PADDON SHINES IN WINTERLESS NORTH
RALLY OF WHANGAREI 2022
The fine weather made for some dusty action on the 254kms of gravel roads of the second round of the New Zealand Rally Championship, held in Whangarei from 13–15 May.
The event kicked off on Friday night with the ceremonial opening and the two special stages around Pohe Island. Following the two runs on Friday, eight of the 18 special stages were run on Saturday to the north of Whangarei, with each stage contested twice. Sunday saw another eight stages run to the south of the city centre, once again twice over before the cars toured back to Rally HQ on Pohe Island for the prize giving ceremonies. Hayden Paddon and John Kennard led the field of 67 cars on both days and in the process won every stage. Behind them, second and third placings were hotly contested with Ben Hunt and co-driver Tony Rawstorn finally securing second place from young gun Ari Pettigrew and his experienced co-driver Jason Farmer in the Holden Barina AP4. Emma Gilmour was one of several drivers that had a race to forget on the eve of heading offshore to the States for some Mclaren duties. They had an engine sensor fault on their way to refuelling for the first stage on Saturday.
Three-way historic fight
Although several older cars were entered, in the NZRC Historic Class there were just three cars — the Mazda RX7 Group B of John Silcock, the Ford Escort RS1800 driven by Shane Murland, and Anthony Jones’s Ford Escort. Silcock and his co-driver Donna Elder had the fastest car from Friday night and throughout Saturday, dropping just two stages to Jones’s Escort. Day two and it was a mirror of Saturday. Anthony Jones and co-driver Zoe Jones slowly gained ground throughout the eight stages on Sunday, winning all but two stages. “We decided we had to go for it but John was 30 seconds ahead of us at the end of Saturday and we didn’t think we could do it, but anyway we put fear in the first one and the second one, and we got there in the end.”
The pairing left it right to the last stage where they were 6.8 seconds faster than the RX7 and in doing so gave themselves a 6-second winning margin in the Historic Class. Shane Murland and Kane Seymour finished in third place, a further 1 minute 26 seconds back. John Silcock’s big points haul from the Otago Rally means he still leads Anthony Jones by 14 points.
One of the crowd favourites was the Mazda 323 4WD that Mason Grimmer was driving with his co-driver Daniel Merwyn. They were entered in the Class C 4WD Open and were driving well until electrical issues got the better of them in stage 15. The Mazda has had little work done to it, which includes some modifications to prevent overheating, a sequential gearbox, and the flared guards which make it really stand out.
The next round of the Brian Green Properties New Zealand Rally Championship will be the South Canterbury Rally on 18 June.