Marston emulates father with Canty title
Christchurch driver Josh Marston upset the favourites to win the Canterbury rally, the third round of the New Zealand rally championship on Sunday.
Seeded at five, Marston emulated his father’s victory in 1999, and gave his Holden team its first win in the national series.
From the beginning of the 10 special stages in North Canterbury’s Ashley and Okuku forests, Marston took control, winning this test and then adding five more to head home Australian entrant Nathan Quinn in his Ford Siesta by 9.9 seconds, with little known Aucklander, Raana Horan, third in his Mitsubishi Evo.
Adding to the delight of the Holden team was the performance of track star Greg Murphy who came home fourth.
Marston handled the slippery conditions with ultimate skill and relished following in the wheel tracks of his more favoured rivals.
This included the 2015 winner of the Canterbury rally, Ben Hunt, who retired his Subaru Impreza on stage one with electrical issues.
Second on the road and the winner of last year’s event, Rangiora’s Matt Summerfield, struggled with his short wheel based Mitsubishi Mirage in the slippery conditions and the 2016 winner, Dunedin’s Emma Gilmour, retired her Suzuki on the last stage following mechanical issues.
For all Summerfield’s issues, he did finish and added to his points tally by finishing sixth in the 67-car field.
Rangiora’s John Silcock, driving a Mazda RX 7, won the classic section and finished eighth overall while one of Canterbury’s noted circuit racing drivers, Trevor Crowe, was 23rd in his Subaru Impreza. Crowe, now in his early 70s, finished third in this event in 1975 when it was the first national championship rally to be staged. Josh Marston/Andrew Graves (Christchurch) 1hr 56min 18sec 1, Nathan Quinn/David Calder (Coffs Harbour, Aust) 1.56.27.9 2, Raana Horan /Michael Connor (Auckland) 1.56.31.8 3, Greg Murphy/Mark Leonard (Hastings) 1.57.13.0 4, Geof Argyle/Joelle Ayre (Fielding) 1.59.16 5, Matt and Nicolle Summerfield (Rangiora) 2.00.10.9 6.