Hunt has title in his sight
Runaway series leader Ben Hunt heads a 58-strong entry for the penultimate round of the New Zealand Rally Championship next weekend.
The Dayle ITM Goldrush Rally of Coromandel on August 17 features eight special stages on demanding peninsula gravel roads with the start and finish at Whitianga.
Hunt, who drives a Subaru WRX STI, comfortably leads the championship by 46 points after four rallies and has a chance to clinch his second national title by claiming just a handful of points from the Coromandel event. He’s won all four events this season and achieved the majority of stage wins with a dominant performance.
The only driver with a chance to edge past Hunt with two rallies remaining is Josh Marston who has driven his Holden Barina AP4 to a trio of second place finishes.
Other leading entries for the Coromandel event include Dylan Turner in his Audi S1 AP4, Phil Campbell (Ford Fiesta AP4) and the Skoda Fabia R5 cars of Raana Horan and Kingsley Jones.
Other drivers with the opportunity to move up the standings are junior championship contenders Dylan Thomson (Subaru) and Jack Hawkeswood (Mazda2 AP4). Two drivers who have shown pace this year, but have had troubled runs, are Emma Gilmour in her Suzuki Swift Maxi and Stephen Barker (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9).
There are three international crews entered for the event. New Caledonia’s Eugene Creugnet (Mitsubishi) and Jean-Louis Leyraud (Ford Fiesta R5) are regular competitors in New Zealand while Indonesia’s Rifat Sungkar returns to New Zealand driving an unusual car.
It’s a Mitsubishi Xpander — a compact Indonesia-built MPV — that has been modified for rallying under the AP4 regulations using mainly Lancer Evo X components. Sungkar has experience in WRC, Asia Pacific Championship and Rally America competition.
The Coromandel event has been a fixture on the New Zealand Rally Championship calendar since 2014 and the sixth edition will follow a
familiar format with a route comprising eight closed road special stages totalling 127km of competition.
Rally formalities begin at 5pm on Friday with a car show and autograph session at Albert St, Whitianga.
From a 7am Saturday start at Whitianga the crews will head to the northern part of the peninsula with two passes through the 22.4km Port Charles stage. Start times are 8.18am and 9.51am with the two stages split by a refuel in Coromandel town.
The rally route then makes a run across the peninsula on the 309 Rd before the first of two visits to the service park at Mercury Bay multi sports complex at 11.34am.
Afternoon action loops twice through the Tapu-Coroglen Rd and 309 Rd stages split by a second visit to the service park at 2.25pm. The rally’s new finish is a 1.5km Dakota Drive tarmac spectator stage near Whitianga airport starting at 4.49pm before a 5.30pm finish ceremony at Blacksmith Lane.
The only driver with a chance to edge past Hunt with two rallies remaining is Josh Marston