RallySport Magazine September 2016

COROMANDEL RALLY - NZRC 5
Carl Davies pushing
hard in his pretty
Subaru WRX STI.
The final round of the Brian Green
Property Group New Zealand
Rally Championship saw teams
head to the holiday town of Whitianga
for the Mahindra Goldrush Rally Coromandel,
with 120 kilometres of twisting
and demanding roads on offer.
Although the overall title had been
well and truly wrapped up by David
Holder and Jason Farmer, a large group
of cars were in contention for the
runner-up spot in the championship,
while the Gull Rally Challenge two and
four-wheel drive classes, open twowheel
drive, Rookie and Junior titles
were still all up for grabs.
As well as this, there were several
surprise one-off entries for the event,
including three-time New Zealand
champion, Neil Allport, in his Ford
Escort RS1600, and Australian gun
Brendan Reeves, jumping behind
the wheel of Force Motorsport’s first
generation Mazda 2 AP4+ car, run over
the past three seasons by Andrew
Hawkeswood.
However, the drama started early
when Emma Gilmour, who came into
the event second in the championship,
was forced to withdraw prior to the
start when her new engine started
throwing water out in fairly severe
quantities.
Fears of dust saw the top five
(reduced to four) start order draw
see no change to the running order,
with Holder leading away Graham
Featherstone, Sloan Cox and Andrew
Hawkeswood.
Outgoing champion Ben Hunt, Matt
Summerfield, Reeves, Dylan Turner,
Lance Williams and Phil Campbell
rounded out the top 10 on the road.
In the end, fears of dust were
alleviated when overnight rain fell, just
enough to dampen the dust, but still
leaving a layer of gravel on top for the
leaders to sweep away.
The opening stage, unchanged over
the past three years on the outskirts
of town, got underway with overcast
26 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016
“Reeves immediately
set the pace, 3.4
seconds ahead of
Hawkeswood, with
Glenn Inkster third
fastest.”
and threatening conditions overhead.
Straight away the stage threw up some
surprises, with Holder struggling to
eighth fastest, Featherstone 11 th , and
Cox getting accustomed to a change in
tyres, coming in fifth fastest.
Reeves immediately set the pace, 3.4
seconds ahead of Hawkeswood, with
12th seed Glenn Inkster third fastest,
despite a misfire developing late in the
stage.
Summerfield was fastest of the
non-AP4 cars in fourth, ahead of Cox
and Turner. Grant Blackberry was the
fastest of the Gull Rally Challenge cars
in seventh, ahead of Holder, Kingsley
Jones and Hunt, who was struggling
with an electrical problem that left him
down on boost.
A long tour took teams to a new stage
Andrew Hawkeswood in
the second generation
Mazda 2 AP4.
at the top of the Coromandel Peninsula,
Port Charles. At 16.5km, it proved a real
opportunity for someone to make a
break.
It was Reeves that took that
opportunity, 8.6 seconds quicker than
Summerfield, who moved up to third,
and Turner, who moved into fourth
place. Hawkeswood’s fifth fastest time
kept him in the runner-up spot.
Blackberry was on a charge, fourth
fastest in the Evo 6, with Robson
chasing him hard for class honours,
sixth fastest and only 4.2 seconds
behind his rival.
Tony Gosling was a man on a mission
in the Historics early on, climbing into
14th outright to take the class lead after
stage two, having taken more than 30
seconds out of normal class pace setter
Marcus van Klink.
John Silcock was also giving van
Klink a hard time, beating him through
stage two, and eight seconds clear of
Jeff Judd, who he was battling with for
second in the historic championship,
the pair having entered the event level
on points.
The high horsepower open two-wheel
drive cars were struggling with the
abrasive nature of the road surface,