Ari’s precautionary tale about pressure
Ari Pettigrew has quickly become the talk of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship this season with his blistering speed in the Porsche 911 but the phenomenon is nothing new.
Pettigrew burst onto the rallying scene with some exceptional performances in various cars that got people quickly talking about the ceiling of his obvious potential on his way to making it into the Open 4WD class.
But in a cautionary tale that other talented youngsters should sit up and take notice of, Pettigrew admitted recently on BB and Budgie’s Thursday Night Recce that it all got too much.
The Cantabrian acknowledged there was a lot of pressure – both internally and externally to live up to the hype.
“I don’t regret anything I did with the way I’ve sorta come up through and progressed,” Pettigrew said.
“I also had a lot of help along the way with heaps of people that come on board sponsoring and the likes of Hayden [WRC star Hayden Paddon] as well with mentoring.
“But I guess it was probably just me trying to potentially do too much myself. Like obviously all the work on the car myself, trying to find all the budget. It was a lot to take on to try and pull together a full season and yeah, at the end of the day I sort of probably burnt myself out a bit and just no longer had the enjoyment with the year to justify, keep pushing yourself to do it.”
Pettigrew took a year or two away from the highest level and has clearly rediscovered his love for the sport as he unleashes his Porsche 911 on the 2026 championship and it is great to see him smiling and enjoying himself again.
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