All eyes on tight title race in Wales

WORLD Rally Championship fans will be riding a knife’s edge alongside the main protagonists as the title fight sharpens up when the championship heads to the thirdto lastevent in Wales in a fortnight.

Those backing Estonian Ott Tanak, who is desperately hanging on to a narrow lead in his bid for a maiden world title, would have been devastated by his mechanical retirement from the rough, tough Rally Turkey last weekend. But those wanting to see Sebastien Ogier claim his seventh consecutive WRC trophy had cause to celebrate, as the Frenchman grabbed his first victory since March to clamber up the rankings to second place, closing the gap on Tanak to 17 points — with a maximum of 90 points still available from the final three rounds in Wales, Spain and Australia.

Citroen’s Ogier has won on the often wet, muddy Welsh roads a record five times, and undoubtedly will be applying the pressure to his Toyota Yarisdriving championship rival.

I’m sure Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville would dearly love to leapfrog up the rankings from third (where he currently sits after a crash in Turkey) and the Belgian will be contributing to the performance pressure cooker.

Of particular interest to Kiwis will be how Hayden Paddon competes in Wales, albeit in a Ford Fiesta R5 MkII and chasing victory in the WRC 2 Pro category. It was a huge relief to see English team MSport give the Cromwell driver another chance after a random rock destroyed his WRC return in Finland recently.

Paddon followers will have the opportunity to see him in action closer to New Zealand when he then contests Rally Australia in a fullblooded Ford Fiesta WRC car in November. It is one of his most successful international rallies historically, and it will be exciting to see what he can achieve, and hopefully lead to a 2020 WRC drive.

Many other Otago drivers will hit the asphalt this weekend with the threeround South Island Endurance Series roaring into life in Invercargill. Highlands Motorsport Park is wellrepresented, with owner Tony Quinn teaming with Damon Leitch in an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and fellow professional driver Andrew Waite joining Dale Chapman and Marc Doran in an Audi Sport R8 LMS.

Series stalwarts returning with their homebuilt chargers include Alexandra’s Bruce Davidson (Chev Corvette C6R) and Dunedin’s Chris Henderson in his mighty Toyota AE86 V8.

Dunedin’s Stu and Arron Black will be pulling double duty in their exWorld Touring Car Championship BMW E46s in both the three hour and onehour races.

I look forward to seeing the results after today’s racing and then seeing the cars live at Highlands in a fortnight.