All or Nothing for Jagger at Rally of Nelson
Thursday 18 September 2008, 1:06PM
By Little Devil Entertainment
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Whangarei Ford Fiesta driver Ben Jagger heads to Nelson this weekend with a win at all costs attitude where he hopes to complete his rookie New Zealand Rally Championship season in style.
After his strong attack on the Rally of New Zealand, where Ben Jagger showed his pace was a winning one, he along with co-driver Ben Hawkins believe they have a good shot at taking the final round of the national championship and have not given up hope on an outside chance of claiming this season's Ford Fiesta Sporting Trophy title.
The northland team have decided to lay it all on the line this weekend where the 21 point gap between themselves and leading driver Patrick Malley is all but a completely insurmountable barrier to taking this year's Ford Fiesta class trophy along with a trip to the UK for the M-Sport international shootout.
Unfortunately for Jagger, after an incident in the final special stage at Rally of New Zealand last month, Patrick Malley was able to clock up the points needed to just about clinch the title.
At last month's rally, Jagger and Hawkins were holding a convincing lead right up to the final special stage but put the Fiesta on it's side when they hit soft ground thereby losing around 16 minutes while they recovered the car to the road.
Although Malley holds a sizeable lead at this crucial stage it will be necessary for the Auckland driver to finish this weekend's Rally of Nelson in order to secure the title if Jagger succeeds in claiming the win this weekend.
For Jagger and Hawkins this rally will be all about securing a second round win in the NZ Fiesta Sporting Trophy series before wrapping up their first season.
Their first round win was at the first of two only South Island events, the Rally of Otago, which is perhaps a good omen for the Northlanders.
This is Ben Jagger's first time at the Rally of Nelson and only his second rally ever in the South Island but the fact he is not familiar with the roads does not weigh heavily on him as he heads to the final.
"We all think that it would be great to win the last rally of the year so we will be doing our best to do that." says Jagger.
Jagger aims to claim the maximum 35 points from the event in a bid to overcome the 21 points difference between the two drivers on the off chance that Malley does not make it through the one day rally.
The Boxman Rally of Nelson kicks off at 7.30am this Sunday the 21st and the drivers will be competing nine special stages throughout the one day event which will wrap up the 2008 national championship.