Jagger Retains Lead in Ford Fiesta Trophy
Tuesday 10 June 2008, 2:48PM
By Little Devil Entertainment
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A strong and consistent drive in the NAC Hella International Rally of Whangarei over the weekend rewarded Ben Jagger with points enough to retain the lead in the Ford Fiesta Sporting Trophy standings ahead of Patrick Malley.
A good fight with Australian driver Brendon Reeves on Saturday's leg one was followed the next day with an attack from behind by Patrick Malley in leg two. On Sunday Reeves went out of contention with an electrical fault and Jagger was overtaken by Malley and left with second place in the Fiestas and his second podium finish in the Kiwi 2 two wheel drive championship battle taking third.
As well as keeping his lead in the Fiesta standings, after the Rally of Whangarei Jagger has moved up from fourth place to third in K2 with only Dave Strong and Aaron Cook between himself and the lead.
Cook is sitting pretty with 177 points and a nice lead over Jagger's 113 which will offer quite a challenge for the Whangarei driver over the next three rounds. Jagger has continued to show good speed and consistency since he put the Fiesta off the road in the very first stage of the first round at the Wairarapa in April and hopes to keep this up to stay ahead of Malley until the end of the season.
"We had a really good rally and enjoyed it a lot. It was great to be involved with the press conferences involved with the international rally which I have never experienced before. We are looking pretty good for the Fiesta trophy and the chance to compete overseas as long as we can stay in front of Patrick (Malley) over the next three rounds." he said.
At his home rally at Whangarei Jagger was pleased with how the weekend went and his first taste of media attention on a heightened scale by being part of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship and Pirelli Star Driver scheme. His goal for this season is to get a chance at the Ford Fiesta Sporting Trophy Shoot-out in the United Kingdom held for all the winners of the trophy from other competing countries.
The Pirelli Star Driver qualification went to New Zealand drivers Hayden Paddon and Brad Ayling who will continue onto the second qualification round at Rally of Malaysia.
Jagger managed to finish the rally in front of Ayling however and out of the eight under 27 year olds entered was third placed behind Paddon and Patrick Malley. The points system used favoured the four wheel drive rally cars over the two wheel drive Fiestas and Jagger picked up no points at all towards the scheme.
Jagger was not too concerned with the outcome which he had predicted beforehand anyway while competing in the Ford Fiesta two wheel drive.
"We weren't really in with a good chance because of what we were driving but were just happy to be involved in it." he said.
The next round for Ben Jagger and co-driver Ben Hawkins is at the Rally of Hawkes Bay based in Napier with action taking place around Wairoa around 100kms south of the east coast city.