Jagger Leading the Pack Into Whangarei

This weekend Whangarei driver Ben Jagger leads the Group N 2WD class into the third round of the Vantage Aluminium Joinery New Zealand Rally Championship.

The NAC Insurance International Rally of Whangarei is Jagger's home event on the calendar and after winning the Rally of Otago in May he leads the standings by 24 points over rookie driver Daniel Harris.

Jagger also held the leader's advantage this time last year going on to finish his rookie season as first runner up, a position he aims to improve on this time around to become 2009 champion.

Being his second season in the Seedforce Fiesta, Jagger is confident of a good event this weekend, hopefully improving on his second place finish here last year.

"We're going to try not to think about all the pressure that is on us at the moment and just do it - we want to focus on making it through stages as fast as we can and not focus so much on what everybody else is doing, that has worked well for us in the past, hopefully it will work again." said Ben Jagger.

There will be strong opposition coming up behind jagger from last year's champion Patrick Malley and newcomer Daniel Harris who is currently in second place after a good drive at round two.

Malley had a serious crash at the previous round, resulting in a DNF there and knocking him back in the standings, and the team were still completing repairs on the Fiesta just prior to the shakedown this morning.

With Malley back on the pace and Harris close behind, Jagger will still have one eye on newcomers Dominick Unterberger and Rising Stars Scholarship winner Ben Hunt who have both had strong starts to their rookie season.

After Rally of Whangarei there will be only two rallies remaining with Wairarapa in July and Nelson in September, however Jagger is required to also compete in the Possum Bourne Memorial Rally in order to earn points for the Rising Star scheme with the chance to earn $50,000 in sponsorship.

There will be no WRC Rally of New Zealand until 2010 when it returns here after alternating with Australia.

Up for grabs this weekend at the Rally of Whangarei are points towards the Pirelli Star Driver scheme which saw Auckland driver Mark Tapper enter the Production World Rally Championship this year with a four others from around the world in a supported season.

Being in a two wheel drive Ford Fiesta Jagger will however be at a disadvantage against the faster four wheel drive rally cars with points awarded for overall placings in each special stage regardless of vehicle and competition class.

"We're in the same boat as last year but we entered the Star Driver because it's really good exposure for us with good press coverage." he says.

The two drivers with the most points will compete at Rally Australia in September in a final showdown to represent the Pacific region in the scheme and hopefully go ahead to follow in Tapper's footsteps in the 2010 season.

The NAC Insurance International Rally of Whangarei takes place this weekend over the 5-7th of June and includes round three of the FIA Asian Pacific Rally Championship drawing international teams to the largest event on this year's New Zealand rally calendar.