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.
Mainland Rally Series (Round 2)
Regan Ross in his 2wd Escort managed to take away maximum points at the second round of the Clearwater Painting Renovating & Decorating Mainland Rally Series after the 4wd drivers struck issues. Marcus Van Klink was second in his Mazda RX7 and Matt Summerfield finished up in the top 3 in his Subaru Impreza.
Summerfield and Baddock looked as though they would be in a fight for 1st place all day after Summerfield won the power stage (stage1) by just 0.6 in front of Baddock but both struck issues in stage 3 with Summerfield having gearbox issues and Baddock only running on 3 cylinders for the 50km stage where they both lost time. This then put Ross into first followed by Van Klink just 3 seconds behind and Jeff Judd into 3rd place in his Subaru Impreza going into the afternoon stages.
Unfortunately Judd struck electrical issues on the way to stage 4 giving him over a minute in time penalties putting Baddock into 3rd place but with Darren Galbreith & Summerfield within 10 seconds of Baddock going into the final 3 stages. Summerfield was on a charge though taking 25 seconds out of Baddock in the last 3 stages managing to take 3rd place for the day. The battle for 1st place between Ross and Van Klink was awesome to watch with them switching stage times all day Ross managed to win the last 4 stages of the day to take a 21 second win in front of Van Klink both doing a great job to stay ahead of the 4wd drivers.
In the classes both David Clearwater and Wayne Julian had engine issues which didn’t see them complete the day giving the E class (pre 2000) win to Russell Burgess in his Toyota Celica. In class B (1301-1600cc) Hamish Anderson who was 2nd before the afternoon stages managed to come back and take away 1st over Cameron Moore followed by Logan Stephens in 3rd. Brendon Fisher took away maxium points in class A (0-1300cc) in his starlet.
The Clearwater Painting Renovating & Decorating Mainland Rally Series now moves onto round 3 of the series, The Lone Star Rally of Canterbury on the Saturday 31st May and Sunday 1st June, with night stages on the Saturday night where there will no doubt be another great battle.
Points (Top 5)
Richard Baddock = 57.5
Matt Summerfield = 48
Marcus van Klink = 44
Darren Galbraith = 42
Richard Bateman = 39.5
