NEW ZEALAND’S ONLY DEDICATED RALLY MAGAZINE
Issue 22, June 2022
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NZRC
Round 1 - Rally Otago Round 2 - Rally Whangarei
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NZRC - Round 1 - Rally Otago
Hayden Paddon / John Kennard
ARTICLE BY BLAIR BARTELS While the view from the top had a very familiar look to it, what followed confirmed what many had predicted. The 2022 Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship is as competitive as it has ever been and by the time the season wraps up in Auckland in sixth months time, any number of drivers could be taking home silverware. The series, already offering so much, received a further boost with confirmation that the final two rounds would be held in conjunction with New Zealand’s return to the World Rally Championship in September, then further credibility with Skoda, Ford and Toyota all joining Hyundai with distributor backed programs for Ben Hunt (Fabia Rally2 Evo), Robbie Stokes (Fiesta AP4), Jack Hawkeswood (Yaris AP4) and Hayden Paddon (i20 AP4) respectively. Leading the field away from Dunedin’s Octagon on Friday night were defending champions Paddon and John Kennard. What lay ahead was 16 special stages, the opening eight based North of Dunedin around the Middlemarch service park, with the second day’s stages settled around the more traditional Waihola area. Paddon would lead away a 4WD field that incorporated 10 different manufacturers of car, with at least one more confirmed to be joining the ranks mid-season. That field was led by Stokes and sister Amy, Hunt and Tony Rawstorn, the similar Skoda R5 car of Raana Horan and Michael Connor, Emma Gilmour and Mal Peden (Suzuki Swift AP4), Matt & Nicole Summerfield (Mitsubishi Mirage AP4), Hawkeswood and Sarah Brennan and the championship debut of the Ford Fiesta R5 Mk2 in the hands of Todd Bawden and Paul Burborough. Missing out of the top ten seeds were Josh Marston and Andrew Graves in their Holden Barina AP4, Marston being ruled out with a positive COVID-19 test on the Thursday pre-event. That would have a significant impact on the championship, with the NZRC portfolio stating any driver missing a round due to a positive COVID-19 test meaning that 12
PHOTOS BY JASON BYRNE competitors would then be able to drop one of the first four rounds, a clause that would be activated before a wheel had been turned. After a long two days of recce, unseasonably warm and dry conditions greeted teams at the first stage just outside of Palmerston, where sun strike and dust caused issues for some of the early runners. Paddon was, as expected, the man to set the pace early on, taking both of the opening stages before a broken axle and subsequent spin in stage three gave Hunt a chance to give the brand-new Skoda a stage win. But at the first service after stage three, Paddon still had a lead of just over 48.4 seconds over Stokes, with Hunt leading a scrapping pack in third. That pack included Hunt, Gilmour, Ari Pettigrew (Holden Barina AP4), Horan, Bawden and Turner, all within a minute of each other after 54km of special stages. A stunning run from Jeff Ward in the ex-Mason Subaru Impreza saw him leading the Rally Challenge class and ninth of the championship runners, while Kingsley Jones (Skoda Fabia R5) and Glenn Inkster (Mazda 2 AP4) were separated by just 2 seconds in the battle for the final spot in the top ten. Not everyone was having a great morning in the front pack, with Summerfield retiring on the opener with turbo failure, while Mike Young (Subaru Impreza) dropped outside the top ten with a sticking throttle body and Matt Jensen’s first trip south to Otago in his Mazda 2 AP4 temporarily ended with driveshaft failure. In the NZRC 2WD class, defending champion Dylan Thomson headed Bryn Jones and Charlie Evans through the opening loop, with Jordan Grant suffering a misfire that would drop him to fourth, just ahead of the pair of R2 Fiesta’s of Andy Martin and Lukas Ramsay. JP van der Meys then headed Jackson Clendon, who was leasing a 1300cc Toyota Vitz while waiting for his Rally4 spec Fiesta to arrive for Whangarei.
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Brent Taylor showed himself as the man to beat in the Open Two-wheel drive class, but a great battle was brewing between Dan Haines and Dave Strong, the pair only 12 seconds apart after three stages, with Chris Alexander holding down fourth. The Historics also saw a solid battle, with John Silcock less than 20 seconds up on Shane Murland at the top of the table, while an uncomfortable Anthony Jones cleared out from Graeme Coey.
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A drive worthy on the Dunlop Drive of the Rally saw Jeff Ward take the challenge win, contested only over the opening day, more than two minutes clear of Dave Sievers and a chuffed Bryn Smith, with Steve Cox and Dave Ollis, battling broken steering rack mounts, rounding out the top five. In the Challenge two-wheel drive class, Jonty Brenssell overcame a broken shifter on the final stage to take a dominant class win, leading home Dave Taylor while Jono Shapley won the Whakatane battle to take third, just ahead of Sam Byrne. Zeal Jones survived his first rally in fifth, scoring valuable points. Some confusion within the road book would eventually lead to the demise of Group A front runner Sean Haggarty, with the deviation causing him to run out of fuel. That left Chris Lockyear to take the victory, heading off a misfiring Simon Bell, with Mark Pedersen taking third on his championship debut.
Daniel Haines / Matt Priest
The Rally Challenge saw Ward holding a solid lead of a minute and a half over Dave Sievers, who was in an intense battle for second with Sean Haggarty, the latter acting as road sweeper due to the seeding system putting 4WD classic cars at the head of the leader board. Bryn Smith then headed a further group of Classic 4WD cars, led by Amy Keighley. It was a tough start for expected front runner Wayne Muckle, who overshot a junction and ended up on his side. Haggarty also led the Group A cars, heading Mark Pedersen and Chris Lockyear, while Jonty Brenssell was dominating the Rally Challenge 2WD class, almost three minutes ahead of Dave Taylor, who had grandson Arthur Broughan co-driving, and Jono Shapley who was heading a solid battle with Sam Byrne. Paddon continued largely unchallenged across the remainder of the day, the only scare being a delaminated tyre in the final stage of the day, which also offered bonus points as the power stage, although he still took the stage win, likely fortunate that stage seven was cancelled after a damaged cattle stop caused havoc with the Classic 4WD field. In the end, Paddon’s margin just over three minutes. But behind him was a fierce battle. Hunt would top that battle by days end after a push in the final stage moved him ahead of Gilmour, who was encouraged by a largely trouble free day in third and only 10 seconds behind Hunt. Gaining in confidence all the time, Horan sat fourth, just 2.1 seconds ahead of Pettigrew, followed by Stokes, who bled time in two-wheel drive through the middle loop of stages, while Bawden and Turner were still in the Hunt of Hunt, Turner just over a minute and a half away. A recovering Young and Inkster rounded out the top ten at the end of the opening day. Duncan McCrostie rounded a solid day out 11th of the Cat 1 cars, just behind Challenge winner Ward, while frustrating problems saw Campbell and Hawkeswood further back down the field, but still in the rally. Also still in the rally, somewhat luckily, was Kingsley Jones, who spun and became stuck in a culvert, but with the assistance of spectators was able to regain the road, having lost more than 22 minutes.
Simon Bell / Warwick Martin
The second day got underway with a standard service, normally very straight forward, but noticing a damaged brake caliper and the resulting change saw Emma Gilmour receive a minutes worth of penalties, immediately dropping her from third into sixth, just behind Pettigrew. A third fastest time behind Paddon and Stokes on the opener showed the problem was sorted, but it was a frustrating start to the day and made the chance to return to the podium that much more difficult. The second stage of the day saw the traditional annual visit to the Berwick Forest, albeit on a new combination of roads. Berwick has often been the make or break stage of an Otago Rally, but in 2022 the only victim was championship sponsor Brian Green, hitting a post and ending his rally on the spot. Up the front, Paddon continued to charge, with Horan showing he is the forestry master, ahead of Hunt’s newer Skoda, then
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BEN NEVIS GOLDEN 1200
“In Them There Hills”
Thomas Good
ARTICLE BY STEVE RUSSEL
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nd the hills in question are the “Nevis,” situated at Bannockburn and running south to the Garston/ Athol area. Through the centre of this range runs the Ben Nevis road, the Highest public road in New Zealand, and it’s this road that the Paddon Racing Group used for the Ben Nevis Golden 1200 Hillclimb. The road at its highest spot reaches 1200 metres above sea level and the section used for this course had 22 bends in its length of 3.6K. It is quite remote and often closed due to weather conditions, it does however offer the outdoors person a wide variety of outdoor pursuits. Tramping, camping, mountain biking, 4WD, hunting and fishing to name a few, and on the odd motorsport, in the forms of Hill climbing and Rallying, the road is often used in the marathon classic 2WD Silver Fern Rally, obviously today’s event is the Hill Climb. Now, this is not a report of the event itself and who did what, but more of an in site to that of a couple of marshalls on the event. Tracy and I have been on this road previously as spectators on the Silver Fern Rally, but we have never seen it looking as stunning as it did this weekend, the weather was absolutely perfect, showing off the stunning beauty of the central Otago countryside. The event started for us on Friday lunch time, knocking off work at midday and travelling up to Cromwell from Invercargill via Queenstown, although no stopping off as we were aiming to make the 4.00 -5.00pm window for registering as marshalls and collecting our gear. There was another time slot for doing this later on in the evening but as we had travelled for a couple of hours we wanted to catch the early slot, this then allowed the rest of the evening to sort out our accommodation, purchase a few last minute supplies and have dinner out, and the compulsory pint, without rushing too much. It also allowed us to view the road as this documentation venue was actually the service area for the event, situated some 20km’s into the Ben Nevis Road, nestled in a valley by the Ben Nevis Station, and the Ben Nevis River. 44
PHOTOS BY STEVE RUSSELL / TRACY MICHELLE We actually made the road trip in pretty good time, so being early we decided to have a quick drink at the five stags pub in Cromwell, we could not believe the temperature difference between Invercargill and Cromwell, totally overdressed as we’ve now acclimatised to the Invercargill temperatures since moving here just over 12 months ago. So after a quick drink and cooling down we headed off for the start of the Nevis road, just south of Bannockburn, but wouldn’t you know it, Bannockburn also had a very nice watering hole! I can recommend having a quick stop over here, especially on such a stunning day, the views from the garden bar are spectacular. So, onto the Nevis Road, and what a road. The climb from the start is quite severe, several hairpins with huge drops, it only takes a few moments of climbing before your looking down on the roof tops of the following cars, its gravel right from the start, and it’s no wonder the organisers advised crews to take their cars off the trailers and drive them from here to the service area, which was still some 20K from the start of the road. Once you start climbing the views get better and better, none more spectacular than being able to see the snow covered MT Cook, looking splendid in the distant. This view is from the summit of the Ben Nevis Road, here the steep climb relents for a while before starting the decent, not quite as many hairpin bends as the ascent but you still need your wits about you! After another few Km’s we came across what tomorrow will the finish line, followed by the corporate and VIP areas. Wow! What a view, below is almost a full aerial view of the Hill climb course, absolutely stunning and spectacular. The hairpin bends here allow the VIP’s, corporate’s and event sponsors the ultimate view, perhaps the only better view would be one from a Helicopter! It’s at this point you realise you’re about to witness something very special this weekend. We know that the weather forecast is to be
BEN NEVIS GOLDEN 1200
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for pretty high temperatures, plenty of sun, with Sunday very similar, albeit with a few clouds, you feel like thanking the weather gods personally on behalf of the organisers. As you hit this spot you realise just how much work they have put in, it’s Friday afternoon and the whole event and structures are in place. How the hell did all this gear get up here? Large tents, portacoms, toilets, sponsors banners etc. people must have been up here for days on end.
A quick catch up with a few familiar faces, sign our life away, collect our bits n pieces and we were off back over the Nevis Road, this time we were now travelling the hill climb course in the same direction of tomorrows competitors. Very fast for the first two thirds, with that last third being extremely tight and steep. It will be a very interesting day tomorrow!
The descent from here is the hill climb course, and it’s fantastic, it was also set out with all the marshal points, numbered from the top, which was point 8, down to the bottom of the course which obviously is point 1. Prior to us leaving Invercargill we were emailed a list of exactly who was on every point, we knew we were on P2. As we drove down it was quite exciting counting down the various points and looking at who had what, we came across P2 and not bad, we could see the start line and view the long straight from the start to the bridge at P1 were the first bend took competitors onto a narrow bridge and over the Nevis River, once off the bridge the “Hill Climb” starts. A couple of blind crests then brought the competitors into view again for us at P2, were we could view the cars again for at least another kilometre, through P3 & P4. We were very pleased with our allocated spot, but if we thought we were in for a cruise and a relaxing weekend we were so wrong!
To finish our day off it was back to Cromwell, check in at the Harvest Park Studios, a quick shower and off to the five stags for a bite to eat. I must say, I’d recommend staying at these studios, we’ll certainly try them again, its location perhaps may put a few people off as its situated just out of town and in the industrial area. It’s a brand new place, absolutely spotless, quiet and very affordable. Fantastic communal kitchens, TV lounge, BBQ area, ideal for groups. The rooms vary from a very basic bedrooms to deluxe.
We continued down to the service area and the start line were we met up with Roger Laird, the clerk of the course. Now before I go any further this man deserves a medal, I’m not going to waffle on too much, but what this guy has achieved in regards to putting this together, along with the PRG is unbelievable. Any one reading this who has done any organising of any events whether it be a motokhana, a bent sprint, hill climb, rallysprint, or a rally, will know how difficult it can be and how it can consume your time. As well as putting all this together he was also building an engine for a competitor who was running in the event! Plenty of stress and burning the midnight oil for Roger!
Saturday morning arrived and although a little fresh we knew it was going to warm up, we arrived at the finish line area at about 7.30am for a quick marshals briefing and to pick up our radios, then off to position 2, and await the action. First on the scene was Hayden Paddon, not in his competition car but in a road car, delivering the lunch packs for the marshals, and I must admit, it was a very nice lunch and a very nice touch. A very tasty feed indeed, a couple of bottles of water, a couple of tee shirts and a very nice bottle of wine. What a way to start an event. Now, getting back to the previously mentioned “cruise and relaxing weekend” comment, P2 was actually at a campground, a great spot for campers as it was also right next to the Ben Nevis River, a nice parking spot for
Nicholas D’Aloislo 45