Kiwis head off Aussies in Whangarei Rally

Former New Zealand rally champion Chris West leads the NAC Insurance Hella International Rally of Whangarei after day one of competition, heading off stiff challenges from Kiwi stars Hayden Paddon and Mark Tapper and internationally-regarded drivers Cody Crocker, Katsuhiko Taguchi and Dean Herridge.

The Whangarei event, round three of both the 2008 FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) and the Vantage New Zealand Rally Championship (NZRC), has been action-packed with current NZRC leader Richard Mason clipping a bank in stage two and rolling heavily. Mason is now out of the rally with a cracked roll-cage in his Subaru unable to be repaired for Sunday’s stages.

It’s definitely been West’s day with the Christchurch Mitsubishi driver winning seven of the day’s eight stages to lead the event by just over 20 seconds from last year’s Whangarei winner Hayden Paddon. Having started 15th on the road, West said it’s about time he had a good run.

“The car feels really good and that’s what we’re focusing on. Since the last event in Otago, we’ve been refining those little bits to give me the confidence to drive the car properly,” said West during the lunchtime service break.

Having managed a time only seventh fastest on stage one, the top seed and defending two-time APRC champion Crocker improved throughout the day to hold third overall and head the APRC line-up from Taguchi, Scott Pedder and Herridge.

“It’s just that the road surface is that slippery; it’s hard to deal with and you can see the difference between our times and the Kiwi times. It’s a monumental difference,” said Crocker, the Australian Subaru driver best-known to New Zealander’s as a protégé of the late Possum Bourne.

Like Crocker, other top-seeded APRC drivers appeared to struggle with heavy gravel during the morning’s first run through the special stages. A swag of Kiwis – headed by West and Paddon, and including Mark Tapper, Brett Martin, Callum McInnes and Dean Sumner – were regularly amongst the top ten fastest through most stages.

Paddon and Tapper are favourites to take out the Asia Pacific leg of a new prize in world rallying called the Pirelli star driver search, which is running at Rally Whangarei for the very first time in the world. The top two drivers win €5000 (NZ$9,600) to compete in the second Asia Pacific qualifying round in Malaysia in October. Whoever wins the competition in Malaysia earns the right to race in six rounds of the full World Rally Championship in 2009, a world-class opportunity for eligible drivers (aged under 27 on 1 January this year). With Tapper battling, first, an off-road excursion then a failed oil cooler later in the day, Paddon currently heads the Pirelli points’ table with nearly double Tapper’s score. Sixteen-year-old Sloan Cox is third with another seven stages in which to earn points tomorrow.

Of the original 31 starters in the international and national classes, only 27 will start day two of Rally Whangarei which takes in seven stages on roads around Waipu Caves, Maungaturoto and Whangarei before competitors finish around 3pm in downtown Whangarei. Heavy rain is forecast overnight, but Sunday’s weather conditions should be clear.

ENDS
Overall classification after day one, Internaitonal Rally of Whangarei
1, Chris West / Garry Cowan, (total time) 1:37.57
2, Hayden Paddon / John Kennard, 1:38.17
3, Cody Crocker / Ben Atkinson, 1:39.28 *
4, Brett Martin / Grant Marra, 1:39.46
5, Dean Sumner / Paul Fallon, 1:39.52
6, Katsuhiko Taguchi / Mark Stacey, 1:41.27 *
7, Callum McInnes / David Calder, 1:41.27
8, Emma Gilmour / Jeff Judd, 1:41.43
9, Scott Pedder / Glen Weston, 1:42.40 *
10, Dean Herridge / Chris Murphy, 1:42.40 *

* Asia Pacific Rally Championship registered drivers