Jagger Wins at Otago

Whangarei driver Ben Jagger won the Group N 2WD section of the Rally of Otago at the weekend overtaking Patrick Malley in the standings to put himself into the lead of the championship.

Jagger, starting the first day as quickest in the morning, was saddened to hear that a serious accident put his toughest competitor Patrick Malley and co-driver put in hospital for injuries and pull out of the round.

"They had a bad off which put them both in hospital for the day and badly damaged their car - they should be ok for the next rally but they may have to look at leasing another car." he said.

With the current points leader out of the race Jagger then came under fire from rookie driver Daniel Harris.

Although winning all but one of the gravel stages Jagger then lost over three seconds to the other Fiesta drivers at the tarmac super special stage at the end of the day.

"We didn't have any tarmac tyres with us but we had a bit of a chuck around on gravel tyres and a bit of fun." Jagger said.

A most alarming incident towards the end of the day nearly put the Northland team's Otago campaign to an abrubt end.

"We went off the road on stage seven after the finish line - we cut the corner too much and went off down into the trees damaging the car a bit." said Jagger.

The "Two Bens" were able to get the car back on the road and on to service to make repairs before heading off to the super special stage which was held in front of a good sized turn out of rally fans.

At the end of Saturday Jagger was over 26 seconds ahead of next driver Daniel Harris with all remaining four Group N 2WD cars lined up together in the placings indicating a close day of competition to come on Sunday.

On Sunday Ben Jagger lost his grip on the lead to Rising Stars Scholarship driver Ben Hunt who moved ahead in the second stage, however the situation was temporary with Jagger retaking the position but only to lose it once again to fast paced Daniel Harris.

With two stages remaining Jagger went hard to reclaim the lead entering the last stage at the front but with the Fiestas of Harris and Hunt breathing down his neck for the final battle.

"On the last stage on Sunday it was all on, we were going hard and had a bit of a moment at around 140(kph) going over a crest and hanging it out in a drain - there weren't any spectators but I think there was a camera crew there so hopefully it will be on TV!" said Jagger."

Jagger's determination and speed through the Otago roads with their "Finland style" crests enabled the Northland duo to maintain the lead through the final stage and take the Group N 2WD rally win.

"We went into the last stage only a few seconds ahead and the rally wasn't in the bag yet."

Although winning day two by just 2.8 seconds ahead of Daniel Harris, Jagger won the Rally of Otago with an overall lead of 29.1 seconds after two days.

"It seems to be my favourite rally at the moment and the roads are so much fun to drive on, there are heaps of crests and are really fast, people say they are just like Finland." says Jagger.

"I'm pretty stoked really, I thought it was all over for a bit when we went off on Saturday but when we found out we had won the rally it felt really good." said Jagger.

Next up for the Vantage Aluminium Joinery New Zealand Rally Championship is round three held at the NAC Insurance International Rally of Whangarei over the 5-7th of June which is also round three of the FIA Asian Pacific Rally Championship drawing international teams to the event.

Last year at this time Ben Jagger also went to his home rally in the lead after winning at Otago where he managed to hold onto the lead in the championship after the Rally of Whangarei finishing second there.