Summerfields win Sth Canty rally
The brother and sister team of Matt and Nicole Summerfield cleaned up at the South Canterbury Rally on Saturday.
The Summerfields, from Rangiora, driving a Mitsubishi Mirage AP4, were 59.8 seconds ahead of Waikuku’s Robbie and Amy Stokes, who were in a Ford Fiesta AP4 after eight special stages around Waitohi, Fairlie and Albury areas.
Third place went to Christchurch’s Josh Marston, driving a Holden Barina AP4, with Andrew Graves (Gore) his co-driver while top South Canterbury driver was Pleasant Point’s Scott Jones in 8th overall driving a Mitsubishi Evo 8, with his Temuka co-driver Shane Reynolds.
Matt Summerfield, who also won the Caitlins Rally in August, said on a social media page that Saturday was ‘‘another great day in the seat.’’
‘‘Massive learning curve notes wise, lots of work to do there but happy to bring home the win by 59.8 seconds. Bring on our home rally in a month’s time.’’
Rally secretary Howard Atwill said it was a pleasure to see the cars back in the region after the initial postponement of the event in June due to Covid-19.
‘‘We had 58 entrants from all over the country,’’ Atwill said.
‘‘Potentially, we could have done this at level 2, but level 1 made it much easier.’’
Atwill said the Summerfields, from Rangiora, were well ahead at the end of the race, which consisted of approximately 130 kilometres of special stages and approximately 166km of touring.
The rally started at Levels Raceway, with the service park based in Fairlie.
‘‘The Summerfields have been together as a crew for a wee while
now. They plan very well, and execute well,’’ Atwill said.
‘‘But the conditions were pretty much perfect, there were a good deal of spectators there.
‘‘South Canterbury roads are famous for good rallies. Where else can you take a trip with snowcapped mountains in the background. The drivers took it really seriously, many of them would have done hours of studying to work out where they needed to focus,’’ Atwill said.