Tough Weekend but Jagger Looks Ahead for Rewards

Tough Weekend but Jagger Looks Ahead for Rewards

Rally New Zealand Rising Stars driver Ben Jagger had a weekend easily forgotten at Rally Nelson the fourth and penultimate round of the Vantage Aluminium Joinery New Zealand Rally Championship.

In his first season in the Group N-4WD class of the series he has shown good pace but some misfortune has held him back in the standings. At Nelson his focus was on getting back up the rankings but an incident in the second special stage of the weekend led to his early retirement.

"Someone had come off ahead of us and we came down the road and were flagged down. I thought there was going to be a car in the road so slammed on the brakes and our car went sideways." said Jagger.

After going down a bank very nearly on top of the earlier stranded Mitsubishi of Colin Smith there was no hope of continuing the day for Jagger and he joined the rest of the Jagger Rallysport crew back at the service park to repair the damaged Subaru.

"We took a hard hit in the right rear and spent the rest of the day getting the car ready for day two. We were all finished by around 7 which was good because the crew had already been up late the previous night."

On Friday the front differential had malfunctioned while driving through Nelson with the team having to replace it with a standard unit.

On Day Two with the car back in operation Jagger and co-driver Ben Hawkins set off only to strike trouble once more on the second special stage of the day suffering sketchy handling in muddy conditions.

"I didn't have much confidence on Sunday with the (replacement) dif and after going off on Saturday. In a muddy section I nudged a bank which bent the lower suspension arm and I couldn't turn the car." said Jagger.

So no points from the weekend and dropping from 11th in the standings to 12th Jagger heads to the final round at Rally Wairarapa looking to recoup his mojo and get back onto the pace he showed in the opening Rally Otago way back in April where he placed fifth.

"It's the third time in a row we've been off the road now so at Wairarapa I will be working on getting back up to speed and regaining my confidence."

"I also have my sports pshycologist from the (Elite Motorsport) Academy to talk to and she will help me get into the right mind set before going to Wairarapa." said Jagger.

Rally Wairarapa the final round of the Vantage Aluminium Joinery New Zealand Rally Championship takes place over the weekend of 11-12th September.

Further information regarding Ben Jagger and the SeedForce Subaru Impreza WRX is available at www.benjagger.co.nz.

Ben Jagger is the current Rising Stars Scholarship recipient in the Group N 4WD championship and a graduate of the Elite Motorsport Academy.

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