A little bit sideways Rallying in New Zealand, where we like to get A Little Bit Sideways! Up to date Rally News from teams around the country together with event reports.
It was fantastic to be part of Round Two of the Mainland Series and even more so as Otago Rally celebrate 40 years this year.
It was a massive event with 96 cars tackling 273km of 17 special stages over two days.
This rally was the first time Nick and I competed in an event on full pace notes, it took us a few stages to get the hang of them but once we got it, it worked well.
Day One started strong however proved to be a challenge with mixture of dust and sun strike through stages 1 and 2. Danseys Pass, one of the longest stages in the rally at 29km also proved a challenge as it winds its way up and over the Kakanui Mountains. Stages 6 and 7 were much faster roads which lead us back to Dunedin for special stage 8, the only fully sealed stage in the rally at Dunedin warehouses precinct.
We were stoked to gain maximum points on Day One and even happier going into Day Two with a problem free car.
Day Two started with fast and flowing roads, which quickly changed into rough conditions from stage 10 through to 13. Although rough, we had a flying finish, reaching speeds up to
180kmph.
The fastest stage of the Rally was stage 11, Harfield Road. The stage started with a long 1km strait and carried on for 18km of fast, sweeping corners. Our average speed for this stage was 102.8kmph
We then made our way back from Middlemarch towards Waipori Gorge and the iconic Kuri Bush. We had a small off road incident into a drainage ditch which thankfully had nothing hiding in the long grass.
Waipori Gorge was run downhill this year which proved to be an extremely quick stage.
The last stage of the event was the famous Kuri Bush. This stage was 15km of fast flowing roads with lots of crests. This was the second time I have driven this road, the first with notes and wow! We were stoked to cross the finish line knowing we had completed our second Otago Rally and even happier to be placed second in class. Overall we placed 36th out of 96 starters – only 54 cars finished .
Thank you to Nick for his hard work and support as Co-driver and to Greg, Steve and Phil for volunteering as service crew.
Also a big thanks must go to 97 Motel Moray, Ingear Performance, Themancavetv, APET , Robs Fabrication , Mag & Turbo Dunedin , Endless Brakes New Zealand , VAULT 21 , Japanese Auto Wreckers and Mosgiel Mobil for their on going support.
Bring on the next round at Canterbury !
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