2020 calendar

The 2020 calendar has been uploaded and you can check it out now.  Shane and his subcommittee have worked hard to make sure we don't clash with other events that members are likely to want to attend, but it can be a hit and miss effort.  Other clubs change their dates, the rally calendar hasn't been set yet thanks to Rally NZ appearing back on the scene for 2020, and all these sorts of things means our calendar has to be a bit fluid for a while.  If anyone has anything they can tell us about events, please let Shane know so we can take it into account.  But at the end of the day, we have to cater to our members and competitors, so we have to put a stake in the ground and go with it.  Calendar 2020 is it.

NEXT EVENT - Te Puke Quarry Rd Tarmac Hillclimb

This is an event we haven't done in a while, and this year we are also hosting the MiniNats competitors.  They are attending their 60th Annual MiniNats weekend and the hillclimb will be an integral part of that.  And we're sure you can all remember how tricky an event this is.  Hopefully by using Labour weekend, we will be through the last of the wet weather and can count on some sunshine for the event.  It's always been a popular hillclimb, so get your entry in.

Day/Night Sprint Rnd 2

This postponed event was finally held yesterday 28 Sep.  And a good field turned out to compete on what started out to be a drizzly day but fined up, although it was certainly very cold with a howling westerly blowing.  We started the day with a working bee to place and paint some more tyres, and this turned up the fact that the wind overnight had blown down a couple of trees.  Fortunately we were able to get Ranger Darryl to come in and cut them up and get them off the road.  Many thanks Darryl!  After a bit of lunch it was on to documentation, with Brenda having a go for the first time.  And a splendid job she did too.  By this time the sun was out but it was blowing pretty hard.  We had hopes that the roads would dry out and they did, but because of the wind there was no problem with dust.  We were pleased to see Phil Campbell out in his AP4 Fiesta to do a bit of testing on the event.  But of course this meant that he was the class of the field in both day and night sessions.  However Phil's not eligible this year for the Overall Championship, because this is the only event he's done.  So the intense battle between Ben Quin, Jay Pittams and David Loughlin was able to continue unabated.  That was of course until Ben broke some suspension on Day run 2 and David broke the gearbox on Day run 3.  Ben was a bit more fortunate in that he was able to fix his car and carry on, whilst David's day had ended.  However losing that momentum in Run 2 meant that Jay was able to push ahead and beat Ben by 2 seconds on the day runs, with Phil Jones coming in third in that battle.  Visitors Adam Bligh and Gareth McLachlan posted 2nd and 5th positions respectively on the day runs, but of course don't feature in our championship.

In the 2WD stakes the battle between Club Champion James West and runner up Jordan Grant continued.  James was debuting his new car this weekend, after writing off the old one at the dual rallysprint in March.  Jordan was coming off two good finishes at Coromandel and Far North rallies recently, and so had much more seat time than James has been able to get this year.  This meant that on the day runs Jordan took that battle by 6 seconds from James, Daniel Haines 600ths of a second behind James.  A really intense battle going on there.

And then came the nighttime and lights.  And everything looks really different at night!  And this showed in the times and some interesting swaps in placings between the top runners.  With Phil Campbell way out in front, Ben concentrated on getting all two runs done and came out on top of Jay this time by 4 seconds.  Phil Jones was again third.  And in the two wheel drive battle, Jordan again took the win from James by 3 seconds.  It's worthy of note that these two competitors in their Class A 2WD cars, are beating some really good 4WD cars and are snapping at the heels of the better ones as well.  Good on them.

A very big thanks to all the club members who came out to help with the working bee, and then stayed on to help with the marshalling for the event.  And also to those who came out specially to marshall for the event.  We couldn't do it without you and we really appreciate your dedication.

Results can be found here - Results 

And congratulations to Ben Quin and Jordan Grant, respective 4WD and 2WD Day/Night Sprint Champions for 2019.  Results here Event Results

kaharoa tarmac rallysprint

Well the day turned out wet as forecast, but that didn't stop a hardy band of helpers and competitors coming out to this great road at Kaharoa.  Big thanks to both the competitors and the helpers who braved the weather to come out and have a great time.  

Results are now published on the Results page.

MOTORSPORT ONLINE ENTRIES 

For instructions on how to do it, click MotorSportOnline_Entries.pdf

We would appreciate it if all competitors could use this new system to enter our events.