it was great to be back in the C3 on Sunday for our short test near Alexandra. I’m keen to keep up the momentum from the season-opener and build on that with [Australian co-driver] Ben [Searcy] to push our fifth place finish at Otago up onto the podium in Timaru,” Emma says.

“I felt like I really got to grips with the C3 again at my home event in April and I'm keen to see what Ben and I can do on the South Canterbury roads. There are a few new stages which always adds to the enjoyment factor.”

The rally will be run over eight special stages, totalling around 148km of competitive action and approximately 224km of touring. Rally fans can catch the teams at the ceremonial start on Friday evening from 5.30pm in the Mitre 10 Timaru carpark.

The first car starts from Timaru’s Levels Raceway at 7.30am on Saturday and the service parks will be based in Cave and Temuka. The rally’s completion back at Levels Raceway at around 3:30pm will be a great place to see Emma and the other drivers in action. The race circuit will double as the final stage of the event and the cars will complete four laps of the full track, including the esses, on rally tyres. Gates open at 3pm and entry is $10 cash-only. Children 16 years and under are free, if accompanied by an adult.

Following the Rally of South Canterbury, the competition moves further up the South Island to the Canterbury Rally in Christchurch on June 1. Then after a mid-season break, teams will head to the North Island with another returning event, Rally Coromandel, to be held on August 23 from the seaside town of Whitianga. The series then moves to the Tauranga-based Rally Bay of Plenty on October 11, before the second two-day round of the season, the International Rally of Whangarei, to round out the championship on November 7-9.

Emma Gilmour thanks the following sponsors for their support: Vantage Windows & Doors, Gilmour Motors Suzuki, Dura-Seal, Dayle ITM, MITO, Suzuki New Zealand, Castrol NZ, Sparco, Allport Motorsports, Custom Signs, NGK, Webdesign, Pure Sports Nutrition and Body Synergy Gym.

2024 Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship calendar

Round 1 5 - 6 April Otago Rally
Round 2 10 May Rally South Canterbury
Round 3 1 June Canterbury Rally
Round 4 23 August Rally Coromandel
Round 5 11 October Rally Bay of Plenty 
Round 6 7 - 9 November International Rally of Whangarei

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