By the numbers – Google Grant’s key numbers for Battery Town Rally Bay of Plenty
The third iteration of the Battery Town Rally Bay of Plenty running as a round of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship is hugely welcomed by all those involved, however this year there are two significant differences.
The first is there will be a new NZRC round winner as, although he will be expected to make it a threepeat, Hayden Paddon is not registered for this year’s NZRC.
So, the NZRC favourites will undoubtedly be the pair of Skodas that have dominated the series so far, in the hands of defending champion Ben Hunt and Robbie Stokes who is in great form this year, being fresh from winning the Mainland Series for the second time and has finally ‘broken his NZRC duck’ by winning his home round at Canterbury back in June.
The second difference is that over half the 165km of Special Stages at BOP will take place on dedicated forestry roads – as rallying returns to the Matahina Forest for the first time in two decades, when they formed part of the penultimate FIA APRC International Rally of Rotorua.
That rally, containing just over 250km in 10 stages – including the Motu run at its full 47.38km distance – was won by the ex-Subaru WRC driver Toshi Arai from Japan in a Subaru Impreza STi N11 with Kiwi Tony Sircombe co-driving and winning his first rally in NZ since the Northern Sports Car Club’s Woodhill Forest Rally way back in 1982 when he sat alongside Peter Farrell in a Ford Escort.
The NZRC round winners were Richard Mason and his brother-in-law Hamish Fenemor – deputising for Sara Randall (Mason) who had university exams to attend – in their Group N Subaru Impreza STi N8. They finished 2nd overall to Arai by 1 min 45.5 secs.
In one of the closest NZRC round results on record, and after almost 3 hours total time, Mason won by just 1.9 seconds over the Ralliart NZ Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 7 of Mark Tapper and Jeff Judd. Brett Martin/Crunch Bennett (Evo 8) were third over 3 minutes further back, but just 0.9 seconds ahead of Chris West/Garry Cowan in their Winger Subaru Impreza WRX STI.
Other well-known names competing back then were (of course) Brian Green and Fleur Pedersen in the Silverstone Tyres Rally Team Evo 8 who finished 6th in the APRC round, Emma Gilmour who retired in her Evo 6 and Brent Taylor/Chris Ramsay in a Rally Drive NZ Evo 6 – finishing 13th in the NZRC section, just behind Greeny and Fleur.
Dave Strong/Bruce McKenzie in one of his (many) Honda Civic Type R’s won the Clubman’s section, while experienced co-driver Mal Peden retired due to a fire in Kevin Honiss’ Subaru Impreza.
Another name of note who won the APRC Group A7 Class in Rotorua that year was one Julien Lenglet (who was French in those days) in a Honda Integra Type R.
Coincidentally Julien and Fleur are teaming up again this weekend as Julien can rightly celebrate winning the NZRC International Driver award already and continue the great pace he showed at Coromandel last month.
So, there are a handful of this year’s BOP competitors who have been in Matahina before, but it will be new territory for the vast majority and, at over 90km of stage distance in the pair of repeated stages, these roads could well have a significant bearing on deciding a number of this year’s NZRC category winners.
THE STATE OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP GOING INTO RALLY BOP:
All Round Scores count for both the overall GoldStar and the 2WD championships, so once again consistency and completing every kilometre of every stage is paramount.
By doing so (so far) Triple Champion Ben Hunt has therefore deservedly earned the right to lead the series since his win at the outset at Otago back in April.
A minor early slip up at South Canterbury by Robbie Stokes has provided Ben with most of his 11-point advantage, but Robbie has continued to take the fight to Ben and another fascinating contest is in prospect this weekend.
Should either of them have any sort of hiccup – like Ben’s puncture at BOP last year – then the other 4 Category One crews entered are all quite capable of compounding this by finishing ahead and costing either of the main title contenders dearly. MSNZ Elite Academy Winner Jack Stokes has shown incredible pace, leading on his Cat 1 debut at Otago and completing the podiums at both Canterbury and Coromandel.
Like the younger Stokes, the other Jack (Hawkeswood) suffered badly from his DNF in the forest at South Canterbury and will be very keen to (potentially) send his AP4 Yaris out with at least a podium finish. Josh Marston (Holden Barina AP4) is another who has shown real pace this year, as well as being the most experienced with the MRF control tyres, but time consuming delays have blunted his challenge at crucial times. Emma Gilmour rejoins the series after, like Jack Hawkeswood, retiring in the second pass of Kakahu Forest at South Canterbury and then missing the last two rounds, but can never be discounted in her Citroen C3 Rally2.
As you would expect the GoldStar Co-Drivers has Tony Rawstorn (Hunt) out in front of Shane Reynolds (Stokes) by 11 points from Andrew Graves (Marston) – 42 behind Tony – as the other main contender.
2WD has been dominated by Deane Buist who has won every round and ‘dropped’ only 3 points (by not winning 2 Power Stages) from the maximum possible 134.
Bryn Jones in his Rally4 Fiesta has been equally consistent at all four rounds so far, but finishing second to Deane each time means he is a crucial 16 points behind the incredibly rapid BDA Escort from Christchurch. Similarly Rally4-mounted Tim MacKersy and Steve Gill (Escort) have both finished all four rounds and are still in with a chance should the two front runners come unstuck.
2WD Co-Drivers is a different story as Deane’s regular navigator Karl Celeste chose to drive at Canterbury, so Bryn’s co-driver Sean Lockyear has a 14 point lead over Karl with Tim’s wife Lauren just 6 points further back and Grant Molloy (Gill) another 11 behind Lauren.
Category (Cat) 1 Drivers is almost the same as the GoldStar with the addition of Jack Hawkeswood 57 points behind Ben and still a mathematical chance with 74 points available over the final two rounds. The Cat 1 Co-Drivers is the same as the GoldStar as Jason Farmer (Hawkeswood) missed Canterbury due to an injury.
For the first time since COVID, Categories 2, 3 and 4 crews can drop their worst result from the first 5 rounds, so the effect of that makes for some intriguing changes to the current Points Tables.
In Cat 2 Bryn Jones already has the maximum total of 134 from the first four rounds, so his approach at BOP will be to finish ahead of Tim so the Dunedin couple can not improve their total of 114 either, and thereby go to Whangarei still with a 20 point lead. Should Tim win on Saturday the best he can add is 4 points as he worst score so far is 3 x Seconds at each of the One Day rounds. The same scenario applies to the Co-Drivers for Sean and Lauren.
Cat 3 has also been light on entries this year and Dave Strong has benefited greatly from that as two retirements in the last two rounds have still not really affected his aspirations for yet another NZRC title as his opposition Paul Cross DNF’d at Otago and to date has competed only in the South Island, so Dave finds himself still leading by 9 points.
Rob Scott is the Cat 3 Co-Driver Champion-elect as Janey Blair (Cross) missed South Canterbury, so Rob currently enjoys a 35 point lead and a finish this Saturday will put him out of reach with a round to go.
In Cat 4 Deane Buist does have the maximum points (134) so can’t improve his total and will be hoping that the third Cat 4 entry at BoP, Mike Cameron, can finish ahead of Steve Gill to prevent Steve from increasing his score and thereby go to Whangarei maintaining his 22 point lead. In the Co-Drivers Grant Molloy has an 8 point advantage over Karl Celeste, but having missed Canterbury, Karl can take whatever points he (and Deane) can score, so we can expect a change of leader if the expected Buist run of form continues.
The Rally Challenge and Cat 5’s Dropped Round(s) Rule is different again as here the worst 2 round scores of the first 5 rounds are ignored.
So in the Rally Challenge and Cat 5A Queenstown’s Caleb Macdonald has done so well in the three rounds he’s contested so far, he can add only 1 point to his 89.
Second placed Josh Keighley has scored at all 4 rounds this year, so has already dropped his points from Otago to sit 20 points in arrears.
If he was to win this weekend Josh would increase his total by 13 points to 82, and by doing so keep Caleb on 89, so the gap would close up considerably.
Several other drivers are still very much in contention with Julien Lenglet and Ben Huband able to add whatever they can score to their current totals.
Net increases can also be made by Gavin Feast and Kevin Laird and Greeny will still be in the mix when he (hopefully) makes his much anticipated return at Whangarei.
It’s a similar situation in the Challenge and Cat 5A Co-Drivers with Larisa Biggar (Macdonald) and Neill Woolley (Keighley) in the box seats, but Brianna Little (Greeny), Aled Jones (Laird), Fleur Pedersen (Lenglet), Corinne Watson (Huband) and J-P van Der Meys (Feast) all still in with a shot.
Unfortunately there are no Cat 5B entries at BOP so the South Island peddlers Ian Warren (78) and Thomas Paul (60) remain the top two here.
However it’s Thomas’ Co-Driver Bridget Airey who has a 6 point lead over Brody Cattermole (Warren) in the Cat 5B Co-Drivers.
Cat 5C is extremely close with Josh Keighley just 2 points ahead of Kevin Laird with two round wins each and only separated by different results on Power Stages.
They are the only their two entries at BOP, so whoever can come out on top would increase his score by a maximum of 4 points.
So again if Kevin can win he would take over the lead going to Whangarei and the outcome of the Power Stage could again prove crucial.
Now we are back to ‘All Scores Count’ with the other Awards and the Junior Championship couldn’t be any closer with Josh Keighley just a single point ahead of Bryn Jones.
The two young Jack’s (Stokes and Hawkeswood) have bounced back well from their South Island troubles and either could well take the lead going to Whangarei
if the cards fall in their favour.
The Rookie Driver is down to a Three Horse Race with Josh Keighley 7 points clear of Steve Gill and Kevin Laird a similar margin further back.
The Gold Card Driver has become an interesting contest with current leader Pat Norris not at BOP giving Mike Cameron a golden opportunity to grab the lead going to Whangarei. The only other Gold Card starter is Dave Strong who could also come right back into contention if he can make the Finish.
Dave would be expected to beat Mike, so should that play out the points after BOP would be Mike Cameron leading on 100, Pat Norris still on 86,
then Dave and Greeny each on 72, but both out of the running with ‘only’ a further 25 points on offer for winning Whangarei.
As mentioned, the only award we can say that has already been decided is the International Driver, so it’s CONGRATULATIONS to Vanuatu’s Julien Lenglet, who has an unassailable lead over the Irish/Aussie Glenn Alcorn and our Japanese visitor Fuyuhiko Takahashi.
The Manufacturers Trophy is still too close to call with Skoda leading Ford by 7 points, but the two front running Skodas would still be considered favourites to turn the tables on last year’s winner. However Toyota and Holden are still a chance should anything happen to the two European Makes.
The Teams Cup for Categories 1 – 4 has ‘M-Sport Rally4’ (Bryn Jones & Tim MacKersy) logging the maximum score possible, but for all that they are still only 28 points ahead of ‘Dougy’s Darlings’ (Josh Marston & Deane Buist), so anything is On should anyone slip up.
In Teams Cup Category 5 ‘Big Belly Rally’ (Caleb Macdonald & Kevin Laird) are 8 points clear of ‘B Class Battlers’ (Ian Warren and Thomas Paul), but as neither Ian or Thomas are at BOP the only other team still providing any opposition is ‘Team Vanuatu & Pure Quality’ (Julien Lenglet and Ben Huband), but they are 55 points behind Caleb & Kevin.
All 27 Categories and Awards are available at any time on the ChrisSport website via the Black ‘2025 Points’ icon on the Options Line at the top of the Home Page.
They are also available on the Mobile Version by clicking on the POINTS icon on the Footer of that Home Page and then selecting the Series you want to view.
This is the link which gets updated immediately after each Round: ChrisSport
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