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.
After a round to forget at Rally Whangarei, the team at Robson Motorsport are working hard behind the scenes to ensure there is no such repeat at the upcoming Canterbury Rally, round 3 of the NZ Rally Championship.
Whangarei ended prematurely for the team as a stone holed the right rear brake caliper on the first stage proper on Saturday morning, causing the brake system to fail leaving the pairing with almost no brakes for the last half of the first stage. Reluctantly the decision was made to retire on the touring section rather than risk further damage to the Duraseal Evo 4.
“It was a bitterly disappointing way to start our campaign for class 5 honours and after 6 months of hard graft on the car we believed we had a strong, reliable platform from which to deliver good performances” said Robson. “Unfortunately, as we’ve learnt since, this is not uncommon with the Brembo caliper we were running, but to us it was an unknown so we just have to write it off to learning and be thankful we didn’t loose our brakes at a more critical moment !”
The team were lucky enough to be leant spare calipers by the Radovan team so Robson could get some much needed stage km’s under his belt after an 18 month spell from the sport.
Now all eyes are on Canterbury to put things right and show their true speed and potential. “It’s not a rally im personally familiar with but I have one of the most experienced navigators in the game, a love for forestry rallies, a recce and a great team, I’m confident a clean drive will net us a strong result.”
The team would like to thank their amazing sponsors : DURASEAL PAINT PROTECTION / BELAIR MITSUBISHI & VALVOLINE OILS for their ongoing support. Without their support, none of this would be possible.
