Jagger Leads Ford Fiesta Trophy After Otago

Going at his "own pace" was the formula which led to New Zealand Rally Championship rookie Ben Jagger assuming the lead in the New Zealand Ford Fiesta Sporting Trophy at the Rally of Otago at the weekend.

Jagger showed good pace in the car at the first round of the championship last month at the Rally of Wairarapa where although he struggled with visability in the dry dusty conditions was able to set some good times against rival Patrick Malley. An off in the opening stage there however left Jagger with points only from the second day giving Malley a sizeable advantage over him and third placed Chris Lange.

This weekend Jagger turned that pace into much needed points, overtaking Malley for the lead in the Ford Fiesta Sporting Trophy after it was his turn to suffer a DNF in the opening stage of the rally.

On Saturday Chris Lange managed to pip Jagger by 17.8 seconds after a full day's rallying but on Sunday morning he too went off the road letting Jagger get past and handing over the rally lead to him.

With Jagger going on to win the day, he claimed the rally win in the Ford Fiesta class and moved up into the championship lead ahead of Malley and Lange before heading back to his hometown of Whangarei, which incidentally is where the next round of the championship is being held.

"It all worked out really well. We decided to go through the rally at our own pace and it seemed to work. We didn't worry too much about the other drivers which let us keep quite relaxed through the weekend." he said.

"Lange went off the road and we passed him and Malley had done a driveshaft so we just went at our own pace and kept going." said Jagger.

Jagger and co-driver Ben Hawkins were helped a little by Chris Lange going off the road on Sunday where he lost over two and a half minutes. The two Fiesta drivers had been extremely close on Saturday with Lange achieving the lead but Sunday's times were even closer as the two traded fastest times throughout the day.

But with Lange going off that morning he was not going to be able to catch Ben Jagger who claimed the victory with co-driver Hawkins.

Outside of the Ford Fiesta Sporting Trophy, the three drivers are also contending the Kiwi Two Wheel Drive class against cars that are mostly more powerful. A mishap for past K2 champion Dave Strong let Jagger move into third place in that championship behind veteran driver Reg Cook in his Nissan Micra and son Aaron Cook in his quick Honda Jazz.

"David Strong went out and that got us up into third place in the Kiwi 2 this weekend. So after Otago Dad is happy, Ben (Hawkins) is happy, the team is happy... everybody is happy!" said Jagger.

Currently Jagger's overall placings in the various championships are first in Ford Fiesta Sporting Trophy, fourth in Kiwi 2, second in Rookie Championship and 14th overall including the four wheel drive contenders.

The next round is The Rally of Whangarei on the 6-8th of June which is a home rally for both Ben Jagger and Ben Hawkins. Last year they showed good pace in their older Suzuki Swift and can be expected to put in a strong showing.

"We will have a good go at Whangarei and do our own thing again without worrying about the other drivers." he said.