NEW ZEALAND’S ONLY DEDICATED RALLY MAGAZINE
Issue 22, June 2022
www.alittlebitsideways.co.nz
NZRC
Round 1 - Rally Otago Round 2 - Rally Whangarei
WRC Croatia
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Editor’s NOTES Hi, Welcome to another edition of A Little Bit Sideways. Whilst we have lots of really cool things happening in rallying this year, it all feels overshadowed at present with the loss of several more of our rally family. Colin Drever (known as C4), Leon Styles and Malcolm McLeod. My sincere condolences to their family and friends. EDITORIAL
Editor: Jason Byrne Jase@alittlebitsideways.co.nz 021 02306894
Photo contributors: Craig McIntosh Geoff Ridder Jason Byrne Matt Smith Steve and Tracy Russell Ross Hyde Greg Henderson
Other Important Contributors: Blair Bartels Conor Edwards Craig McIntosh John Carter Malcolm McLeod Jack Smith Rob Scott Andrew Brooks Donna Elder Ashlee Byrne
Leon Styles
Malcolm McLeod
The first two rounds of the national championship have proved to be exciting and some very close racing. Whilst Hayden Paddon continues to lead, the competition behind him has really become exciting and sometimes the gap between the top 5/6 cars has been incredibly close. The rest of the season will be full of close battles and possibly the odd surprise. The buzz around Rally New Zealand has kicked off and is the talk of the town. VIP Gold passes have sold out, but don’t worry, word has it more will be available in early June so make sure to look out for those if you missed out on the first batch. As ever I’d like to thank all of the contributors and advertisers for helping to keep this publication going especially in these increasingly difficult times to keep a print publication running. Cheers
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Copyright: A Little Bit Sideways is copyright and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher. Neither editorial opinions expressed, nor facts stated in advertisements, are necessarily agreed to by the editor or the publisher of A Little Bit Sideways. And whilst all efforts are made to ensure accuracy, no responsibility will be taken by the publishers for inaccurate information, or for any consequences of reliance on this information.
ISSN 2537-7345 Printed By: Kale Print Front Cover Image: Emma Gilmour - SS8 Rally Otago - Photo by Mark Walton
NEWS
RALLY
CONTENTS
FEATURES 04 | Westland Rallysprint 06 | Remembering Helga 06
10 | NZRC Rally Otago 16 | From the Co-Drivers Seat 18 | Ari Pettigrew gets an AP4 car 20 | NZRC Rally Whangarei
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28 | From the Co-Drivers Seat 30 | WRC Croatia Rally 38 | Popotunoa Rallysprint 42 | In them there hills
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46 | NRSS Bothwell Loop Road 50 | NRSS Piakonui Road photo gallery 52 | MSNZ Hillclimb Championship Final 56 | Road Open
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CLUB EVENTS
WESTLAND Rally Sprint
Josh Marston
ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY CRAIG MCINTOSH Mid-March usually sees rally drivers’ pilgrimage to the West Coast for the traditional start of the (Mainland Rally) season. The Westland Rally is a favourite for many crews through the combination of fast shire roads and the famous west coast hospitality. This year however the event was rescheduled as a rally sprint. Why? Not Covid as many people think, in fact the organising team did a superb effort in working with the rules and managing the risk thrown up by Covid. The real reason was the bridge spanning the Taramakau River near Kumara. The span was found to be badly corroded and was closed for a rebuild, it’s this bridge that links the iconic stages like Lady Lake and Mitchells to those around Kumara and Hokitika. No bridge, no rally, hence the need for a rally sprint. Thanks to Jim Hewlett and team, an alternate event was organised and centred around the AhauraKopara road, a sometimes-used road in the Westland Rally. A full dance card of entrants, all needing some rally action signed up for the race, with the organisers having to extend the maximum number of cars out to 56 with 54 cars taking the start, only a few less than last year’s rally. John Giltrap, winner of the 2021 Westland Rally and owner of Rolleston based Diggalink kindly sponsored the event and was one of the pre-race favourites for the outright win. Quality rallies attract quality drivers and cars, this holds true for the Westland, with drivers from all over New Zealand gathering in all manner of cars. The open class featured two AP4 cars and a bunch of Impreza’s and EVO’s, all capable of taking an outright win. There were enough of the competitive Magnum H6 Subaru’s to warrant their own class and the open two-wheel drive class was looking exciting with a screaming RX8, a Group B Celica (replica) and numerous Ford Escorts all looking racy. Any number of (mostly) Toyotas and Fords made up both the 1600 and 1300 classes with competitive fields. 6
The format was simple, race out, stop, regroup, race back and repeat another two times, the best combined time wins. The road was Westland lite, a condensed version of the Westland and had something for everyone, 9.8 km in length, with tight twisting parts, wide open sections, forest, nasty little culverts, hills, the only thing missing was a lake. First on the road, Josh Marston was very fast, beating the rest of the field on the first run by 22 seconds, impressive considering the unfamiliar road and loose unswept surface. Keeping him honest was a quality pack of six cars, all within seconds of each other. Marcus van Klink, one of those in that chasing pack set the fastest time of the two-wheel drives in the fire spitting RX8 (it also won my unofficial best sounding car of the day award.) Tight battles emerged across all classes, Jeff Judd and Tim McIver in the classics finished the day within six seconds of each other, it was the return leg that gave the win to Jeff Judd. Gaining valuable experience in preparation for Rally Otago, Drift star “Fanga” Dan Woolhouse driving the famous IB780 Escort scored a notable fourth place in the classic class, he got faster as the day progressed and looked like he was born for it. Mark Parsons impressed with a win in the Magnum H6 class, and Shane McKenzie won the pre 96 4wd class. Marcus van Klink scored an overall 5th outright and a win in the open four-wheel drive class. Karl Celeste won the 1600 class by a margin whilst in the 1300 class Paul Roughan and Marty Roestenburg finished less than two seconds of each other, again it was the return leg that decided the class winner. Josh Marston set the fastest times in each heat giving him the open class and outright win, from Michael Tall and Ray Casey. The racing wasn’t without some big moments, a number of drivers came unstuck, notably Stefan Moser-Rust buried his EVO deep into the bush after spinning and rolling on a corner, ultimately requiring
CLUB EVENTS
James Worker
Jason McConnell
Fanga Dan Woolhouse
Marcus van Klink
RALLY
extraction by a hiab crane, he should consider himself a very lucky guy. The most embarrassing moment of the race would have to be clerk of the course Wayne “Barney” Barnard requiring a tow after getting stuck in the roadside drain. 2023 should see the Westland return to its traditional format of a one-day rally, put in the calendar for next year. Thanks to Jim Hewlett, the race committee and Diggalink (John Giltrap) for turning lemons into lemonade and giving everyone a quality well run event, it would have been easy just to cancel altogether. Thanks to all the volunteers that ate dust all day and the residents of the AhauraKopara valley for the use of their road. ■
Hayden Shakespeare
Graham Wilson
Rex Ford
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NEWS
Remembering Helga the V12 BMW rally car
ARTICLE BY RICHARD LEGGETT
ABOVE PHOTO BY MATT SMITH
“Gravity is a cruel and unpredictable mistress…” – Jeremy Clarkson “No it isn’t! It’s a constant all over the world.” – James May In February we lost Helga, the thundering V12-powered BMW 5-series rally car, at age 31. Tragically she’s gone to the great car wreckers’ yard in the sky. A heavenly Smash Palace where you can find any part for any car you like, and where rally cars dance gracefully along wide, smooth, open and fast gravel roads, laughing and making thick brown rooster tails of dust. But let’s begin at the beginning. Helga rolled out of Munich’s Bavarian Motor Works in 1990, a sharp-looking right-hand-drive E34-shape 535i, Lazurblu Metallic paint (code 294) shining brightly in the German sunshine. She was solidly built, an expensive, highquality consumer product like so many other BMWs of the 1980s and early 1990s. Her creamy 3.5-litre 6-cylinder engine was built for cruising all day on the autobahn at 180 kilometres per hour. Her doors closed with a satisfying whump. Her seats were leather, and they were electrically adjustable, as were her windows and side mirrors. Her air conditioning was as cold as ice. Somehow her stereo system could make German techno cassette tapes sound good. Helga emigrated to New Zealand in 1996. She made the major transition to motorsport quite late in life, but with real gusto. Humans tend to take it easy after a heart transplant, but with Helga it was the opposite. In 2010 - under Kayne Barrie’s ownership - the 3.5-litre engine came out and a 5-litre V12 from a 750i was wrestled into Helga’s engine bay and mated to a 6-speed manual transmission from the top-of-the-range 850i. A bigger and more powerful engine meant more personality, more grunt, more speed, more noise, more attitude, more wheelspin. More of everything! And an almost insatiable appetite for 98 octane fuel. But what a singing voice Helga now had. It was a voice to make small children squeal and grown men giggle. A voice to make rally photographers and spectators grin from 2 kilometres away. A voice that convincingly answered any question about why anyone would want to campaign a V12-powered rally car. With a strong rollcage added along with racing bucket seats, harnesses, rally intercom, sump guard, underbody protection, mudflaps, gravel rally suspension and rally tyres, Helga was ready to hit the special stages. 8
Helga wasn’t only built strong. For a relatively large car showing little interest in embarking on any sort of weight-saving diet, she was also fast - on both gravel and tarmac. Kayne Barrie (with co-driver Michael Thompson) guided Helga to 9th overall at the 2011 Dynatron Taupo Tarmac 2wd Rally, and second in class C and 14th overall at the 2011 Valvoline Rally of the North. At Rally Otago 2013 (with co-driver Jason West) Helga finished 25th overall out of 75 entries, and at the 2013 Catlins Coast Rally she finished 12th overall. Paul Taylor has been Helga’s keeper since 2016 and together they have competed in 51 events. At Rally Otago in 2019, sunstrike in Paul’s eyes during Special Stage 1 resulted in a spectacular Dukes of Hazzard-style flight through the air after Helga hit a concrete ford at speed. Paul and co-driver Richard Leggett missed Special Stage 2 getting to the Lake Waihola service park and making running repairs, which meant sadly they were officially disqualified from the event. But they managed to get to the start line for Special Stage 3 and actually completed the rest of the rally, reaching the finish line bruised and slightly battered but having enjoyed themselves immensely. Paul and Helga have been to almost every corner of the country together, claiming class podiums at several MotorSport New Zealand Gold Star Hillclimb Championship events and gravel rallysprints, and finishing 6th in class C at the 2021 Rally of Hawkes Bay. And so to The End. On Saturday 19th February 2022 Helga was competing in Pukekohe Car Club’s Port Waikato Tarmac Hillclimb. The weather was cloudy but fine, conditions were good for racing. The road itself has caught out a number of drivers over the years, particularly where large drops into steep terrain have resulted in rather large accidents. On his second proper timed run of the day – and with Bruce Annan strapped into the co-driver’s seat – Paul misjudged an uphill right-hander and Helga left the road, first clearing a sheep fence with her engine still shrieking then flying 20 metres down a grassy bank, nose-diving into the dirt before flipping
NEWS
RALLY
end over end and rolling violently a further three or four times to finish up almost 100 metres from the road. Thanks to Helga’s strength and the fact that both Paul and Bruce were wearing good quality safety equipment, both of them were able to get quickly out of the car once it had stopped rolling, understandably filling the cabin with expletives as they did so. Bruce then rapidly extinguished a small fire which had broken out in Helga’s engine bay. Winching the wrecked car all the way back up to the road and lifting her onto her trailer took almost two hours and we’re thankful to the Pukekohe Car Club team and to the local farmer for all of their tremendous efforts. Paul and Bruce were both very sore for a few days after the crash, but given the magnitude of the accident they were very lucky and the outcome could have been much, much worse. Helga, having protected her occupants from serious injury, is herself now dead. She’s too badly damaged to be repaired. Her rollcage is heavily damaged around the passenger side A-pillar and roof; her front end has narrowed 150-200mm; her fire wall is damaged; her rear floor is buckled; her co-driver’s seat is damaged and her dashboard and centre console are fractured. It was shocking and sad to see her in such a state, although the feelings of grief at Helga’s death are outweighed by the relief that Paul and Bruce were not badly hurt. But let’s remember the good times. Charging along a gravel road through the forest at 160 kilometres per hour, V12 singing, driver and co-driver smiling, dust clouds billowing out from behind. There may yet be another 12-cylinder rally car built because there’s still plenty of fun to be had and smiles to put on people’s faces. But there will never be another Helga. ■
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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.
NZRC
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.
RALLY
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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NZRC
NZRC - Round 1 - Rally Otago a rejoining Summerfield and Bawden, while a spin for Stokes meant Gilmour snuck in front for the final top five spot in the event. Worse was to come for Stokes in Waipori Gorge, sun strike leaving him lucky to get away largely unscathed with a spin, although turning around on the narrow road was a time consuming process. It was worse for Inkster however, who had a similar moment to Stokes, but the car tipped onto its roof, which combined with heavy damage to the rear suspension, spelt the end of their rally. So an eventful morning Paddon had added more than a minute to his lead, while Horan had moved into third and close enough to keep Hunt on his toes, the gap just shy of 38 seconds. Gilmour had regained fourth with Bawden up to fifth, narrowly edging out Pettigrew, the trio all less than 13 seconds apart, with the threat of Stokes only another eight seconds back in seventh. Turner, Young and McCrostie completed the ten, while Campbell and Hawkeswood were now separated by just 2.7 seconds behind. Sadly SS13 was cancelled after a frightening accident for Graeme Coey and James Cowles, the EX Lancer Turbo leaving the road and a solid impact left the vehicle on it’s side, before it caught fire. Thankfully both were able to exit the car, which would be completely gutted and although Coey suffered several broken bones, it was a frightening incident that could’ve been a lot worse. In the Historic battle that Coey bowed out of, Silcock made an inspired start to the second day and stamped his authority on the class and by the end of the event, had opened a gap of more than a minute over Murland, the pair not only first and second in the class, but second and third in the outright Classic Rally behind Deane Buist. Anthony Jones took third place points, but openly admitted the roads were just too fast for him. Open two-wheel drive saw the battle for second end early on day two with Dave Strong’s retirement. Rubbing salt into
Sean Haggarty / Bella Haggarty 14
that wound was it would’ve been the battle for the lead, with Brent Taylor losing 20 minutes with a broken throttle cable just three stages from home. That left Dan Haines to take victory in his first event in the Open 2WD class, Taylor still hanging on to second despite co-driver Chris Ramsay operating the throttle through the passengers window, while Chris Alexander survived a noisy diff to take third in his first championship event. NZRC two-wheel drive and the overall two-wheel drive battle went the way of Dylan Thomson who survived a seized shock early on day two to take victory over Bryn Jones, who also had a tale of woah at the end of the opening day when the fuel pump failed, thankfully while in the queue for the final service park, while Charlie Evans came home third in the Honda Civic. Lukas Ramsay gained good experience in fourth, while points for fifth will be valuable for Jackson Clendon and having survived a broken engine mount, JP van Der Meys came home sixth. Having battled a holed piston, Jordan Grant retired from fourth with damaged suspension. The big mover towards the front was Stokes, moving from seventh to fifth in SS14, aided by a spin and stall for Bawden, then picking off Gilmour, who was now suffering centre diff issues, in SS15 for fourth. But that would be the end of the leader board movements. With a rally win to add to two leg wins and the power stage, Paddon took a full haul of points from his Otago victory, his eventual margin over Hunt just over five minutes, a margin that doesn’t do justice to Hunt’s performance in a car that arrived less than a month before the season opener. Third place did plenty to avenge a chequered Otago history for Horan, while Stokes’ eventful event ended in fourth, just 25 seconds away from the podium. A bittersweet day for Gilmour saw her fifth, a solid finish, but without the time penalties that would’ve been third. Impressive new car debuts saw Bawden and Pettigrew sixth and seventh respectively, only 12.9 seconds apart, while Turner, Young, Campbell, Hawkeswood and Kingsley Jones rounded out the finishing Cat 1 cars. ■
NZRC
Todd Bawden / Paul Burborough
Ben Hunt / Tony Rawstorn
Steve Cox / Laurie Brenssell
Jeff Ward / Murray O’Neil
RALLY
Phil Campbell / Brianna Little 15
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NZRC
NZRC - Round 1 - Rally Otago PHOTOS BY ROSS HYDE
Ben Hunt / Tony Rawstorn
Hayden Paddon / John Kennard
Jack Hawkeswood / Sarah Brennan
Mike Young / Malcolm Read
Jonty Brenssell / Daph O’Rourke
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NZRC
RALLY
PHOTOS BY GREG HENDERSON
Skoda Motorsport Service
Phil Campbell / Brianna Little
Emma Gilmour / Mal Peden
Anthony Jones / Zoe Jones
Ben Hunt / Tony Rawstorn 17
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NZRC
From the co-drivers seat NZRC 2022 Round One - Rally Otago
Jackson Clendon & Andrew Brooks Toyota Vitz RS Car #33
ARTICLE BY ANDREW BROOKS
W
ith big change brings new confidence and that is what Jackson & I were hoping for as we embarked on our 2022 NZRC campaign. We arrived in Dunedin on Wednesday afternoon with an “Arrive & Drive” deal for Round 1 as our new toy was still sitting at the Auckland Dock on a boat with 16000 other containers. Pat Norris & his team at Priority Motorsports had prepared a 1300cc Toyota Vitz for us to contest in Cat 2 of the 2022 NZRC Rally Otago. We endured approximately 22 hrs of recce during Thursday & Friday also undertaking the challenge of writing our own notes for the 1st time, and arrived at the Octagon for the traditional ceremonial start in a rally car we had yet to sit in for the tough two days of rallying ahead. Completing our ceremonial start, we headed for home in the Vitz. “Wow, is this what 90 horsepower feels like” were our thoughts as we pondered tomorrow's stages!! Saturday morning, clear blue skies as we set off from TC0 for Middlemarch and SS1 at the gentlemanly time of 8.02am. Feeling confident in our notes we had written, we dropped the clutch in Switchback (SS1) unleashing the enormous power of the Vitz and headed into stage 1 … only to find ourselves soon facing the wrong way on a narrow piece of road. A small brake imbalance caught us by surprise but we managed to point the car in the right direction again and completed the stage, albeit in 83rd position overall and last in Category 2. SS2 & 3 were better and by the 1st service opportunity we were feeling good and now sitting 64th overall. Wow we had made it to the 1st service of the 2022 season, something we didn't achieve all last season. Stages 4,5 & 6 were all clean stages with a bit of dust to contend with. Finding the limits of the mighty Vitz during the 2nd loop on a few occasions we were having a heap of fun and glided into the 2nd service of the day.
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PHOTOS BY JASON BYRNE We headed off for SS7 only to realize it had been cancelled due to a safety concern at a cattle grid in the stage. We toured the stage and headed to the final stage for Leg 1 , Nenthorn (SS8), the power stage…… not that we were feeling to much power! Open, wide & FAST with some tricky downhill sections where the Vitz felt pretty good, being downhill we got through the stage and had completed our 1st full day rallying in the NZRC together!! Goal 1 - Tick To our delight we were now 56th overall and not last in Category 2 parking our car in Parc Ferme for the night. Like Saturday, Sunday Started late, clocking out of the start control at 8.13am. After a 45 minute tour we arrived at Blackrock (SS10) Big, Wide & Fast. We clocked a half decent time in our 1300cc rocketship and headed for SS11, Emerald Heights. This rallying from stage to stage without a mechanical breakdown was feeling pretty darn good and we were enjoying it! We had a reasonable run through the forest and by the end we were catching the dust of the preceding car, something we probably thought at the start of the rally was not possible in our mighty Waka. Another error free run through Waipori Gorge (SS12) saw us heading into the 1st Service for Leg 2 46th overall and 6th in Category 2. Priority Motorsport leapt to the service of our Vitz as we arrived in Waihola using a mere 15 litres of fuel for the 1st 3 stages of the day!! After service we headed for Dicksons (SS13) only to realize that unfortunately, a car competing in the Otago Classic Rally had an accident and had caught fire, fortunately the driver & co driver were both OK, but this meant a recce of about half of the Kuri Bush stage before touring to the outskirts of Dunedin for a blast through Whare Flat (SS14). We negotiated the cool little stage and headed for the final service of the Rally in 44th position and 5th in Category 2.
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Circle Hill (SS15) & Taiere Beach (SS16) were two more solid stages, we were now focused on driving the iconic Kuri Bush (SS17) & making it to the finish of this rally! Kuri Bush we decided to have a bit of a push, clocking a pretty decent time of 9.07 in our 90 hp Vitz and enjoying every single crest, Jackson was living out a childhood dream and committed to the notes 100% (although I am sure he didn’t need the notes as he has watched this stages in car footage so many times!). We had conquered Rally Otago!! Finishing 42nd overall and 5th in Category 2. All in all we achieved our goals for Rally Otago, to finish, to refine our note writing process, to enjoy it and have fun. A huge thank you to all the event organizers, volunteers and sponsors for organizing such a fantastic event. To Jackson for a good consistent drive and plenty of laughs and to Pat Norris and his team at Priority Motorsport for the preparation and service of the awesome little Vitz and the very friendly, accommodating atmosphere they created. If anyone out there wants to experience a rally as a competitor I would urge you to get in touch with Pat and his team. With the Rally Otago box ticked and us banking more points than we did for the entire 2021 NZRC, we now focus on the new Ford Fiesta Rally 4. Working with Michael McLean and the team at Switched Motorsport who will be running the car & crew for the remainder of the championship and will help us with some testing and to get comfortable in the new car before we hit the awesome stages of Round Two at Rally Whangarei. Andrew Brooks - Co Driver FL7L>/Cr
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Why did Daniel Alexander let Ari drive his AP4 car for 2022?
ARTICLE BY ROSS TEESDALE Young rally car driver Ari Pettigrew (23) has been given a massive boost to go and attack the Brian Green Properties NZ Rally Championship (NZRC) for 2022. Ari won the Open 2WD category of the 2021 NZRC. He impressed all the old hands of rallying with his times that were up with many of the overall 4WD teams. Thanks to Daniel Alexander and the Manukau Auto Centre, Ari has a car in the top class 4WD this year with a Holden Barina AP4. The car is the ex-Greg Murphy car which Daniel Alexander has recently brought. Now Daniel is a rally driver himself – so why has he given the Barina AP4 to Ari for the season? Daniel explains “I had sold a bunch of my toys at home including my boat. I decided to buy Murph’s AP4. I wanted the AP4 car, but I had a new chassis 1980’s Toyota Starlet well underway with a plan to compete at the Silver Fern Rally late in 2022. The Silver Fern being 7 days long, it is a big effort on its own. I planned to leave the Barina in the shed for 2022, at least. My business, Manukau Auto Centre does Panel and Paint work along with mechanical work and servicing. I spoke to Hayden Paddon about what we should do to the Barina at our work, to bring the car up to latest specifications. AP4 cars have not changed much since Murph had his car made, but it could help with an updated computer, to bring its power up to those of the other AP4 cars being rallied now.” Daniel adds “With some help from Paddon Rallysport we could use the AP4 to show what Manukau Auto Centre can do for our customers and we expect to do more performance work because of it”
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PHOTOS BY JASON BYRNE But with a Starlet getting ready for the Silver Fern for classic and modified 2WD cars, the Starlet would be Daniel’s project for 2022. Hayden suggested his Paddon team could help bring the AP4 car up to the latest specification and get the car sorted with Hayden’s adjustments. Ari works full time at Paddon Rallysport. Daniel continues “I asked Hayden what Ari was doing for 2020. Hayden then suggested that Ari would be the ideal person to work through the car while driving my Barina AP4. I have a great relationship with Hayden and had been impressed with Ari’s great speed in his old 1990’s BMW during 2021. I thought, well I will give the young bloke a chance.” It went straight to Paddon Rallysport – Daniel tells more “Before we knew it, I had the car sent from Murph to Paddon Rallysport in Cromwell and I had done a deal with Ari. Between Hayden and Ari, the plan is that when I get the car back it will be sorted out ready for me. Ari already has the car updated now and has quickly shown he can make the Barina AP4 as good as the rest of the NZRC field.” So there it is, Daniel Alexander and Manukau Auto Centre get the Barina AP4 sorted out and up to the latest specification. Ari Pettigrew gets a season to run in the top class of the NZ Rally Championship and gets the help of his boss Hayden Paddon to sort the finer adjustments of the Barina AP4 and mentor Ari and his team.
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Asked what happens in 2023 Daniel Alexander commented “We will have to wait and see – if Ari has a good run in 2022 and he can find some more commercial supporters to help pay the costs, the deal may carry on in 2023”. That sure is motivation for Ari and his navigator, 2016 NZ Champion Jason Farmer. So far things are going well - really well. Ari and Jason took home 7th at the first round in Otago where most of his stages were in the top 5 and they also had one 2nd and one 3rd stage. Round two at Whangarei, Ari and Jason again got everyone talking when they took third outright for the rally, only beaten by five times and current champion Hayden Paddon and twice champion Ben Hunt in his late model Skoda Motorsport R5. Ari Pettigrew has clearly shown that he has the talent to go to the top of rallying. With a senior navigator and former champion in Jason Farmer (41), the use of the Manukau Auto Centre owned Barina AP4 and Hayden Paddon as his boss and mentor, why would you not support Ari and his team. ■
Ari Pettigrew by Geoff Ridder
Ari Pettigrew and Jason Farmer outside Manukau Auto Centre - Photo supplied
Daniel Alexander by Geoff Ridder
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NZRC - Round 2 - Rally Whangarei
Hayden Paddon / John Kennard
ARTICLE BY BLAIR BARTELS Hayden Paddon and John Kennard have continued their winning ways in the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship, the Mark Cromie Motor Group International Rally of Whangarei, adding a second perfect score to their tally with a victory of 6 minutes, 14.6 seconds. While Paddon was his usual dominant self, what happened behind was a fascinating battle that offered varying fortunes for many of the top contenders, eventually seeing Ben Hunt and Tony Rawstorn leading home Ari Pettigrew and Jason Farmer for the final podium spots. While the event followed a traditional format, starting with two super special stages on the Friday night, stages north of Whangarei on Saturday and South on Sunday, the reversing of the majority of the route meant the event would be a largely new challenge in 2022 that would see just over 250km of special stages. Dry conditions in the lead up to the event meant tyre wear was certainly a buzz word around the service park, while those seeded a little further up the list also noted a lot of gravel on the roads. A quality field of 66 entries included 46 NZRC competitors. Paddon led the list of entries ahead of Hunt, Stokes, Raana Horan/Michael Connor, Emma Gilmour/Mal Peden, Matt & Nicole Summerfield, Josh Marston/Andrew Graves, Todd Bawden/Paul Burborough, Ari Pettigrew/Jason Farmer with the top 10 rounded out by Kingsley and Waverley Jones, while notable absences amongst the four-wheel drive brigade were Dylan Turner and Mike Young.
PHOTOS BY JASON BYRNE started, that was sadly the case for Robbie and Amy Stokes, with a wiring issue as seeing the car fail to start at TC0. They’d be forced to take the car back to Raglan to replace sections of the wiring but were back for the power stage on Saturday afternoon. They weren’t the only championship competitors striking trouble with the Friday night super special, with Chris Alexander/Kim Raggett and Jay Sharp/Matt Sayers both ending their rallies with mechanical and electrical problems respectively, while Dan Haines, who had already had a last minute co-driver swap when regular notes man Matt Priest tested positive for COVID, securing Tania Cresswell at the last moment, then had a battery failure between the two super special stages, while mechanical problems also hit Jeff Torkington at the same time, both receiving a fastest time plus seven minutes under super special stage regulations, but able to rejoin the following morning. Paddon was the pace setter across the two super specials, and would hit the country road stages with a gap of 7.5 seconds over Hunt, then Summerfield, Horan and Hawkeswood.
Always a tough event, this one offered up drama before it began, initially Jack Hawkeswood signalling an intention to withdraw after spending two days in Middlemore hospital, being released while documentation was happening. But after waking up the following day, Hawkeswood made the decision that he was ok and headed north, albeit he and Sarah Brennan would miss the reconnaissance of the opening days stages. While Hawkeswood thought his event was over before it 22
Raana Horan / Michael Connor
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There was further heartbreak the following morning, with a throttle position sensor failure for Gilmour meaning her car would not start in Parc Ferme and she too was added to the list of casualties before anything outside a couple of super special stages had been run. Not having much more joy was Bawden, who had already suffered a costly stall in the super specials, then lost fifth gear in the R5 Fiesta within a kilometre of the start of SS3 and was forced to retire at the end of the stage.
Todd Bawden / Paul Burborough
The two-wheel drive Rally Challenge class saw Jono Shapley move out to an early lead, just fending off Zeal Jones on Helena, before Jones was forced out in SS4. Shapley would hold that lead until the final stage of the morning when Andy Martin slotted into the lead. Across the afternoon, Sam Byrne put in an epic drive and closed to within 24.4 seconds of Martin at days end, while Shapley nursed a gearbox issue to come home third. Jeff Torkington’s tough start got worse with engine failure on stage three, while Dan Alexander’s new Toyota Starlet was forced to retire with Diff failure.
Paddon powered through the 13.51km of Helena, just over a second a kilometre clear of Hunt, while an inspired soft tyre choice saw Jones third fastest through the stage despite removing a rear bumper, fending off Marston and a tight battle between Summerfield and Pettigrew. With the jumbling of the results, little more than eight seconds covered third to seventh. Through Akerama, Marston was Paddon’s closest challenger with Hunt, Pettigrew, Jones, Horan who recovered from a spin on the day’s opener, Summerfield and Hawkeswood all within a handful of seconds of each other. Stage five, Crows Nest, was hardly any different, with second fastest Hunt only 13 seconds faster than 8th place fastest Phil Campbell, leaving Marston, Summerfield, Pettigrew, Horan and Jones to slot in between. The final stage of the loop, Marlow, was the longest at 19.66km, Paddon blasting through faster than Marston by 23.6 seconds, while Hunt and Horan were equal third fastest, just ahead of Pettigrew and Campbell, growing in confidence with every stage. Heading back to service, that left Paddon with a 1 minute 42.8 seconds over Hunt, who had his hands full with Marston only 10.2 seconds behind. Pettigrew sat fourth, still within 30 seconds of Hunt, while Jones’ tyre gamble paid off, putting him in fifth. He’d jumped past Summerfield, as had Hawkeswood, after a tyre wear induced spin for the brother/sister duo, that dropped them into the clutches of Horan and Campbell. Dave Sievers rounded out the top ten outright at lunch time and led the Rally Challenge class, 8.6 seconds up on Haydn Mackenzie in an epic battle, the pair never separated by more than five seconds on any one stage across the whole day and would go on to finish first and second respectively. Clint Cunningham sat third early on his return to the championship, but retired after stage four with fuel pump failure. That promoted Bryn Smith into third, a position he would hold for the remainder of the day, while Amy Keighley put together a clean performance to come home fourth. Troubles saw the end of the day for Warwick Redfern (Centre Diff), Steve Cox (Gearbox) and Simon Bell (Engine).
Sam Byrne / Leanne Williams
The afternoon saw a repeat of the four morning stages, the first one, Helena 2, was the power stage with bonus points up for grabs. Paddon took the maximum points, with a rejoining Stokes second fastest, then Marston, Pettigrew and Jones rounding out the points scorers. Hunt survived an off-road excursion with no damage, but the gap to Marston had just about halved to 5.2 seconds, while a rejoining Gilmour was suffering the same issue and retired again at stage end. Marston would take time out of Hunt on three of the four afternoon stages, moving ahead of Hunt in SS9 when the latter punctured. Tyre wear was proving an issue, with Summerfield delaminating his two rear tyres in the third stage of the loop, while Pettigrew mastered his tyre wear to sit fourth by day end, 32 seconds behind Hunt, who was in turn just two tenths of a second behind Marston, while Horan snuck past Jones for fifth on the final stage. Summerfield sat sixth ahead of Campbell, who was frustrated at just how tight the margins were on each stage, while Hawkeswood battled small issues but did well to sit ninth. Matt Jensen was 10th of the Cat 1 cars, sitting just behind Sievers and Mackenzie’s battle overall. Just behind them, Jackson Clendon was making the most of his new Rally 4 spec Ford Fiesta to hold a lead of 35 seconds in the NZRC 2WD class ahead of Jordan Grant, while Dylan Thomson, who lost time in the morning with a broken engine mount, was 21 seconds further back, the trio the fastest 23
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NZRC - Round 2 - Rally Whangarei outright 2WD cars. Bryn Jones battled brake issues in the afternoon to sit fourth overnight, only 2.1 seconds ahead of Charlie Evans, while Lukas Ramsay was just 15 seconds ahead of JP van der Meys overnight. The Historic runners saw John Silcock make the early move with a pair of stage wins, although he struggled with space to only run one spare compared to the two being taken by Anthony Jones and Shane Murland, allowing them effectively a fresh set of rears at some point in the loop. Despite that, Silcock opened a lead of almost 30 seconds over Jones, with Murland another 10 seconds back by the end of the day. The Open 2WD class saw opening round winner Dan Haines start on the back foot after failing to finish the second pass of the super special, starting the day almost seven minutes behind Dave Strong. He make it back to second behind Strong at days end, but both were promoted when McCrae Sloper went off the road in stage six, throwing away a 30 second lead. By days end, Peter Farrell sat third on his return to the NZRC after more than 40 years. A small amount of overnight rain did little to dampen the dust, but a continued breeze meant it would clear fine. None of that stopped Paddon, who continued on his unbeaten run throughout the morning loop and extending that lead to over five minutes. Stokes rejoined for the second day and was second fastest on each of the four morning stages, while Hunt regained his second place as Marston struggled, some
Robbie Stokes / Amy Stokes 24
car set up issues meaning he couldn’t find a rhythm and the times reflected that, dropping to fourth behind Pettigrew at the lunch time service, while Horan was just 14.1 seconds back in fifth. The pointy end of town was largely untroubled across the morning, Jones the biggest casualty after frustratingly spending more than 10 minutes in a culvert, Gilmour rejoining before power steer issues ended her day on the opener, while Duncan McCrostie’s rally ended with mechanical problems in the second stage of the day, Millbrook. Back in the 2WD battle, Thomson started the day determined to find his way to the front, but at the tricky Ruarangi Road junction less than 5km into the opening stage of the day sadly only found a paddock, lucky to avoid rolling. He was able to regain the road but had damaged the radiator and dropped to the tail of the field performing roadside repairs. Clendon and Grant swapped stage times all morning, Grant slightly trimming the margin, but by days end Clendon had mastered his new car and would take the class win, 36.9 seconds ahead of Grant, while Jones overcame a tricky day to fend off Evans for third. Ramsay was fifth, while van der Meys was forced to limp home to sixth ahead of Thomson, who showed what might have been with several stage wins but was ultimately more than 40 minutes behind Clendon. Meanwhile in the Historics, Jones pushed on for the second day, winning three of the four morning stages to trim Silcock’s lead to 4.8 seconds by the lunch time service. The opening afternoon saw the pair separated by just a tenth of a second
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in the favour of Jones, before Silcock took eight tenths back in the following stage. But a time 4.7 seconds faster in the penultimate stage for Jones meant the epic battle would go to the final stage, the two rivals separated by just eight tenths. Both gave thier all, but it was Jones who came out on top, his eventual margin just six seconds and ironically, was the first time he held the lead all weekend. After an epic fight back, Haines overhauled Dave Strong on the final stage by 14.9 seconds, Strong battling his own issues with 2 minutes 40 seconds of lateness penalties. Unfortunately for Haines, he’d towed the non championship car of Mason Grimmer into the service park as a good deed, unfortunately unaware that such an action is completely outside the rules and drove directly past the event stewards whilst performing the kind deed. That left officials with no option in the rule book other than exclusion, leaving Strong to take the win, his first in the Honda Jazz, while Peter Farrell’s championship return was rewarded with second. Back at the front, no-one could stop Paddon, his eventual margin 6 minutes 14.6 seconds over Hunt, while the Dunlop Drive of the Rally went the way of Pettigrew for his third place, Horan was fourth, his 30 seconds of lateness penalties spreading a gap that was only 1.8 seconds on stage times with Pettigrew. Marston rounded out a frustrating day fifth, but happy to have points on the board. Summerfield was sixth, looking for a fraction more speed, while Campbell came home seventh, comfortably clear of an overheating Hawkeswood,
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while a clean run meant ninth for Matt Jensen. An impressive drive put Clendon 10th outright, Glenn Inkster the next 4WD car in 17th after a niggling event, not helped by bending suspension on stage three, while Brian Green came home 22nd, having a better second day but conceding that there are some very fast young drivers out there these days. Paddon’s second perfect score means he holds a 22 point over Hunt as the series heads to Rally South Canterbury on June 18. ■
Dylan Thomson / Bayden Thomson
Kingsley Jones / Waverley Jones
Jack Hawkeswood / Sarah Brennan
Ben Hunt / Tony Rawstorn
Matt Summerfield / Nicole Summerfield 25
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NZRC - Round 2 - Rally Whangarei PHOTOS BY GEOFF RIDDER
Hayden Paddon / John Kennard
Ari Pettigrew / Jason Farmer
Brian Green
Dylan Thomson / Bayden Thomson
Dylan Thomson
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Phil Campbell / Brianna Little
Anthony Jones / Zoe Jones
Dale Budge / Lukas Ramsay
NZRC Live Stream Crew
Josh Marston / Andrew Graves
Jack Hawkeswood / Sarah Brennan
Dave Strong / Rob Scott
Chris Ramsay / Charlie Evans
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WORLD LEADING BRAKE PADS
CIRCUIT
ROAD
CLUB RALLY Paddon Rallysport is proud to be the distributor of Winmax by Paddon Racing Group Brakes in New Zealand for street, club, rally and circuit applications. A world class brake pad, Winmax is used by many WRC, WEC, GT and TCR teams around the world. Hayden Paddon first started working with Winmax in 2013 during his World Rally Championship campaigns and since has been involved in the development of different compounds for different uses. Braking is one of the most important factors for driver confidence, which is why Paddon uses Winmax in all his cars around the world. Find the right race car brakes, performance car brakes, and rally car brakes at paddonrallysport.co.nz If you have any troubles don’t hesitate to contact our team: info@paddonrallysport.co.nz
Winmax Announce 2022 Junior Drivers The Winmax Brake Pads junior driver program is off a to a strong start in 2022. Three young stars lined up at the Winmax Otago Rally to start their campaigns in the New Zealand Rally Championships, category two. All competing in popular front wheel drive formats, Bryn Jones, Jordan Grant, and Jackson Clendon’ were challenging themselves against a quality field of drivers. Both the experienced and the novice. But all three cars were very different. Jones, the 20-year-old from Cambridge lined up in the common Ford Fiesta ST150. In only his second year of national level rallying, he put in a mature drive to come home 2nd in class along with a good haul of points. “I am really happy with how Rally Otago went. Jared and I worked hard on writing our own notes in recce.” Comments Jones. “It was a good points haul to start the season off with, and great momentum to carry on for the rest of the year.” While Grant, 22 from Tauranga was a favourite to challenge the class frontrunners in his Suzuki Swift. But mechanical dramas forced him to struggle throughout the event before retiring on day two.
Jordan Grant - Photo credit Jason Byrne
Clendon, the youngest of the three at just 19 years of age, had opted to drive an alternative car due to his imported Ford Fiesta Rally 4 not arriving in time. “Stoked to finish my first NZRC event at Rally Otago. I learnt a lot writing my own pace notes for the first time which will help me lots for the future. I’m beyond excited to debut the new Fiesta Rally 4 at Whangarei and can’t wait to get to grips with it over the season” All three drivers now focus on the upcoming Rally Whangarei, a very different challenge to fast Otago Rally. But with Hayden Paddon alongside, the drivers have been able to pick his and the PRG team’s brains on how to best prepare and perform on the rally. “Our partnership with the Winmax Junior Drivers means not only are they running the Winmax product, but they also receive advise and training from myself and our team, in the hope of accelerating their careers in rallying. A lot of people have helped me over the years, and its about using our experience to help them make bigger steps forwards from things we have learnt – both good and bad.” “All three drivers were strong in the opening round and with Jackson debuting is Fiesta Rally 4, I look forward to seeing a tight battle in Whangarei.”
Bryn Jones - Photo credit Jason Byrne
Jackson Clendon - Photo credit Jason Byrne
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From the co-drivers seat NZRC 2022 Round Two - Rally Whangarei
Jackson Clendon & Andrew Brooks 2021 Ford Fiesta Rally4, Car # 34 ARTICLE BY ANDREW BROOKS After a really long wait followed by a quick test the weekend prior in the new Rally4 Fiesta, it was time to head North to the Mark Cromie Motor Group International Rally of Whangarei, Round 2 of the Brian Green Property Group NZRC. Jackson & I arrived in Whangarei on Wednesday afternoon to complete documentation and prepare for recce the following morning. Thursday morning was shaping up to be a cracker as the sun rose whilst we waited in convoy at Helena Bay for the recce briefing. We were again writing our own notes, which proved to be a task and a half on much busier roads than the fast flowing roads in Otago a month earlier. The Switched Motorsport Fabrication crew arrived mid afternoon, and after I applied all the decals to the car, we were off to its very 1st scrutineering in New Zealand, with its last event being the WRC in Spain!! Friday’s recce was quite a lot shorter. It was another cracker day and by lunchtime we were back in the central service park, where I took the opportunity to edit my notes before the traditional ceremonial start on Pohe Island bridge, followed by 2 loops of the Super Special Stage under lights around Pohe Island. At 6.34pm with launch control engaged, the Rally4 popping and banging, we were officially about to start our first rally in the new car. Two very smooth and consistent runs throughout the super special saw us parking up in Parc Ferme overnight, placed 22nd overall and 2nd in class. Saturday morning was another beauty, and after collecting our car from Parc Ferme we toured to the service park for a short 15 minute service before heading North to Helena Bay for our first proper rally stage in the new car. Today was all about learning the car. Adapting to L/H drive and understanding its strengths and weaknesses….and it was awesome! SS3 Helena was a conservative run and we completed our first test of the day with an 11.02.3, fifteen seconds off the pace of the class leader and now sitting 3rd in Cat2 and 19th overall. 30
PHOTOS BY JASON BYRNE Stages 4 & 5 we continued to grow our confidence in the car. We were starting to set more competitive times and were now 15th overall and still 3rd in class. During our tour between SS5 & 6 we discovered we had burnt the front tyres off the car, and we rapidly set about changing them roadside and then headed for SS6, Marlow. Jack & I both love this stage and it showed. We were quickest 2WD and we were now sitting 14th overall and more importantly 2nd in class, 2.5 seconds behind Grant & Goldring in their super slick Suzuki Swift. Off to service we headed to Whangarei where the Switched crew set about their seamless service of the car. As we toured out of Whangarei for the afternoon loop, we were feeling good about how our day was progressing. We were getting faster and more confident and ready to take on the afternoon’s stages. SS7 Helena 2 was awesome, the car was a jet! We had managed to improve our time in the morning by 40 seconds and had also captured the lead in Cat2 and 2WD. Whilst touring we realized we had also taken maximum power stage points. SS8 Akerama 2 was more of the same. We were quickest again and extended our lead to 16 seconds. As we toured to the regroup/ refuel in Hikurangi we decided to stop to change our tyres, and lucky we did! The Pirelli’s we had on the front had seen better days, with steel belts hanging out of them. After a slick highway side pitstop, we were in the regroup/refuel and then touring to the final 2 stages for Saturday. SS9, Crows Nest 2 was amazing. We managed to break the overall 2WD record here with a 10.35.1, and also extended our lead in Cat2 to 29 seconds. Touring to SS10 we stopped briefly to check our tyre situation and again we had the jack & rattle gun out performing another front to rear tyre change. We arrived at Marlow keen to keep our charge going, only to catch the preceding car with approx 10 kms to go. We backed off due to dust but still posted a very respectable time and again extended our lead to 35 seconds.
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On our tour to the end of day service, we began to reflect on what we had achieved during the day. We had started the day focused on learning the car, having good consistent runs, and we now found ourselves leading our class for the 1st time ever. We were also leading outright in 2WD, setting two stage records and breaking another. A pretty good day’s rallying, so my two Heinekens tasted pretty good that night, even though I knew the job was only half done. We finished the evening studying Sunday’s stages and notes. Sunday morning arrived and I woke feeling a tad average, and as the morning progressed I started to feel ill. By the time we had collected the car and toured to service, I realized I had a stomach bug and whilst waiting to tour to the 1st stage of the day, I was hugging the service park toilet. Not ideal but soldiering on, we struggled with traffic conditions and an extremely tight touring time, arriving at the 1st stage of the day late. The morning was fighting us and this continued during the first two stages of the morning. Dropping 9 seconds to Grant and Goldring we battled on, improving just slightly over the remaining 2 stages of the morning to be leading by just 27 seconds at the 1st service. The crew pumped some electrolytes and anti-nausea tablets into me, and as a team Jackson & I reset and refocused on the job at hand. We then toured out to SS15, Ormiston, and once again we were late… as was most of the field. But we were back on song, shaving 38 seconds off our effort in the morning and snuck the lead out to 29 seconds. SS16 Millbrook, 8kms done and dusted in under 5 minutes. We were faster again by 15 seconds compared to the morning loop and our lead was now 34 seconds. SS17 & 18 we continued to extend our lead with some very spirited driving by Jackson and when we crossed the flying finish in SS18, the final stage of the
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rally, we felt ecstatic realizing we had just won 2WD & Cat2 Rally of Whangarei!!! Wow, what a feeling! As a team we have endured many disappointing results, and to not only complete the weekends rallying but also take the win after overcoming some pretty challenging circumstances during the 2nd day, we felt pretty satisfied. The car ran faultlessly all weekend and it is crazy to think that we are now true contenders this year. We could not have achieved these rewarding results without our amazing service crew……so, a massive thank you to Mike Mclean and his Switched Motorsport Fabrication team of Cam, Don & Thomas for keeping us going all weekend. To Jackson, on a great performance behind the wheel, and to all the wonderful characters out on the stages and in the time controls for volunteering their time to help us enjoy the brilliant gravel roads of Northland. Thank you also to the event organizers and sponsors, and to the city of Whangarei. As we head into Round 3 of the Brian Green Property Group NZRC, Rally South Canterbury, we sit 1st equal in NZ 2WD alongside John Silcock & Donna Elder in their Group B RX7. We sit 3rd in NZRC Cat2, 4 points behind Class leader Dylan & Bayden Thomson & 1 point behind Bryn Jones & Jared Hudson in their older style Ford Fiesta ST150’s. We look forward to the car’s 2nd NZ outing in mid-June, and to seeing what the team can achieve. Andrew Brooks - Co Driver FL7L>/Cr
Photo by Geoff Ridder
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ARTICLE BY CONOR EDWARDS The first tarmac event of this year’s World Rally Championship took place in Croatia from April 21st to 24th. Last year was the first appearance of Croatia on the WRC calendar and the event was well received by both competitors and fans, with large numbers of spectators enjoying the rallying on dry, sunny stages. The one big difference this year was the weather, with wet conditions and thick fog on the stages. Many of the Rally1 drivers described the event as tricky due to the combination of a mixture of asphalt surfaces, bumpy roads and the wet, greasy conditions. Conditions on the opening stages of Day One were difficult. The Rally1 crews struggling to get their tyres up to temperature on Stage One, this was compounded by patches of thick fog and slippery roads as each passing car pulled more mud onto the stages. An early casualty was Toyota’s Esapekka Lappi and co-driver Janne Ferm who retired on Stage One having clipped a rock whilst cutting a corner damaging the Yaris’s front right hand side suspension. Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans punctured on SS1 and lost over one minute on SS1 as a result but was able to continue. It wasn’t all bad news for Toyota with Kalle Rovanpera fastest on stages One, Two and Four of the morning loop whilst team-mate Evans was fastest on Stage Three as he worked his way up from 15th to 8th overall despite suffering from a second puncture on Stage Two. It was an eventful morning for M-Sport Ford team as PierreLouis Loubet who entered the event as a M-Sport Ford driver picked up two punctures on the opening stage in his Puma Rally1 car. Gus Greensmith had a moment in front of the TV cameras when the car refused to turn in the slippery conditions and mounted a bank. Luckily Greensmith managed to regain control of the car and avoided a potentially embarrassing roll. Stage Two saw a small off-road excursion for Craig Breen and Paul Nagle as they tried to avoid a kerbstone 34
in the slippery conditions. On Stage Three Adrien Fourmaux retired following a spin which saw him slide off the road and into a local resident’s garden. Unfortunately when the car did return to service it was withdrawn from the event due to a damaged chassis. Hyundai had started the opening morning with strong performances from all three of their crews. Thierry Neuville entered the mid-day service just 12.5 seconds off of the leader Rovanpera. Team-mate Ott Tanak was in 3std place and Oliver Solberg was in 6th position overall. However the Friday afternoon was one to forget for Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe, with two penalties applied to the Belgium crew. The first penalty of 40 seconds was applied for checking in four minutes late to the service time control when their Hyundai i20 would not start due to an alternator failure and the Belgium pair had to push the car 800 metres into service. Then later that afternoon, on a road section the Hyundai crew were ‘caught’ speeding at 156 kilometres per hour in an 80 kph area which resulted in a €1,900 fine by the event stewards. As a result of the two penalties, Neuville dropped from 2ⁿd overall to 4th at the end of Day One. This left Ott Tanak in second place and the closest challenger to Rovanpera who was leading Tanak by 1 minutes and 23 seconds going into Day Two. The Pirelli wet weather tyre was one of the main talking points of the rally. M-Sport were publically critical of the quality/ strength of the wet weather tyre which saw Gus Greensmith’s rally hampered with five punctures and M-Sport team-mate Pierre-Louis Loubet with three punctures on the opening day. Toyota were also affected by double punctures for both Elfyn Evans and Esapekka Lappi. On Saturday (Day Two) there was further drama for Hyundai with an issue on Neuville’s car resulting in the Belgium crew
WRC checking in one minute late to the Time Control. Then on the opening stage of Day Two (SS9), Oliver Solberg lost control of his Hyundai i20 on a fast left-hand bend and slid off the road backwards, coming to rest against some trees. The impact of the accident flattened the exhaust and a small fire started which was extinguished before the car was engulfed in flames. The impact also triggered the red warning light on the i20’s hybrid power unit but the team later confirmed there had been no issue with the electric power unit. Toyota’s Rovanpera started the Saturday morning loop of stages ‘comfortably’ over one minute in ahead of Hyundai’s Ott Tanak. Despite dry patches on the stages the leading crews opted for full wet tyres to help cope with the mud being pulled onto the road by cars cutting the corners. On stage 13 a front left puncture for Rovanpera saw his lead reduced to 18.2 seconds over Tanak. By mid-day service Tanak had reduced Rovanpera’s lead to 16.8 seconds. M-Sports Craig Breen was 3rd overall in the Ford Puma and Neuville remained in 4th place just 26 seconds behind. Toyota’s Elfyn Evans had climbed to 5th place in front of the Toyota ‘B’ team of Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston. Over the Saturday afternoon loop of stages Neuville continued his fight back. The Belgium crew had an engine issue in the Hyundai that limited the i20’s throttle to 40% over the closing five kilometres of Stage Sixteen. Despite this, Neuville closed the gap to Breen finishing the day 5.9 seconds behind the M-Sport driver. The Hyundai of Ott Tanak was also experiencing issues but in this case it was the i20’s gearbox. Saturday ended with Rovanpera setting the fastest time on the day’s final stage, beating Tanak by 5.1 seconds and remaining the rally leader 19.9 seconds ahead of Ott Tanak. The Toyotas of Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta held onto their 5th and 6th places whilst the remaining positions in the top 10 were held by Rally2 cars.
RALLY
kilometres of stage mileage. On the first stage of the final day, Rovanpera increased his lead over Tanak to 31.1 seconds. Tanak had opted for a soft tyre choice compared to Rovanpera who had chosen the hard compound tyre on the dry asphalt. On Stage Eighteen, Neuville set the fastest time on the stage and moved ahead of Breen on the leader board putting himself 7.8 seconds clear of the M-Sport crew and taking a podium place. On the penultimate stage there was a heavy downpour of rain prior to the stage start. Again, it was tyre choice that helped to make the difference between the two rivals, this time though it was Tanak who gained the advantage. Tanak had opted for two soft tyres and two wets on the Hyundai i20, while Rovanpera had gone for a combination of two hard and two wet tyres. The sudden bout of wet weather had been a surprise to the teams who had been using their wet tyres to cope with the mud on the stages and had not expected to need them for wet weather conditions. In fact none of the other Rally1 crews had opted to use wet tyres for the Sunday loop of stages. Stage Nineteen saw Tanak overhaul the Toyota of Rovanpera to take the lead by 1.4 seconds with just one stage left to run. Running on slick tyres, Craig Breen spun his M-Sport Puma losing one minute to his rival for the third spot, Thierry Neuville. Behind Breen, there was status quo among the Toyota team-mates of Elfyn Evans in 5th and Takamoto Katsuta in 6th place overall. It had been an eventful rally for Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe both on and off the stages and the final stage added further drama for the Belgium pairing. Neuville slid wide on a right-hand bend. The i20 dug into the soft banking and the car went up on its nose, almost toppling over before landing back on its wheels. Neuville quickly re-joined
The final day was fought over four stages consisting of 54.48
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the stage with minimal time loss and was able to maintain his third place at the finish of the rally. Rovanpera put on a stunning performance on the final stage to set the fastest time, beating Tanak’s Hyundai by 5.6 seconds. Kalle Rovanpera secured his fourth WRC win and confirmed that he has what it takes to win this year’s WRC Championship. It was on this event last year that Rovanpera crashed out on stage one and retiring from the event - what a difference a year makes. ■
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NEW ZEALAND
SEMOG CROSSCARS Hayden Paddon has built a strong partnership with the Semog factory in Portugal to be able to work together to create a platform to now import these into New Zealand. Semog Racing Products NZ, Jeff and Ollie Ward are the sole importer of Semog Crosscars and parts into NZ. Support to this Crosscar, customers and the future is: ■ Extensive stock and supply of spare parts and technicians available for support or maintenance ■ Part of National Hill Climb Championship ■ Schedule A Compliance for local club events ■ Driver appearances and when required, technical assistance from Hayden and Paddon Rallysport We have spec’d two versions of the Semog Crosscar to meet the NZ market – the Lite and Elite model. The Lite model is a great starter platform and ideal for young ones starting in motorsport. All features of the Elite model can be purchased/added separately at a later date. The Elite model is a fully kitted and more powerful kart suitable for all forms of motorsport – hillclimbs, speedway demonstrations, club events etc. The Elite model is also 50mm higher in the cockpit height and is available with a plus size seat. There is also an XL chassis which is +100mm.
Crosscars are an exciting and
very affordable motorsport platform that has been present in Europe for several years. These full roll cage, space framed, high revving pocket rockets are the essence of motorsport in its rawest form. These short wheel base, 14500rpm, space frame karts powered by Suzuki GSX-R750cc engines, are huge fun to drive but also cheap to maintain. The karts are 6 speed sequential, rear wheel drive on a live axle with two front hydraulic brakes and full pedal box. Excellent performance on tarmac and gravel with the one class tyre. There are plenty of videos on the internet for viewing.
EVENTS We have been working with Motorsport NZ to ensure that the Semog Crosscars will be accepted in club events such as hillclimbs and autocrosses. We are also exploring options to work with Speedway NZ and Offroad NZ which will be continued to be developed. You will be able to use your Crosscar in such events as: ■ MSNZ Car club events – hillclimbs, autocrosses ■ Speedway demonstration events ■ General paddock/private road use (at your own discretion) ■ Clubsport organised Hill Climb Championship summer of 2021/2022 (likely to be 3-4 events) ■ Future FIA Driver Programmes
SEMOG CROSSCAR SPECS SEMOG Lite This is the entry level Crosscar and doesn’t include any of the extras on the Elite model. Good for shorter events, autocrosses or speedway. All parts can be updated to Elite version at a later date if chosen.
Overview of specs Engine:
GSXR 600cc (rebuilt, older model)
Transmission: 6 speed sequential, Hydraulic clutch, but no reverse gear. Suspension:
Basic 1 way Suspension (no adjustment)
Brakes:
Small hydraulic front brakes
Interior:
Carbon dash, small gear number, Racetech seat, belts and steering wheel, fire extinguisher
Fuel:
Standard fuel tank and system
Tyres:
Goldspeed tyres
Other:
Lithium battery
PRICE:
$30,000 + GST (Subject to cost increases and specs requested)
SEMOG Elite and SEMOG Elite +100mm height This model we have spec’d highly to be able to compete in most forms of NZ motorsport, particularly around hillclimbs and longer events. Slightly bigger chassis and more powerful.
Overview of specs: Engine:
GSXR 750cc (rebuilt and newer model), bigger radiator and fan
Transmission: 6 speed sequential, Hydraulic clutch, electric reverse gear. Suspension:
EXT 2 way adjustable dampers – top spec.
Brakes:
Uprated front hydraulic brakes, brake bias valve, hydraulic handbrake
Interior:
Carbon dash, large gear number, Racetech seat, belts and steering wheel, fire extinguisher
Fuel:
Larger fuel tank with ATL fuel fittings and braided hoses
Tyres:
Medium compound Goldspeed tyres, beadlocks
Other:
50mm higher chassis or +100mm (more cockpit space), mudguard kit, Lithium battery
PRICE:
$39,000 + GST (Subject to cost increases and specs requested)
All Crosscars will be supplied in base white colour, and standard colour seat/belts. There is an option on a standard or plus size seat. Payment plan - To be agreed upon.
Semog Racing Products NZ
NEW ZEALAND
Omahi St, Waikanae 5036 Mobile: 021738000 Email: jeff@nzrd.co.nz
RALLY
CLUB EVENTS
Popotunoa Rallysprint
Emma Gilmour
ARTICLE BY STEVE RUSSEL
S
aturday 26th March saw the Eastern Southland Car Club host the Popotunoa Rallysprint, based just to the north of Clinton it attracted 27 crews in what has been a very busy time on the competition calendar, for both organisers and competitors. Just two weeks prior it was the Ben Nevis Hillclimb, and two weeks from today’s event it’s the Otago rally, so 27 starters is not too bad, the field was varied with a sprinkling of AP4 cars and the usual mix of clubman’s cars. Kingsley Jones had brought his Skoda Fabia down early in readiness for the Otago rally, choosing to do this event as a shakedown and miss his local Bothwell loop rallysprint in Pukekohe, his reasoning being that this road was more like the roads that would be used in the Otago rally, obviously the car will be staying down here for a few weeks, making his trip home and the one back a lot easier. Another guy doing similar was Pokeno’s Ray Wilson, also choosing to leave his Impreza down here whilst having a break in Queenstown prior to the rally. The weather did stay fine with the sun breaking through in the afternoon, but prior to start it was looking very overcast and rather gloomy, some very light rain did fall just prior to the reccee but that was about it, which had no impact on road conditions, which were perfect. The event procedure was to have three runs in one direction in the morning, with three more in the opposite direction in the afternoon, with your fastest in each direction being added together to give you your total. Hamish Roache led the field away in his very smart MK1 Suzuki Swift GTi, Hamish dual driving with his co-driver, Ian Warren. A three minute gap was applied here as the next car on the road was another Suzuki, albeit one with a little more horse power, 4wd and being driven by Emma Gilmour. No disrespect to the guys in the 1300cc Swift but their first stage time was 07:18.89, Emma’s was 05:28.54, taking in the difference in times and adding in the dry dusty conditions you can see why a three minute gap was essential. From here on in it remained 1 minute intervals between the rest of the field, although dry and dusty it was also quite windy which 40
PHOTOS BY STEVE RUSSELL / TRACY MICHELLE
helped the competitors and organisers. The beauty about rally sprints is that drivers use the same stretch of road several times, and being a spectating marshal you really do notice that the first run is often untidy, although it’s great for photos! But drivers and co-drivers adapt, learn the road and fine tune their notes, needless to say the times improve the drivers get quicker but the risk also becomes higher. When travelling over the same stretch of road the natural tendency is to push, push and push as they try to extract the most out of themselves, their cars and the road, but when they find the limit its often bad news! Every car on the first run made it through. Fastest on the first run was Andrew Graves, although running an aging Evo 3 and up against quite a bit more horse power from fellow competitors, but this guy sure can pedal, he’s extremely neat and tidy, he’s also a local Gore resident and local knowledge does sometimes help but apart from Kingsley Jones and Ray Wilson the majority of the field are also locals, so in this case the “Locals “ tag is irrelevant, let’s just acknowledge that he’s pretty quick. His time on this run was 05:22.98. Emma Gilmour was next on 05:28.54 with Kingsley Jones on 05:30.54 All the above are class D runners for 4wd. Of the next class, C for over 1600cc and it was a good scrap between the Hillman Avenger of Balclutha’s Barry Mills and Winton’s Brendon Mitchell in his Datsun 1600, with Mills just piping him by a second. Dylan Thomson was 3rd on this first run, bringing his Fiesta home 3 seconds later. The class B, for up to 1600cc saw Dunedin’s Rob McConachie push his Toyota Starlet extremely hard, he was very committed and really threw the car around, he was almost 10 seconds ahead of his class rival Craig Cormack, again in a Toyota, this one being a Corolla AE86. Third on this run was Aled Jones, flying the flag for Wales although residing in Invercargill, I must say, that although a little off the pace of the front runners he seemed to be trying hard and looked very good out on the stage. The Class A was a battle between the driver & co-driver of the Suzuki Swift, I’m sure it was great fun and very competitive within the cockpit but on the first run it went to Ian Warren.
CLUB EVENTS So with the first run over, all cars making it through safely and all competitors having a good look at the road it was now time to start turning the screws, stage times were to come down but the risks go up! First casualty was the awesome V8 engined Vauxhall Chevette of Murray Thomas, starting the stage but unfortunately having to retire due to fuel pump problems, a real shame as this is a spectacular car out on the stage, it looks great, sounds great and any car that’s so small and light with a V8 in it and on gravel has to be spectacular. To give you an idea of how this car can go on his first run Murray set the 5th fastest time overall, and was the first 2wd by some 13 seconds. At the pointy end of the table Graves was once again the fastest, but Gilmour had closed the gap, which on the first run was close to 6 seconds, this run it was down to 2 seconds. Kingsley Jones was proving that local knowledge is not essential, and cream does rise to the top, he took a good 8 seconds off his first run to put the pressure on the leaders, keeping them honest and ready to pounce should any of them slip up. Ari Pettigrew, another hard charger who’s gaining a reputation as a promising young fella who has a bright future in the sport was the just 1 second behind Jones. To be fair this bunch were already opening up quite a gap between the best and the rest! In class C, Dylan Thomson had turned the tables on Barry Mills and Brendon Mitchell, shattering his first run time by 22 seconds, Mitchell just managed to keep Mills at bay to take 2nd on this run. Class B was again won by the stage 1 pacesetter Rob McConachie and class A was Ian Warren, having the upper hand on his fellow competitor and co-driver Hamish Roche.
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Onto the 3rd run, and the last one in this direction. This saw the retirement of Jason Keach in his Impreza WRX, and blow to Ari Pettigrew’s chances when he pulled up at the first intersection with a driveshaft problem, this was soon fixed by the roadside but his time was irrelevant, and a detour to the service park followed his repair. Now bearing in mind that only your fastest time of these 3 runs was to count to your total, it was now or never to get the upper hand on any of your opponents. With this in mind Emma Gilmour put pedal to the metal and just pipped Graves to record the fastest time of the day so far, it was only just, 1 second! A time of 05:09.94 was the fastest time of the day so far. Graves was secure in 2nd place with Jones again taking 3rd. The classes all remained the same. With a reverse direction the afternoon the runs started with another reccee, after this it was back to the drawing board as it was now another level playing field. It was that man Graves again, that showed everyone the way home, but, only just! Gilmour was just a second away. Nothing new here, but the next position had been Kingsley’s all morning, especially with Ari having driveshaft problems on the last of the mornings run. However Ari had other ideas and showed a clean pair of heels to Kingsley, beating him by just over 6 seconds. Class C, and on this run it all stayed the same as the third, Thomson kept his fiesta out in front again with a comfortable 10 second lead, Mills kept the Avenger ahead of Mitchells Datsun but only just, a couple of seconds was the breathing space. Class B was again McConachie, still ringing the neck of his Starlet and putting 5 seconds on his nearest competitor, that being Craig Cormack in his Corolla AE86, who in turn had 3 seconds on the Astra of Aled Jones.
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CLUB EVENTS
The Driver verse Co-driver battle continued in the Suzuki Swift Ian Warren holding on to his comfortable lead. This run also saw a DNF from Damian Vincent, putting his Lancer GSR off into the scenery, no damage was caused and after a little assistance he was back on the road for the two remaining runs. Caleb MacDonald also recorded a DNF, but unfortunately it was permanent. Onto the 5th run, and Gilmour turned the tables on Graves albeit by just a second, Kingsley Jones was having none of Ari having the upper hand on the previous run, putting his foot down and ending up with a time of 25 seconds ahead of Ari. Although when looking at the times of these two on the previous runs you would have to suspect that something was not quite right with Ari’s Holden Barina. The next run would prove the point, with Ari recording a DNF, but wouldn’t you know it, so did Kingsley, picking up a puncture just a couple of Km’s from the finish. That left the final run a bit of nail biter, Graves and Gilmour had been very close all through the previous runs, it’s in battles like this were two drivers have been pretty close all day that I often wonder if one driver is toying with the other, is one just
Craig Cormack
Andrew Graves 42
doing enough to keep the pressure on the other? Or are they really going as fast as they can? On this last run Emma put in a time of 04:56.08, Andrew recorded 04:58.16. Added to their fastest runs from the morning sessions this gave Emma the victory with a total time of 10:06.02, Andrew’s total was 10:06.12. Kingsley produced a total time of 10:26.70 with Ari on 10:35.24. Mossburn resident James Worker rounded off the top five in his Evo6 with a 10:51.81. Dylan Thomson took class C in his Fiesta with a total time of 11:08.00, Barry Mills held onto 2nd in his Avenger with Brendon Mitchell taking third in his Datsun. Rob McConachie had a total time of 11:34.22 in his Starlet to take Class B from Craig Cormack’s Toyota AE86 with Aled Jones taking the final podium spot in his Astra. Class A saw the winner, Ian Warren post a 11:56.01 over his co-driver Hamish Roche, the pair dual driving & co driving the MK1 Suzuki Swift, in what must have been a very competitive days racing. A couple of beers, a nice feed and prize giving back at the Oak Tree Inn at Clinton ended a great day, a superbly run event on a fantastic road, the weather played its part and no major incidents what more can you ask for? ■
CLUB EVENTS
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Ian Warren
Brendon Mitchell
Kingsley Jones
Ari Pettigrew
Rob McConachie 43
RALLY
BEN NEVIS GOLDEN 1200
“In Them There Hills”
Thomas Good
ARTICLE BY STEVE RUSSEL
A
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
RALLY
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
RALLY
BEN NEVIS GOLDEN 1200
trampers and hunters who wander off into the surrounding hills, and with the river being right there it was ideal for the water truck to fill up. You can imagine our horror when just prior to the first competitor being flagged away two guys appeared, with six kids, all toddlers and a puppy! A quick word about safety, flying rocks & stones, where to stand etc. and hopefully they behave! I must say, their behaviour was impeccable and we need not have worried, after a few conversations throughout the morning it turned out they were neighbours of ours back in Invercargill. They were regular campers in this area, knew it well and although they were not here for the event and knew nothing of it they certainly knew who Hayden Paddon was. And so to the action, and as previously mentioned it’s not our intention to cover exactly who did what, as by the time you read this you’ve probably seen the TV coverage and coverage elsewhere in this magazine and media outlets. But it would be rude not to mention a little bit of what we saw. The crosscars were fantastic, totally committed and very spectacular, especially through the lower part of the course from the start to P4, a very, very fast section. The guys on two wheels are very brave, basically with no protection should they come off, It must have been very difficult after a run or two coping with the ruts that the rally cars inevitability leave behind them. The quads probably suffered the same fate but again were very interesting, especially Ian Fitch on his super quad, although it was disappointing to see him blow his engine late on Saturday afternoon. Our favourites, as always and I must say I’m totally one eyed on this topic was the 2WD rally cars, although we all know the 4WD cars are faster you cannot beat the sight or sound of a decent rear wheel 2WD machine being driven well. Jeff Judd was fantastic, especially on his last run on Sunday, Thomas Good in his MK1 was also very good to watch, pardon the pun! The Datsun of Brendon Mitchell was also great to watch, add in Deborah Kibble in her trusty Misty Lancer and a very well driven, and quite an unusual car for the gravel, that being the Capri of Steve Gray. Gordan Beeby in a very smart BMW 316 was another stand out and committed driver. Of the 4WD’s, well the times speak for themselves but for spectacular driving this had to go to Kevin Laird in his Subaru WRX. It was great to see Graeme Bjerring out in the Mitsubishi Starion 4WD, a real blast from the past. But, as predicted it was Hayden Paddon who stole the show, and what a site. To see him thrash his Hyundai AP4 through such spectacular countryside was a pure thrill, especially from our point 2 spot where we could see him leave the start line and along the long straight before turning into the sharp right and onto the bridge, here we lost site, but only for a couple of
Steve Gray
46
seconds, then over the crest he appears, at this stage every other competitor had all four wheels firmly planted on the road, but not Hayden, he was already set up for the next kink left, sideways and plenty of daylight between his rubber and the gravel, then loads of dust and flying stones, and it was all over, he was gone. Luckily for us we still had at least at least kilometre of viewing, the dust cleared as quick as it came and then it was sit back and enjoy as he climbed the hill, the dust trail against the backdrop was awesome. Needless to say he won the event. With three runs on Saturday, and three on Sunday we had plenty of viewing, although due to the camp ground we still had to work to do. Overnight we had some new campers, the kinder garden family was still here, a hunter had returned from a night chasing deer and the South American gangster’s had also arrived! This included an Argentinian with a Checz girlfriend, three Brazilians and a couple of Colombian drug dealers, nice enough at first but they soon became restless, they were semi interested in the cars as apparently they were all mechanics from Queenstown, after one run they wanted to leave, but it was not as easy as that, timing was critical. They made several attempts to try and leave and although a couple of “raised voice instructions” were politely directed at them, they continually became more impatient. It was music to my ears when a window of opportunity arose, the water truck needed filling from the river at the campground and so with the clerk of the course’s permission the gangsters were able to escape. Awesome, we were able to relax and enjoy the rest of the Sunday afternoons racing. The hunter had also made an escape and the kinder garden school had also disappeared although god knows to where as they never came out of the gate! The event continued to provide great entertainment, the weather did get a little overcast, cooled down a little and the wind got up, which did help with dust and aided better viewing, but then as the last run was about to get underway it all relented, the wind dropped and the clouds disappeared. This 3rd run on Sunday was the only one of the day were your time was the only one that counted, so you can imagine how different this run was. With competitors having two days to learn the course and this last one only counting today it was all or nothing for quite a few of them. Judd was spectacular, ringing the neck of his MK2 Escort, the crosscars were absolutely nuts and Paddon, well he was just Paddon, fantastic. So, with all the action and prize giving over you’d think that it would the end, but not for the marshals, helpers and support staff, the PRG had arranged an evening BBQ back in Cromwell, were Hayden and his team showed up and thanked everyone for all their help, another nice touch and a very pleasant ending to what was a fantastic event, we’ll be back in 2024 for the next one! ■
BEN NEVIS GOLDEN 1200
Jeff Judd
Kevin Laird
Tracy Michelle
Ian Ffitch
RALLY
Ari Pettigrew
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RALLY
NRSS
Northern Rally Sprint Series
Winner - Ben Thomasen
Bothwell Loop Road
ARTICLE BY MALCOLM MCLEOD
PHOTOS BY JASON BYRNE
After the abrupt ending to last year’s season, and the postponement of the scheduled opening round of the 2022 CPS Northern Rallysprint Series, in conjunction with Suspension Tech, we finally got underway on the 20th March with Pukekohe Car Club’s 7.5km Bothwell Loop round.
Missing out on the top 16 were Derek Payne in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 4, Karl Douglas in his Subaru Impreza WRX, Simon Rabbage in his Suzuki Swift Sport, series co-sponsor Chris Alexander in his Toyota Corolla DX, and Hamil Pala in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9.
Although only a modest entry of 38 competitors, it was full of quality, with several competitors using the event as a shakedown for the Otago Rally in April. Leading the entries were 2001 series winner Ben Thomasen in his rapid Subaru Impreza WRX, and 2021 series runner-up Charlie Evans in his Honda Civic, while Matt Jensen, Emma Gilmour, Raana Horan, Dylan Turner, and Brian Green made sure that Thomasen and Evans weren’t going to have it all their way.
Already, dramas were striking many competitors, with Gareth Eady suffering fuel pump problems and retiring after this run, McCrae Sloper and Dan Reichenbach both sliding off the road and into banks in the slippery conditions, and Zeal Jones getting a red flag, and missing out on a rerun.
Also of note to watch was the experienced Todd Bawden, in his new Ford Fiesta R5 – Todd is renown for being a hard charger, and it was going to be interesting to watch him get to grips with the more potent machinery. And get to grips with the car he did, on the opening run, setting quickest time in the slippery conditions by nearly 6 seconds, over the Suzuki of Emma Gilmour, with the Skoda Fabia R5 of Raana Horan next, followed closely by defending series champion Ben Thomasen. The latter 3 were separated by just under a second – it was clear that this was going to be anybody’s event!
However the big news was Brian Green, who caught his foot on the accelerator pedal while braking for a corner in his Mitsubishi Mirage AP4, and going into a bank as a result, causing enough damage to take him out of the day’s competition. Run two saw Horan record a sinuating time to move him to the top of the time sheets, while both Thomasen and Gilmour pipped Bawden, and knocked him back to fourth place. Turner and Jensen pulled ahead of Grant, while Bryn Jones just held out Antony Te Rito for the final top eight spot. Gibson and Evans followed Te Rito, only a handful of seconds separating the Honda trio, while Lukas Ramsay was able to grab
Ready to pounce behind them, however, were some very quick front wheel drive cars and peddlers, headed by Jordan Grant in his Suzuki Swift who managed to pip Dylan Turner in his sinister black Audi A1 by nearly a second, while Charlie Evans in his Honda Civic just managed to hold out young Bryn Jones by just under a second as well. The top 16 was completed by Honda Civic driver Colin Gibson, Matt Jensen in his Mazda 2 AP4, Antony Te Rito in a Honda Civic, a Generation Game battle between Chris Ramsey and son Lukas – less then two-thirds of a second separating them – followed by Dave Strong in his Honda Jazz, Chris Lockyear in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 3, and rounding out the top 16 was Stumpy Holmes, in his Ford Escort. Lukas Ramsay 48
NRSS the bragging rights for the family, after “Rambo” snr clipped a rock and bent his steering, losing nearly a minute and dropping him to 16th place, the pair separated by Lockyear, Strong, and Stumpy Holmes. With both Turner and Jensen not starting the final two runs, the battle for the lead was left to be fought out between Thomasen, Horan, and Gilmour, the trio separated by only five seconds, with Bawden dropping back, albeit with a safe fourth place. Meanwhile, the battle between the youngsters, Bryn Jones and Jordan Grant intensified this round, with Bryn piping Grant for 5th overall, after a stick got stuck in the lower control arm of Grant’s Suzuki, making it feel like it had a puncture. It is going to be very interesting watching the battle between these two as the season goes by. Other drivers to suffer a bit of misfortune on this run were Charlie Evans, who limped through the stage with a faulty throttle position sensor, and Lockyear, who clipped a rock with his right front corner, breaking a steering arm, and causing him to graze a bank on the next left hand corner.
RALLY
The over 2000cc 2WD class saw a healthy entry of 7 vehicles, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, where nothing is what it seems, and the only thing they share in common is the fact that none of them are completely standard RALLY cars as such….with one or two exceptions! Their number was reduced by one just two kilometres into the first run, when McCrae Sloper slid off the road into a bank in his BMW, and was forced to retire. At the front of the field, Chris “Rambo” Ramsay took a five second lead in his Toyota Corolla over the V6 powered Honda Jazz of Dave Strong. They were comfortably ahead of the Toyota Corolla DX of series co-sponsor Chris Alexander, the Escort of Daniel Haynes, the fearsome VW Corvair of Rodney Atchinson, and the pretty-much bog standard Honda Accord V6 (formerly with leather seats) of long time official, helper, and photographer Malcolm McLeod, who was making his rallysprint debut as a driver.
The final run saw Gilmour pip Horan by two seconds to take second place, and finish just 1.6 seconds behind Thomasen, while Todd was a further 2.4 seconds behind Raana, in fourth place. Four seconds covering the top four at the finish is close in anyone’s language, but shows a well driven “conventional” 4WD rally car can still match it with the latest AP4 and R5 cars in rallysprint events. The 1301-1600cc class was looking to be a Lukas Ramsey benefit, with his Ford Fiesta R2 having a clear 20 second advantage over the Suzuki of Simon Rabbage after the first two runs. However, a broken ball joint on the Fiesta after the 2nd run handed the class lead to Rabbage, who was never headed, and dropped Lukas down to 6th place in class at the finish.
Malcolm McLeod
Behind them, there was a good battle going on between Cameron McKay, Graeme Barr, and Bruce Airey for the minor spots, with the positions changing every run. However, the vagrancies of elimination rallysprints with regards to class results, means you can often have someone creep up behind you and steal a spot at the last minute…..and moments for McKay on run three, and Barr on run four, allowed Subaru Impreza driver Zeal Jones to steal third in class on the last run, 13 seconds behind Airey, and 22 seconds in front of Barr. McKay finished up with 5th in class, followed by Lukas, Gareth Eady, and Dan Reichenbach. With 10 entries, the 1601-2000cc class had the pressure on straight away to make the top eight cut-off, and unfortunately Adrian Sutton, and Sam Williamson both missed out. However, at the front it was going to be an epic battle between Grant, Evans, Bryn Jones, Colin Gibson, and Antony Te Rito, with the Escort of Stumpy Holmes not able to be discounted either. The first run saw them finish in that order, but you could hardly say that any position was safe…. The second run saw Grant maintain his lead, while Bryn, Te Rito, and Gibson leapfrogged Evans, but with only ten seconds covering the top five, anything could happen…..and on the next run, it did! Drama’s for both Evans and Grant dropped them to 7th and 8th in class, allowing Brendon Andrews and Stephen Dill to move up into 5th and 6th in class. Gibson had now taken over the joint class lead with Te Rito, the pair recording identical times, while Bryn was a further four seconds back in third. Stumpy had now moved up into fourth after showing steady improvements. The fourth run saw Te Rito beat both Bryn and Gibson to take the class win by 5 seconds, Bryn just holding onto second place by 0.7 of a second.
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RALLY
CLUB EVENTS
Strong took the lead on run two from Haynes, after “Rambo” lost time with damaged steering after hitting a rock, Meanwhile, run three saw Strong drop back to third in class in front of Alexander, after Rambo regained the lead ahead of Haynes. Run four saw Strong pip Haynes for second in class, and then go on to beat Rambo for the class win in the runoff, after Rambo chose to sit out the runoff, still pleased with the day. Atchinson secured fifth in class by a considerable margin over McLeod.
Malcolm McLeod 1973 - 2022 Malcolm was very keen to be writing articles for this magazine, in particular for the Northern Rally Sprint Series where he made his gravel debut in his Honda Accord.
Chris Lockyear was the sole competitor in the Historic 4WD class, and so obviously took the class win, while in the 2WD Historic class, Glenn Cameron in a Mazda RX7 had an easy win over Mark Baldwin in a Ford Escort, Cameron never being headed. Behind the outright top four in the 4WD class, Dylan Turner was fifth quickest on the first run, followed by Matt Jensen, while Derek Payne, Karl Douglas, and Hamil Pala had a close battle, the trio separated by only ten seconds. The next run saw Pala leapfrog both Turner and Jensen into 5th in the class, while Payne took the final spot in top eight, leaving Douglas to take 9th. With Turner and Jensen electing not to compete in the final two runs, this left Payne and Pala to fight it out for 5th and 6th in class, the Evo 4 driver managing to beat Pala by about 9 seconds in the end. The Suspension Tech Co-Drivers series is being led by Gavin Haycock, from Michael Conner, Paul Burborough, Tyson Jemmett, Dayna Kiekebosch, Clint Jones, Rob Scott, Boots Ryan, Yvonne Fullerton, and Andrew So, with Adrian Sutton leading Class C, Scott leading Class D, and Haycock leading Class E. A busy couple of months lay ahead, with round two of the CPS Northern Rallysprint Series, the Andy Lowe Memorial Rallysprint, being held on Piakanui Road on the 8th May and run by the Thames Valley Car Club, round three on the 29th May, being the rescheduled Arcadia Road event organised by the Hibiscus Coast Motorsport Club, and then Motorsport BOP’s 4th round of the series on the 12th June, a duel sprint on Mangatoi Road and at TECT Park. ■
Chris Lockyear 50
Rob Scott sums up nicely Malcolm’s dedication and passion to Motorsport.
I first met Malcolm in the late 80s when he was introduced to me as 'the biggest pest in Northland Car Club'. It was cruel - but accurate. But that annoying young lad turned into a quirky, original adult that was soon involved in every facet of our sport. His devotion to motorsport and especially the people involved meant that he was likely to pop up anywhere, in any capacity - be it flaggie, Clerk of Course, photographer or scribe. Indeed the advent of social media saw Malcolm carve out his own niche so many thousands more were exposed to his passion. Motorsport lives and breathes on the dedication of the volunteers and clubman competitors who fill most of our fields. Malcolm McLeod was a unique example of this and kiwi motorsport will be a less colourful place with his loss. by Rob Scott
CLUB EVENTS
Glenn Cameron
Derek Payne
RALLY
Dave Strong
Colin Gibson
Jordan Grant 51
RALLY
NRSS
Northern Rally Sprint Series
Winner - Ben Thomasen
Piakonui Road
PHOTO GALLERY BY JASON BYRNE
Driver briefing
Peter Farrell 52
NRSS
Lyndsay Homes
Haydn Mackenzie
John Murphy
Hamil Pala
John Coker
Bruce Airey
Rob Sutherland
Rob Sutherland
RALLY
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RALLY
CLUB EVENTS
Motorsport New Zealand Goldstar New Zealand Hillclimb Championship Final
Matt Penrose
ARTICLE BY DONNA ELDER
T
he Motorsport New Zealand Goldstar New Zealand Hillclimb Championship Final was hosted by the Hawkes Bay Car Club over in Taumarunui on the 26th & 27th March. The weekend went well, and the weather gods played a part, providing beautiful sunshine, whilst other parts of the North Island was experiencing torrential rain and flooding. The 2021-2022 Championship didn’t escape the reach of covid restrictions, which resulted in a scaled back championship, with only half the number of qualifying rounds in each island and the final. The Crosscars, added extra events to their championship with the inclusion of Waimate 50 and the second day at the Ben Nevis Golden 1200. This year we introduced a 4WD championship, and it was won by Andrew Elder from Hawkes Bay.
Rodney Atchison
54
PHOTOS BY JASON BYRNE I would like to thank the Club’s who hosted rounds, and the Clubsport Commission would be keen to hear from any Club who may be interested in hosting a round next year. Once again, this year we have been lucky enough to race on some very special roads, with the inclusion of the Coronet Peak event, Ben Nevis, Waimate 50, Port Waikato and the Kururau and Okahukura Saddle Roads in Taumarunui for the final. Those who have been around the sport for a while will have memories of the Kururau Road from days gone by. This road brought back fond memories for Campbell Wright, Rodney Atchison and Kevin Sanderson who raced there decades ago. Rodney was even in the same car, the Corvair powered VW Beetle. The Goldstar NZ Hillclimb title was won by Matt Penrose in his Crosscar, previously he has won the title in a Subaru WRX, it is fantastic to have Matt’s continued support of the Championship and nice to see that no matter what he is driving, he continues to be hard to beat. ■
Matt Penrose
CLUB EVENTS
Campbell Wright
Donna Elder
Nik Sadler
Rodney Atchison
Mark Bradly
Tony Jilesen
Andrew Elder
Thomas Good
RALLY
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RALLY
Dave Fife 56
CLUB EVENTS
CLUB EVENTS
Richard Leggett
Kevin Sanderson
Mike Torr
Mark Bradly
Andrew Lowe
Matt Penrose
Andrew Elder
Thomas Good
RALLY
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Road O ARTICLE BY ROB SCOTT
smoothed the rest with 4 litres of bog then just painted over the lot.”
A blown engine in the RX3 would eventually see him upgrade to the ex-Dave Thexton/ Mike Montgomery RX7. Things did not start well with this new car either – he clouted a strainer post at the Expo Centre rallysprint in his first outing. He stuck to mainly Top Half events but acknowledges being just Joe Average – he loved the people and the adventure but never really thought he could make a success of it. “I had all the gear but no idea.”
RALLY OTAGO 2022 - PHOTO BY JASON BYRNE
I asked Kingsley Jones if he had any plans for 2023. “Well,” he said, “we’ll head over to Europe to pick up a new Skoda R5. While we’re there we’ll try to contest a WRC or ERC round, then compete at Milwaukee’s Snow rally on the way home.” My big plans for 2023 are planting spinach instead of lettuce in my vege garden. Kingsley first caught the bug when his Dad Ron took him spectating on Rally New Zealand. He was enthralled by the Audis and Lancia 037s, and couldn’t believe his eyes when Reg Cook spun his Nissan 240RS backwards into the crowd at Woodhill forest. The annual WRC round became a yearly family pilgrimage, which Kingsley was to continue when he joined up with a group of South Auckland CC mates. “We used to see how many stages we could get to. In order to claim a stage you had to catch the first ten cars – including Possum. Our best effort was 44 out of 45 stages; as you can imagine it involved some fairly insane driving.” The youngster built himself an RX3 rally car and promptly rolled it on his first event. Wallowing through a muddy patch in Glenbervie forest he dropped the Mazda down a 40ft bank into the pines. Repairing the damage, he admits his panel beating skills were not the best “I hammered out the biggest dents, 58
It was the late James Allan that turned him around. “He suggested going back to an underpowered car and re-learning how to drive. I bought a Datsun 1200 – standard carbs, locked diff – and finally gained some self-belief in my abilities.” He flirted with a VR4 (crashed it first rally) then sold it to Jeff Hill (who also crashed it first rally) who flicked it to Grant Blackberry (who promptly did the same). More Mitsubishis followed – the ex-Hawkeswood Evo3 then an Evo7 he built up from a road car purchased from Emma Gilmour. He fitted it with MCA suspension, and a Motec ECU but endured only patchy success. The speed was definitely there but he was constantly let down by teething problems, suggesting his driving skills were not matched by his construction skills. Rather than ironing out the issues he traded it for the ex-Argyle Evo6.5. The Mitsi was put on a strict diet and Kingsley was suddenly on the pace in the well-sorted car, with new partner Waverley. “I was leading the end-of-season Hamilton rally and thought – I can really do this. Unfortunately my crew got lost and we arrived at the final service needing fuel and tyres.” He scrounged some avgas but was freaking out of being stuck with ‘shit rubber’. Sure enough, he spun the Evo through a fence and lost his first real chance at an outright win. That first victory arrived in 2007 but not before enduring a harrowing build-up. Chasing the Rally Extreme title, he entered
dOpen Nelson but a tight budget meant he couldn’t afford to ferry his trailer across Cook Strait. Diff failure meant having to line tow the stricken Evo back to Picton but worse was to follow – the diesel fuel pump on his service vehicle failed at Palmerston North, so it was a 40km/hr crawl back to Auckland with his tail between his legs.
He begged a crown wheel & pinion from Neil Allport and was fitting it solo at 3am when the diff fell onto his chest. It was his lowest point. “I had a mini-breakdown and a bit of a cry. Then went back inside and got the diff and axles in.” The final Extreme round was at Rally of the North and suddenly everything clicked. “I drove my best stages ever and kept wondering – how can you go so fast? We were 4th at the lunch break, only 15 seconds off the leader Glenn Smith. I thought – we can win this if we don’t louse it up.”
RALLY OF THE NORTH 2007 - PHOTO BY GEOFF RIDDER
The Evo6 was eventually replaced with Leanne Barns’ Evo8, which he converted back to an Evo7 due to the ease of obtaining parts (this he discovered after crashing it as an 8). The NZRC Category 5 class seemed an achievable title so he chased it for a couple of seasons. On his first attempt he only had to finish 4th at Coromandel to snare the title but a pile-up involving Alex Kelsey, Sloan Cox and Todd Bawden put paid to that. The next year however he bounced back at Whitianga to take the win, allowing him to proudly take his Dad and service crew to the MSNZ prizegiving. Kingsley is honest about how much wife (& codriver) Waverley has shaped his current attitude to the sport – he now sets goals and can make plans to achieve them with the full backing of family and friends. Indeed, he wouldn’t have dreamed of selling the Evo7 (and his Silver Fern RX7) to buy the ex-RaceTorque Skoda R5 without their support. Having a modern, reliable, high-tech machine means he’s now a regular near the front of the NZRC field, and loving the experience of competing against the nation’s best.
RALLY OTAGO 2019 - PHOTO BY GEOFF RIDDER
He went into the lead with two stages to go, and drove them carefully, paranoid something would go wrong. Everyone present still remembers Kingsley bawling his eyes out at the finish, the emotion of a week from hell culminating in this special moment of glory. 59
Road Open
CONTINUED
But doesn’t he miss the adventure of some of those early rallies? How about the infamous Taupo event when he navigated for younger brother Austen in Dad’s RX2? “Austen was fuming over his seeding (#61) as the Central Region guys had never heard of him. We did three night stages and caught & passed 3 cars in each of them, on our brand-new Dunlop 82Rs. We started the next morning 3rd outright but then had the bonnet fly up (after a pine branch flicked the bonnet pins). We dumped it on the side of the road but next stage hit a deep washout at full noise. The exhaust fell off and we broke the panhard bar, so the rear wheels were only retained by the inner guards. On the next stage we went through a massive water splash; there was no boot around the gearstick so we got covered in mud and couldn’t see anything through the screen. Then on the next stage our Perspex windows got sucked out and by this tome our poor rears only had tread on half their circumference.” “The organisers told us – fix your exhaust or you’re out. We tried arc welding a Coke can on but that didn’t work, so we promised to crawl around the Taupo track in 2nd gear to comply with the noise requirements. The final stage was 60km long and the gearstick promptly disappeared through the floor (due to a broken gearbox mount). We got it into 3rd gear then had the intercom fail so resorted to hand signals over the din of the exhaust. Then 100 metres from the final control the Halda failed. We finished 6th.”
BATTLE OF JACK’S RIDGE 2020 - PHOTO BY JASON BYRNE
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The tale doesn’t finish there, though. “When we got back to Auckland we discovered the accelerator cable had only one strand remaining. And when we pulled the driveshaft out it snapped in half – it had machined itself against the seatbelt bolts with all the panhard movement.” And this is why we love rallying. ■
CITY OF AUCKLAND RALLY 2020 - PHOTO BY JASON BYRNE
RALLY WAITOMO 2016 - PHOTO BY GEOFF RIDDER
RALLY OF THE NORTH 2007 - PHOTO BY GEOFF RIDDER
GOLDRUSH RALLY COROMANDEL 2014 - PHOTO BY JASON BYRNE
RALLY OF THE NORTH 2017 - PHOTO BY GEOFF RIDDER
RALLY BAY OF PLENTY 2020 - PHOTO BY JASON BYRNE
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Rodney Atchison - NZ Hillclimb Championship