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.
Finally got a chance to write a report from the weekend although there has been a few floating around.
The first stage on Saturday night went reasonably well for us although patches of thick dust made it interesting at times as I’m sure all the other competitors experienced as well. Stage 2 we were going good and came across a car upside down off the road. We stopped to see if they were ok which thankfully they were and we carried on. We got our stage time adjusted by the org…anisers for stopping to assist and ended up 2nd overall for the stage. That left us in 3rd overall after the night stages.
The morning stages went very well as we had made some good changes to our pace notes on recce. Stage 6 was 44km long and I decided to push a little bit harder through there to make up some time. Unfortunately for Phil he had a problem with his gearbox and Lance suffered a broken rim. We were 2nd fastest in the stage which put us up to 2nd overall.
Had a few minor issues in the afternoon stages including the car losing power and antilag not working but still managed to hold our position of 2nd overall for the rally. A fantastic result for our team and sponsors and something I could have only dreamed about going into this event after the disappointment at Otago.
Congrats to Ben and Tony on the win and Phil and Venita for 3rd and hopefully we can raise some money this week to get to Gisborne to carry on our form. Thanks to Rocky for the awesome job on the notes and Lisa and the family for hosting us and cooking me roast chicken.
Thanks to my service crew Jim and Johnny and my wife Carly for all the support. Thanks to Leigh for all the prep work on the car and thanks to all of my sponsors who we couldn’t do this without Harbour View Motel, L.j’s auto align, Auto Parts, PartsWorld, Todd Mudie Group Ltd, Timaru Hire Limited, All About Signs Timaru, Averis & Box, My Travel Broker, Lee Johns Headworkz Hair and Beauty Brown and Shipman, John Morris Painting and Decorating. We would also like to welcome to the team new sponsors Ranger Specialist Coatings and Saikoutwb.
Thanks Geoff Ridder for the photo. Time to go make some phone calls and knock on some doors.
