By the numbers – Google Grant’s key numbers for Daybreaker Rally
THE RACE TO THE GOLD STAR – update after the 3 South Island rounds:
Hayden Paddon is arguably still the favourite to take out an 8th NZRC title after Whangarei in November as, if he performs as expected, his rivals are realistically now down to just two – Robbie Stokes and Ben Hunt – particularly as Otago Winner Jack Hawkeswood won’t be at The Daybreaker due to business commitments.
Furthermore, with the close competition already shown by Robbie and Ben down South, their mathematical options mean they both have a big ask ahead of them as either of them need to finish 2nd at almost every opportunity to hold off HP.
A Run of 3rds would see Ben left 6 points behind and Robbie miss out by 5.
And then of course there’s the introduction of Brendan Reeves, whose vast experience and pace – and being in a front-running car, could well assist HP’s cause in taking as many points as possible off Robbie and/or Ben.
On the 3 rounds so far Robbie has finished 2nd, 2nd and 3rd Overall and 2nd, 3rd and 3rd on the Power Stages.
Ben has finished 3rd, 3rd and 2nd Overall and 1st, 4th and 2nd on the Power Stages, and both have taken away 10 points for the Otago Leg results.
Therefore Robbie has to aim to finish ahead of Ben at the Daybreaker – both overall and on the Power Stage – to stay at the top of the Points Table, as if Ben can finish 2nd Overall and 2nd on the Power Stage he would go to Rally Bay of Plenty leading Robbie by at least 2 points, with Hayden’s expected 1st and 1st moving him up into 3rd, 19 points behind Ben.
BRENDAN REEVES RETURNS – 16 YEARS AFTER HIS FIRST VISIT:
The very popular Aussie may not have been here for 5 years, but he is one of the most successful ‘Ockers’ on this side of the Tasman during his 10 previous outings.
His first visit was back in 2008 for the Pirelli Star Driver (which he won in 2010) at the APRC Rally Whangarei where he and co-driver sister Rhianon Smyth (now Gelsomino) drove a Ford Fiesta ST to be the first non-Subaru & Mitsubishi by the end of Leg One, only to go OTL after a lengthy delay in the Waipu Caves stage and be excluded at the Rally Finish.
They were back two months later for the final Mystery Creek WRC Rally New Zealand and won both the WRC N3 Class and NZRC Cat 2 in finishing 24th overall.
He returned for APRC Whangarei in 2009 and, with Glen Weston co-driving this time, took a Subaru Impreza to 3rd Overall behind Hayden Paddon and Cody Crocker.
2010 saw another podium finish at Whangarei (back with Rhianon) – 3rd Overall and 2nd in the Pacific Cup – again in a Subaru – this time behind HP and Emma Gilmour.
2011 completed Brendo’s trifecta of Whangarei’s with 6th using Hayden’s beloved Mitsi Evo IX (HP was in the PWRC Subaru that year). Rhianon was alongside once again.
There was a gap of 5 years before the pair made a very successful return in 2016 to steer a Force Motorsport Mazda 2 to victory at Coromandel.
And just to show that was no flash in the pan Brendo and Ben Searcy returned in 2017 to repeat the result at Coromandel again.
Of note, this was the last time Hayden and his Hyundai i20 AP4 failed to win an NZRC round – slipping off the road and getting beached on the Coroglen stage while leading.
2018 was slightly different with two NZRC rounds and a first visit to the South Island, both times re-united with Rhianon.
Coromandel again in a Mazda 2 AP4 resulted in 5th and South Canterbury 8th.
The iconic roads of Otago are next on his Kiwi CV in 2019, this time in the Stokes Motorsport Ford Fiesta AP4 which unfortunately suffered alternator problems on Leg One when Brendan and Rhianon were running 2nd to HP. They rejoined for Leg 2 and came home 5th for the Day.
In his 8 events driving 4WD cars here, his undoubted ability to run on the pace is reflected in his winning 10 stages and placing 2nd or 3rd on 30 others.
And remember, the last time Brendo had a 5 year gap between visits he won on his return…. and this time he’s driving a car that’s unbeaten in its last 15 NZRC outings. Can History Repeat?
HAYDEN’S WINNING RECORD CONTINUES UNABATED:
ERC Rally Rome in July marked Hayden’s 200th rally start, a career that now includes a plethora of Kiwi rallying firsts and records.
His NZRC record is ‘Sebastien Loeb like’, now standing at 38 with a current unbeaten consecutive record of 21 rounds that extends to over 7 years.
His consistency and car reliability are exemplary too, as indicated by PRG having started 11 NZRC rounds since Otago in 2022 – that’s 120 Special Stages – and they’ve won 115 of them.
On just one of those five were they outside the Top Three – 11th on Stage 3 (Moonlight) at Otago 2022 when a driveshaft broke, and that is the only known mechanical instance.
Of the other four stages only three drivers have beaten HP – SVG on 3 stages at Rally BoP last year and Robbie Stokes and Ben Hunt both went quicker on Cricklewood at South Canterbury this year.
HYUNDAI NEW ZEALAND BREAK NEW GROUND:
Hyundai New Zealand debuted in the NZRC, rather emphatically, in 2016 when HP & JK won Otago, winning all but 1 (the Dunedin City Super Special) of the 17 stages and recording what stands as the biggest winning event margin of 9 minutes 22.1 seconds. (And of course two weeks later they won WRC Argentina.)
That broke the record that had stood for a decade when Richard and Sara Mason won the 2006 International Rally of Rotorua by 8 min 21.7.
Daybreaker 2024 will be the first time more than one Hyundai i20 will start, and the pair will get to experience the Palmerston North Arena Super Special together as the first cars to negotiate this brand new venue, as two cars will be on the course at the same time.
The i20 Rally2 has been faultless winning all its six NZRC outings – each time with JK co-driving, but it’s not quite the same for Daybreaker co-driver Jared Hudson as his only run in it resulted in suspension damage with Gaurav Gill on Day Two at Otago back in April.
As mentioned above, the i20 AP4 is on a winning streak of 15 that stretches back to the 2017 Tauranga-based Rally New Zealand, so the form guide and the quality of the two crews in these cars at the Daybreaker would indicate it’s highly likely one of them should extend its record for Hyundai New Zealand this weekend.
THE CO-DRIVING HUDSONS CREATE THEIR OWN BIT OF NZRC HISTORY:
Over the years there have been a big range of relatives competing together as a crew in the NZRC, from husband & wife, parent & child, uncle & niece, nephew & aunty, brother & sister etc, and then there’s rallies where all four Hudsons have been in co-driver seats in the same event.
However the Daybreaker will see an interesting variation to this as siblings Jared and Amy will be in the two top seeded cars this weekend – both the Hyundais.
Definitely an exciting weekend ahead – with maybe a touch of split loyalties – for Mum Lisa and Dad Rocky, as they watch their offspring perform in the closest thing we have here to a manufacturer-backed team.
NEWBIES AT DAYBREAKER:
The rally made a well overdue return to the NZRC after a decade away last year and was new territory for a very large number of the registered competitors.
Interestingly this year will be the same for 12 of the top 20 Seeds – Emma was last there in 2013, a DNF on her only visit to the Manawatu – and 3 of the other 8 will be in seriously higher spec cars than last year.
Brendan Reeves, Robbie Stokes, Emma (due to her Xtreme-E incident), Haydn Mackenzie, Andrew Graves, Caleb MacDonald, Tim Smith, James Macdonald, Jay Pittams, Phil Macquarie, Gavin Feast and Jack Stokes are the ‘newbies’ while Zeal Jones, Stewart Reid and Tim Mackersy are in the different cars.
So it will be ‘all new’ for the first six NZRC Rally Challenge/Cat 5 runners. In fact of the three South Island Cat 5ers entered only James Macdonald has driven on North Island rally roads before – when he won the Allcomers section of the 2022 Rally Hawke’s Bay and then a brief troubled DNF run at Whangarei last year.
And only one driver in the top 6 seeds has the same co-driver as this time last year – the perennial pairing of Tony Rawstorn with Ben Hunt – as even HP had JK back for the 2023 Daybreaker.
AND FINALLY:
There could be a bit of déjà vu for HP at each stage start as he is expected to have his arch rival from 15 years ago starting in front of him for the 11 stages, with 5 times NZRC GoldStar winner Richard Mason set to carry out the 0 Car course opening duties in son Khalid’s Ford Fiesta ST150.
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