By the numbers – Google Grant’s key numbers for Rally Hawke’s Bay
Three rounds down, three to go, and now the fast South Island stuff is done, it’s on to the technical roads of the North Island.
By winning his second round of the season, North Canterbury’s Jack Stokes eked out another five points over Auckland’s Jack Hawkeswood to head across Cook Strait with a seven-point lead.
Jack S beat Jack H at Southland by 24.7 seconds, so my running total of the special stage overall time difference between the two of them, after 572kms – in 32 High-Speed Special Stages – is now down to just 1.5 seconds.
This titanic battle of these two young guns is now even more of a two-horse race with news this week that Christchurch’s Ari Pettigrew has had to withdraw from Hawke’s Bay due to budget constraints but has indicated he will be back with his flying Porsche for the final two rounds.
Therefore, Taumarunui’s Quentin Palmer is odds on to at least consolidate his current third place. However, as he goes to Hawke’s Bay 26 points behind Jack S, it would take both the Jack’s to DNF and then Quentin to win the rally, and place at worst fourth on the power stage, for QP to overhaul them both and head to the two-day Vertex Lubricants International Rally of Whangarei as the series leader.
Robbie Stokes is realistically the only other driver capable of outperforming the Jack’s for the round win and, after the season he’s had in the South Island, he will be desperate to leave the Bay with at least a repeat of his 2021 result when he recorded his first NZRC podium by finishing second to Hayden Paddon. That was a breakthrough NZRC result for him in the Fiesta AP4 as Robbie and sister Amy were second fastest on all six stages (five of which are being used this year) and beat Raana Horan (Skoda) and Ben Hunt (Subaru) by just under and over 2 minutes respectively over the 156 kms total distance.
However, the siblings’ last visit there back in 2022 (the SVG year), this time on roads south of Napier, was anything but a good one as they were neck and neck with SVG until within sight of the flying finish of stage 2 when they got stuck off the road for 15 minutes.
They made it to the next stage, won three of the next 4, but then went off again on the last one – this time terminally.
Ironically, it was a repeat of stage 2.
Jack Stokes has never done Hawkes Bay, while Jack Hawkeswood’s only time competing on the stages north of Napier was in 2021 in one of Force Motorsport’s Mazda 2 AP4s, where he finished 14th after suffering brake issues in the second pass of Cricklewood.
Quentin is the most experienced of these three at Hawkes Bay having finished ninth in 2021 and a trifecta of finishes in 2012, 2013 and 2014 when they were rounds of the Central Region Series. On all four occasions he was driving the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 5 used to promote this month’s BP Rally Taumaurunui.
While on the theme of a blast from the past, this year sees our two most successful NZRC drivers make welcome returns to Rally Hawke’s Bay, albeit running as allcomers this time.
Between them Hayden Paddon and Richard Mason have won 12 NZRC titles and 69 NZRC rounds – HP seven and 41, while Richard has five and 28.
They have won Hawke’s Bay 7 times – five to Richard (2002, 2003, 2005, 2009 and 2011) and HP twice in 2008 and 13 years later in 2021.
In fact, this year Richard and his wife Sara – then Randall – are driving the same car they used to win that 2005 round, now with the registration number EVOETA, which was the third of four consecutive round wins for Richard that resulted in his first NZRC title, over our only ever official manufacturer works team – Subaru Rally Team New Zealand – with driver Chris West.
Hayden’s 2008 win was the first for him and JK (John Kennard) in their (then new) Team Green Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 and ultimately led that year to the first of HP’s seven NZRC GoldStars. This edition was unique in NZRC history as it was set to be a two-leg rally, but the weather closed in so badly during the Saturday that the arterial roads north of Napier were closed by the Police to anything other than the emergency services and all the Sunday competition was cancelled.
Sara has four co-driver GoldStars in her trophy cabinet which places her fifth on the NZRC co-drivers roll of honour, behind a three-way tie for the lead on six between JK (all with HP), Bob Haldane (3 with Neil Allport (1988, 89 & 90) & 3 with Joe McAndrew (93, 94 & 96)) and Rob Ryan (5 with Bruce Herbert (1999 to 2003) & 1 with Sam Murray in 2007).
Tony Rawstorn moved into sole fourth with his fifth title last year, all of course with Ben Hunt (2015, 18, 19, 24 & 25).
As far as NZRC round wins go JK has won 32 of HP’s 41, Sara is second on 25, Bob Haldane next on 24, then Rob Ryan 17 and Tony Rawstorn 15.
There are five other round winning co-drivers in the field this weekend – Jared Hudson (6), Jason Farmer (5), Hayden Graves (2), Ben Searcy (1) and Fleur Pedersen (1).
With the Masons competing on their first rally together since a DNF at Waitomo in 2020 while leading, after earlier that COVID year winning the Rally of the Bay in the same Subaru, the last time they were in the same class as Hayden in a rally was their winner-takes-all showdown for the 2013 NZRC at Rally Wairarapa, which HP won by 13 seconds to secure his third title.
Based on the disparity of the equipment these legends will each be using this weekend, the allcomers class F result will be no contest, however, it’s great to have them all back in action on home roads and, regardless of the eventual outcome, they are sure to put on an awesome show for the spectators.
The roads being used are some of the classics of North Island rallying and as mentioned above, are much more technical than the cresty, wide and flat-out stages down south. The stage winning average speeds set by Hayden in his Hyundai i20 AP4 back in 2021 were barely over 100kph, with the 17km of Mohaka Coach under 90kph, so it will be interesting to see what the Rally2 Hyundai, Skodas and Toyota can do this time.
Hayden’s overall win at Southland last month means his amazing winning run driving Hyundais in NZ has now reached 30 and extends back almost a decade to when he got beached in the i20 AP4+ car in the Coroglen stage at Rally Coromandel in 2017.
As at Southland, HP and Jared Hudson will carry door banner 20 – synonymous with his WRC Argentina Win in 2016 – but start as the first car on the road from Wairoa at 7.30am on Saturday morning.
Apart from the four front running Cat 1 contenders, the category for this round also includes the return of Nelson Law from Vanuatu in the older Force Motorsport Toyota Yaris AP4 and two of the new GR Yaris Rally Cup cars making their North Island debut.
Dakar Rally Legend Toby Price returns, this time with Ben Searcy, following Toby’s first experience of this car at Otago, and fresh from a fine fifth place outright at last weekend’s ARC Rally Tasmania driving a Subaru WRX Challenge AWD class car.
The second Yaris Rally Cup car will be in the hands of local William Menzies who will get his first taste of this latest weapon from Andrew Hawkeswood’s Force Motorsport stable.
OTHER NZRC CATEGORIES
Once again, the 2WD Championship at Southland was dominated by Ari Pettigrew, this time by over five minutes, with Deane Buist and Ben Harding completing the podium for the second round in a row.
Dave Strong had one of his best performances in fourth, with Tim Mackersy fifth.
With Ari now missing this round, the door is wide open for Deane to take the lead, particularly with the Mackersy’s not coming north for this one either. However, Deane might not have it quite all his own way as young Masterton driver Jackson Clendon is making a return to the championship and no doubt will be pushing hard in his Ford Fiesta Rally4.
The Rally Challenge at Southland saw a first round win for Cromwell’s Thomas Paul who has taken the lead, but with both he and Harri Silcock sitting this round out, previous leader Grant Blackberry will be odds on to take the lead back as there are only two other Cat 5 starters in attendance – the two x Josh’s – Silcock and Keighley.
In the new Classic Rally Championship (Cat 6C) Deane Buist secured his third round again over Ben Harding from Paul Cross and Roger McKay. Deane is just one point off the maximum points total and has extended his lead over Ben to 23 points.
Hawkes Bay will be a three-way contest with Deane, Hawkes Bay local Ben and Taupo’s Roger in action.
Cat 2 makes a reappearance with Masterton’s Jackson Clendon back. Finishing will get him on the board and 11 points away from current leader Fuyuhiko Takahashi and 7 behind Edgar Vigo Lopez, both of whom scored their points at Otago.
As mentioned last time, Categories 2, 3, 4 and 6 competitors are able to drop their worst points scoring round from any one of the first five rounds, so it looks like some South Islanders have decided Hawkes Bay is their choice to drop.
Unfortunately, Cat 3 won’t now have the glorious sound of any Porsches resonating through the hills and with the Dunedin-based Mackersy’s also staying home, Dave Strong and Rob Scott have the perfect opportunity to take the lead in Open 2WD.
However, it’s a full house in Cat 4 with all three Historic contenders attending. Pat Norris made the most of being the sole entry at Southland, even though he almost blew it with a stuck off road in the first stage, and has a handy 15-point lead over Tauranga’s Phil Macquarie who won the first two rounds. Mike Cameron and daughter Kelly rejoin the series here, but as L1LEVO is still ‘poorly’ they will be running the EX model Lancer Mike drove as the 00 Car at Taranaki, so he will have an extra 150 horsepower to get to grips with.
Cat 5A is just a two-horse race with local expert Grant Blackberry (Evo 10) having to contend with only Josh Keighley in his H6 Impreza who will be looking to bank some good points to get right back up into contention.
Similarly, Cat 5B will ‘only’ have Josh Silcock starting, so he’s odds on to take away 30 points. Rory Lawn has stayed down south, but will still lead this category regardless of what Josh does this weekend. Both already have three scores each, and in the Cat 5s you drop your two lowest scores in the first five rounds. Rory currently leads Josh by seven points, and as Josh’s lowest score is 24 at Otago, he can only add six points to his total, so would still be one point behind.
Likewise in Cat 5c Josh Keighley has it all to himself, but even taking away 30 points will still only see him close the gap to six points to leader Thomas Paul. So finishing this Saturday is vital to Josh having any chance of defending his title.
It’s the Jack, Josh and Josh show in the Juniors this weekend with Jack Stokes on the maximum of 75 points, but any sort of significant slip up on his part could open the door for either (or both) a Silcock and a Keighley.
The Rookie Field for Hawkes Bay has four contenders in action. The non-attending Harri Silcock still leads on the maximum 75 points, with Rory Lawn still second, now 12 points behind. So a round win for either Josh Silcock or Ben Harding would see them take the lead, while Roger McKay could move to one point behind Josh. Toby Price is the other entry here.
Like Josh S and Jack S, Dave Strong has maximum points in the Gold Card Driver section, and just by finishing will maintain the top spot going to Whangarei, regardless of whether Pat Norris or Mike Cameron win the round.
The International Driver battle is reactivated at Hawkes Bay with Vanuatu’s Nelson Law starting and up against Toby Price.
Nelson can hit the front with either a first or second leapfrogging Pierre-Henri Brunet, while Toby can close up on P-H with a 25-point winning haul.
Two Jack Stokes wins to Jack Hawkeswood’s one means Skoda holds a 3-point advantage over Toyota in the Manufacturers series.
Porsche are currently tied with Toyota, but can’t advance their total, so it’s up to Jackson Clendon (Ford) and Dave Strong (Honda) to increase their Manufacturers’ scores.
The Teams Cup for Categories 1–4 and 6 has Real Fords of NZ (Tim Mackersy & Deane Buist) still in front, but Deane is the only participant for them this time, while both Jack Hawkeswood and Dave Strong will be working hard for Team South Auckland Car Club to turn the current 17-point deficit into a lead before the long trek north.
The North Island Cat 6s of Ben Harding and Roger McKay remain in third, 44 points behind Real Fords of NZ.
The margin in the Cat 5 Teams Cup has increased significantly to 18 points in favour of Silcock Motorsport, where again it will be the battle of the Josh’s, as Josh Keighley is the only member of Team H6 running this weekend.
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