Macdonald on track for Whangarei return
When James Macdonald was lying upside down half on the road and half in the trees at Bay of Plenty he thought he had no chance of making the final round of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship.
But some hard work and a bunch of people wanting to lend a hand has the talented southerner in line to make the start line for the final event of the season.
Macdonald has impressed in 2024 and is well in the battle for the Rally Challenge 4WD championship – 21 points off the lead in the Rally Challenge 4WD class and just nine behind the leader in the Group A Challenge – but a massive roll over late in Rally Bay of Plenty wrecked his Subaru Impreza.
The accident left a full rebuild with just four weeks between events and his small team had an uphill battle in front of them.
“It was big enough I guess,” Macdonald said looking back. “We are probably lucky that we are surrounded by a bunch of pretty awesome people really.
“We have some specific skillsets nearby – only 10 minutes down the road from where the car is based.
“They have chucked it straight on the jig – it probably looked worse than it was.
“The main bits were all good, which is key. There are few areas that needed tweaking and every panel.
“It has already straightened up – we had a donor car that was given to us from some other good people and we have just been pulling bits and pieces off that.
“It is starting to take shape now – just a few different colour panels.”
While there is still plenty of work to be done, Macdonald is confident they will be able to get the repair done in time to make Whangarei and have a shot at taking out the title.
“You can never say definitely as something could pop out of the woodwork but all signs are there that we will be back at Whangarei,” he explained.
“We have had the motor running already, which is good. The suspension is straight.”
Macdonald has been blown away by the amount of support he has received from within the rallying community.
“That has been unreal – people say that Canterbury and the South Island is full of enthusiasts and that has been true but the help we had in Tauranga was just amazing. Parts and workshops and help were offered to us within the day – fellow competitors were offering their help and messages of support, which is just awesome.”
As for the mental scars after such a big crash – Macdonald is confident he will be just fine.
“Funnily enough – not too bad. I think we are just excited to get back out there. There has been a lot of good stuff to come out of it and enough to overshadow what happened.
“I’ve thought about what we did wrong, and I remember the incident.
“Nothing about not wanting to do it again – a bit more annoyance about maybe not making Whangarei but thankfully that doesn’t seem to be the case now.”
Tweet
