Scot tops NZ championship field

Scot tops NZ championship field

Hamilton 1st September: Scotsman Alister McRae has taken victory at the Rally New Zealand round of the 2007 Vantage Aluminium Joinery New Zealand Rally Championship today.

Staving off a challenge from front running Richard Mason (Subaru Impreza), McRae's consistency has awarded him 67 points in the penultimate round of the 2007 season.

Debuting a brand new Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 9, McRae and co-driver Erin Kyle are the leading production specification car (Group N) category in the WRC Rally New Zealand event - 12th overall.

While not a contender for the overall New Zealand championship title, McRae had a faultless run over the two days:
"Aye, not too bad. It wasn't easy - even if I made it look that way. Obviously with the fact we have a new car, new co-driver I tried to pick it up and it worked."

Famous in world rallying, the McRae name has added significance in New Zealand being the only international driver to win a round of its domestic series.

"I'm Scottish, living in Australia and now I win here - what does that make me?" joked McRae.

Richard Mason and co-driver Sara Randall clean-swept five of the six stages run in the northern Waikato today - re-taking the leading Kiwi position at the international event. Then, in the sixth test the gearbox of his Subaru Impreza locked in second gear - handing the leading Kiwi placing and championship contending run to Palmerston North's Sam Murray.

Now with a 20 point lead in the series, Murray and co-driver Rob Ryan have their Impreza ahead of the Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 9 of Hayden Paddon. Although Murray had a major moment in the final test - doing significant damage to the rear suspension of his car:

"It was 10km from the end of the stage, and with different shocks in the car it lost all its balance. We clipped someone's driveway or something - bending the rear suspension. I took it easy for a couple of corners then on a right hander that tightened it turned, spun up on the nose of the car and we pirouetted round backwards in the road," said Murray.

Hayden Paddon with a standard gearbox fitted to his Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 8 finished third for the leg - ahead of the debuting Lancer EVO 9 of Chris West and Garry Cowan.

Leading two-wheel drive Mark Tapper again kept his Ford Fiesta in the middle of the road - finishing the day in 32nd position overall.

Of the New Zealand championship cars, first retirement for the day was leading Kiwi Dean Sumner - when his Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 9 ran out of fuel having covered 60km of competition gravel. The only other retirement was Tauranga's Callum McInnes. Hitting a bank in the morning McInnes had further bad luck in the afternoon when his Subaru Impreza left the road.

With only two of the three days counting toward the New Zealand championship, most of the championship field will return for Sunday - the title of 'first Kiwi' still to be secured.

Running in a separate event behind the World Rally Championship field, the Kiwi-2 category covered the same six stages of the day. Quick in the opening test, championship leader Dave Strong (Honda Civic) was later overhauled by defending champion Aaron Cook (Honda Jazz) to take the lead followed by the experienced Reg Cook (Nissan Pulsar). Cheyne Booth retired his Suzuki Ignis from the third test.

Needing to finish, Strong has enough of a points lead to take the 2007 Kiwi-2 drivers title with a round to spare.

"Wasn't as easy as I expected today - plenty of problems and I made a few mistakes. Miscalculated on the tyres - I ran out. I should have had harder ones - I just wore them out."
"I knew I had to get third or fourth so I guess in the back of your mind that's what you do - not my best effort but now I can go to the final round at Nelson and have a bit of a lash," he said.

The season finale of the 2007 Vantage Aluminium Joinery New Zealand Rally Championship will be held at Rally Nelson (30 September).

Spokesman for Vantage Aluminium Joinery, Craig Vincent expressed his view on the season:

"I'm really happy personally with how the championship is going. The Motorsport Company is doing a great job with a professional effort, that can been seen by the competitors who have also raised their game - which is fantastic for us. Having been in Australia and looking back at here this championship is way better - a better show."

Ends.

Results: provisional

2007 Vantage Aluminium Joinery New Zealand Rally Championship (top six)
Leg two, round five
1 A McRae/E Kyle (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9) 1hr26m30.1
2 S Murray/R Ryan (Subaru Impreza WRX STI) 1hr27m03.7
3 H Paddon/J Kennard (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo8) 1hr27m10.9
4 C West/G Cowan (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9) 1hr27m11.6
5 S Taylor/W Searle (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9) 1hr27m16.4
6 R Mason/S Randall (Subaru Impreza WRX STI) 1hr27m17.2

Combined overall (top six)
1 A McRae/E Kyle (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9) 3hr1m49.7s;
2 S Murray/R Ryan (Subaru Impreza WRX STI) 3hr03m51.7;
3 R Mason/S Randall (Subaru Impreza WRX STI) 3hr04m14.4;
4 C West/G Cowan (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9) 3hr05m25.0
5 B Martin/G Marra (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9) 3hr05m26.1
6 P Malley/R Bennett (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9) 3hr08m47.0

Overall driver Goldstar Championship points (after round five of six)
1 S Murray 207
2 H Paddon 187
3 R Mason 183
4 D Sumner 166

Group N 2WD
1 K Barrie 241
2 M Tapper 236
3 D Malley 196
4 C Lange 188

Kiwi-2
1 D Strong 239
2 Andrew Keighley 188
3 Reg Cook 171
4 Aaron Cook 164
5 Cheyne Booth 118

Event Overview
- 2007 FIA World Rally Championship - Round 11
- 2007 FIA Production Car World Rally Championship -Round 5
- 2007 Vantage Aluminium Joinery New Zealand Rally Championship - Round 5
Total Distance: 1255.98km No. of Stages: 18
Stage Distance: 353.56km Stage Surface: All Gravel
Longest Stage: SS2/4 Waitomo 43.88km Shortest Stage: SS5/9/18 Mystery Creek SSS 3.14km
Close of Entries: Wednesday 25 July Stages in Darkness: Nil
Sunrise: 0642hrs Sunset: 1757hrs
Service Park: Mystery Creek Events Centre
Rally HQ Location: Mystery Creek Events Centre, 125 Mystery Creek Road, Hamilton
Reconnaissance: Tuesday 28 August from 0800-1900hrs
Wednesday 29 August from 0800-1845hrs
Shakedown: Thursday 30 August -P1 and P2 drivers from 0800-1000hrs
-P1, P2 and P3, and others subject to availability from 1000-1200hrs
Ceremonial Start: Thursday 30 August at 1830hrs (competitors start in reverse order)
Information & Results: www.rallynz.org.nz

Event information: Rally New Zealand (31 August - 1 September 2007)

Thursday 30th August:

10:00am - Shakedown (testing) - Mystery Creek
4:00-6:00pm - Car show - Hood St, Hamilton
6:30pm - Ceremonial start (cars in reverse order) - Hood St, Hamilton

Friday 31st August:
8:20am - Start of Leg 1 from Mystery Creek (five stages) - Group N 4WD, Group N 2WD championship cars
5:03pm - First car starts Super Special stage at Mystery Creek

Saturday 1st September:
7:00am - Start of Leg2 from Mystery Creek (six stages) - Group N 4WD, Group N 2WD and Kiwi-2 championship cars
12:32pm - First car starts Super Special stage at Mystery Creek

Sunday 2nd September:
7:50am - Start of Leg 3 from Mystery Creek (for competitors in WRC event only)
2:18pm - First car starts Super Special stage at Mystery Creek (final stage of rally)
3:15pm - Ceremonial finish at Mystery Creek

TV coverage for the event includes live footage on Sky Sport during the weekend plus the NZRC feature on Powerbuilt Motorsport TVOne - 23rd September.

Fast facts:

• The fifth round (of six) rounds in the 2007 Vantage Aluminum Joinery New Zealand Rally Championship.
• Is run inside the 11th round of the World Rally Championship.
• Contested over two of the three days of Rally New Zealand (Friday and Saturday).
• Competitors can continue for the third day in the quest of the 'First Kiwi home' title.
• Only the Group N 4WD and Group N 2WD cars are eligible to run in the Rally New Zealand event (FIA international regulations).
• Kiwi-2 cars (five of) only contest the Saturday (one-day) Smartwood by Alpwood Possum Bourne Memorial Rally 07.
• Three of the 21 NZRC teams are entered to run in the PWRC field that follows behind the WRC cars. The remainder follows behind the PWRC cars.
• Based at Hamilton's Mystery Creek Event Centre.
• NZRC competition covers 11 stages in the Otorohanga/Waitomo/Franklin/Waikato districts.
• Finish celebrations will be held over to the Sunday afternoon following the WRC ceremony (starting at 3:15pm).
• International drivers Ken Block (America) and Alister McRae (Scotland) will both be contesting the New Zealand Rally Championship event.
• Richard Mason/Sara Randall, Hayden Paddon/John Kennard and Emma Gilmour/Glenn Macneall are the three teams with PWRC entries.
• The cars remain unchanged specification wise other than they are allowed to run the FIA control fuel and are required to have a modified fuel system to allow for fuel samples to be taken.
• This is the first time since 2005 New Zealand championship drivers have had a round during the WRC event
• Event website www.rallynz.org.nz
• Championship results can also be found on www.chrissport.co.nz
WRC = World Rally Championship - modified production vehicles run over a 16 round globe-covering series.
PWRC = Production World Rally Championship - production specification cars run in a World Rally Championship format (contested over eight rounds).
NZRC = Vantage Aluminium Joinery New Zealand Rally Championship - domestic rally championship covering four category of cars (Group N 4WD, Group N 2WD, Classic, Kiwi-2).

Group N = Production specification vehicle with safety features such as roll protection, fire safety, and abrasion protection.
Kiwi-2 = New Zealand category of two-wheel drive car to specific rules allowing variation on manufacturer supplied model.

ends

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