By the numbers – Google Grant’s key numbers for Lone Star Rally Canterbury
As speculated in my last post, the competition at Otago was intense and incredibly close as the three NZRC front runners fought for every second – and split second for that matter – throughout the 16 rollercoaster stages.
Apart from the central city tarmac test (at 86kph), only one other stage – the as expected Waipori Gorge – had a winning average speed of under 105kph; and even that was 97.42kph. Most of the other 14 were in the 120’s as Robbie Stokes, Jack Stokes and Jack Hawkeswood put on an amazing show.
Up until Robbie’s unfortunate retirement when touring to Stage 11 on the Sunday, the trio were never separated in stage times by more than 10 seconds on all but two stages, and on those the two Jacks virtually cancelled each other out as Jack S beat Jack H by 17.1 seconds on the 46k Tuapeka stage and Jack H took almost all of that back on the very next one – 13.4 on the 32k Mitchells Flat test.
Despite this fast and furious fight over almost 285km, Otago was the second NZRC round in the last three where a penalty decided the winner.
Jack H and Jason Farmer had a communication misunderstanding when leaving the second service on the Saturday and thereby incurred a very costly two-minute early penalty. So, from then on, despite their best, spirited attempts in the stages to make up the time given away, they were really depending on Jack Stokes suffering a delay of some sort if they wanted to take their second Otago win.
They netted nine stage wins along the way, with the Stokes brothers taking three each – Aussie Alex Rullo put his Supercars experience to great use by winning the tarmac test. So Jack H actually had the lowest total stage time – by 26 seconds, which equates to just 0.09 of a second per km – but the penalty turned that into a one minute 34 second victory to Jack S.
However, this in no way should take anything away from Jack Stokes’ performance, as from stage 6 on, he knew exactly what the significance of the Hawkeswood/Farmer slip up meant, and with Robbie incurring a 1 minute 30 second lateness penalty out of the first service, the whole scenario changed into managing the advantage he had been presented with, and what followed was an incredibly mature, heady drive to control the rally from the front.
The pace that he continued to drive at to maintain his lead and his overall performance was even more meritorious when you consider Jack had never won a rally before – let alone an FIA sanctioned event – which could well mean he and Hayden Graves are the first ever crew to win a round of an FIA Championship on debut.
Otago was the first time they had driven their new Skoda in a rally, and such was their minimal amount of seat time in it, when it began to rain on Sunday, it was the first time they had driven it in the wet. It was also Jack’s first time driving left hand drive in a top flight car – let alone a state-of-the-art Rally2 version.
And it was just as well Jack is an accomplished rugby flanker, as not many others could have stood their ground the way he did when his (still helmet wearing) brother charged into him with a victory hug at the Kuri Bush stop control.
Robbie managed to make the most of the ability to re-join for the Power Stage and claimed the maximum 5 NZRC points, to salvage as much as he could, but 15th on the Championship Table and 33 points behind his brother (and 29 down on Jack H), means he is already depending on them coming unstuck on at least one of the remaining five rounds to have any realistic chance of getting back into the title fight.
Taumarunui’s Quentin Palmer made the trip south very worthwhile by completing the NZRC podium, although with the white-hot pace upfront, he found himself in a bit of no man’s land behind Jack H and similarly well clear of fourth placed Ari Pettigrew.
Ari was another to shine as he debuted his new Porsche and had everyone in awe of how well he and Jack Norris went first time out. The speeds they hit were astonishing – at one point reaching 223kph – and Ari’s skills in harnessing a car more commonly seen on tarmac and in marathon rallies around the world was a sight to behold.
As always Otago provides superb highs for some, but equally the lowest of lows for others, so we need to spare a thought for Cantabrians Dylan Thomson, Tim and James McIver, who all had significant off-road excursions that mean their seasons were literally turned upside down in an instant, and we hope to see them back sooner rather than later.
Dylan’s incident could also mean it’s the end of the road for the ex-Ben Hunt double championship winning Skoda, which has been such a dominant presence on our stages since its first appearance at Otago in 2022.
In its four previous visits to Otago the car was never off the podium – with 2 x 3rds, a 2nd and finally a 1st last year – and across its four NZRC seasons and 23 rounds, Ben and Tony had just 2 x DNFs – and they were both off roads – on Day One of WRC Rally NZ in 2022 and the 2023 Rally South Canterbury.
So you could say the car has a 100% mechanical finishing record.
OTHER NZRC CATEGORIES
While the overall championship fight inevitably grabbed much of the attention at Otago, several of the other categories also provided great competition.
As mentioned, Ari Pettigrew was the star of the 2WD Championship, powering his Porsche to a 3-minute advantage over Deane Buist who, it should be acknowledged, did a fantastic job hanging on to Kris Meeke’s coat tails in the Classic 2WD division.
Tim Mackersy showed excellent form to finish 3rd with Derek Ayson, Dave Strong and Ben Harding within 40 seconds of each other after an event long battle. All of them will be back in action at Canterbury, so we are sure to be in for more of the same.
The Rally Challenge at Otago went the way of defending champ Caleb Macdonald, who will have regular co-driver Larisa Biggar back alongside, over Hawkes Bay’s Grant Blackberry, just under a minute behind over the Day One stages. Young Thomas Paul was very impressive in third, a similar margin down on Grant, so much so that he and Bridget Airey won the Classic 4WD Division.
All three will be at Canterbury, along with locals Harri Silcock and Josh Keighley, who will both be very keen to take out podium positions and make up as much ground as possible on home roads.
The new Classic Rally Championship has Deane Buist, Derek Ayson and Ben Harding currently in the podium positions, but another to turn heads against much more powerful competition at Otago was Paul Cross who sits fourth, just 5 points behind Ben.
As usual, Deane will be expected to dominate, particularly with so much experience on these North Canterbury roads but, if Otago is anything to go by,
Derek and Ben are set for another battle royale.
For the first time I can remember an NZRC round will run with no entries in a category, as Cat 2 will not feature this time around.
Cat 3 is likely to be another Ari Pettigrew show of strength with both Tim Mackersy and Dave Strong ready to pounce should the unthinkable happen to the flying Porsche.
In the finish Phil Macquarie was a runaway winner in Cat 4 from Mike and Helen Cameron.
It will still be Team Cameron at Canterbury, but this time – hopefully with a next generation Lolly Lady – as Mike and Helen’s youngest daughter Kelly – the sky diving instructor – will join Dad in LILEVO for her debut outing in the co-driver’s seat after their first attempt together, almost 20 years ago at Otago way back in 2007 turned out to be a Did Not Start.
However, Kelly has been in LILEVO before when she drove Car #90 in the 2007 Taranaki Tarmac Rally – with Helen co-driving.
In Cat 5b the four Irish/Aussie Escorts won’t be at Canterbury, so Rory Lawn and Josh Silcock are set to go at it again.
However, they won’t have it all their own way as Darren Galbraith makes a welcome return in his Fiesta and the very rapid Ian Warren will drive the Suzuki Swift Cup Car peddled so well at Otago by Mr and Mrs Lopez.
As mentioned, Cat 5c will be without James McIver, but the other five Otago starters are all back with James Macdonald, Kevin Laird and Terri Taylor all chasing current leader Thomas Paul and defending champ Josh Keighley.
Five Juniors scored at Otago, with Jack Stokes naturally earning the maximum 25 from Thomas Paul, Josh Keighley, with the Silcock brothers in 4th (Harri) and 5th (Josh).
The rookie field for Canterbury has halved from Otago mainly as there are no Aussies this time. So Harri Silcock has a handy lead due to Sean McAloon and Toby Price finishing 2nd and 3rd.
The very impressive Rory Lawn is therefore 6 points behind Harri and then comes the two Cat 6 entries of Derek Ayson and Ben Harding. Josh Silcock is next with Roger McKay the other starter.
It’s almost the same situation in the Gold Card, as last year’s top three are the only runners at Canterbury after we had six at Otago.
Dave Strong came out on top there with Mike Cameron 5th and Pat Norris 6th. So Dave starts this round with a 7-point lead.
The International Driver battle is a Vanuatu only contest this time as Pierre-Henri Brunet will be looking to extend his 6-point advantage over fellow countryman Nelson Law.
The Stokes brothers’ Skodas will be looking to extend the Czech Manufacturer’s run of seven consecutive round wins, but undoubtedly, Jack Hawkeswood will be striving to give Toyota just their third ever – following his success at Otago in 2024 and Paul Adams/Jim Scott’s 1984 Tokoroa win in a Corolla.
Interestingly, with the Cat 2 and 3 cars earning Bonus Points, Ari Pettigrew has Porsche in Second on the points table, just 2 points adrift of Skoda, and one in front of Toyota.
The Teams Cup for Categories 1 – 4 and 6 has the Real Fords of NZ (Tim Mackersy & Deane Buist) with a handy 14-point lead over Jack Hawkeswood/Dave Strong’s Team South Auckland Car Club, with the ESCC Classics (Derek Ayson/Paul Cross) 6 points further back.
Showing the importance of both cars finishing, Stokes Motorsport is on 49 – 31 down on the Real Fords.
They are tied with the North Island Cat 6s of Ben Harding and Roger McKay.
The Cat 5 Teams Cup is much closer – just 2 points separate the leaders, Team H6 (Josh Keighley & Thomas Paul) from Silcock Motorsport with Kevin Laird’s retirement limiting defending champions Big Belly Rally to just Caleb Macdonald’s 30 points for winning Cat 5.
AND FINALLY, A LITTLE BIT OF CANTERBURY RALLY NZRC HISTORY
Rally Canterbury returned to the championship in 2013, after a 13-year break, when Greeny and Jim Robb won in the Ford Escort WRC in 2000.
It was then a fixture on the calendar until COVID scuppered the 2020 series and throughout those seven years there was only one repeat winner – and it wasn’t Hayden Paddon. In fact, Hayden has never done Canterbury as an NZRC round.
It was Ben Hunt, who won in both his first two championship winning years (2015 and 2019) – in the same Subaru he will be driving again this year.
The other winners were Chris West in 2013, Richard Mason (2014), Emma Gilmour (2016), Matt Summerfield (2017), Josh Marston (2018).
And of course, Canterbury was back in as Round 3 last year when Robbie Stokes beat Benny to notch up his first NZRC round win.
So, based on that track record, who would bet against it being one of the Jacks who maintain that run come Sunday afternoon after the blast around Ruapuna and the tour back to the Lone Star in Central Christchurch.
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