Frustrations for Mackersy despite strong start to year
Husband and wife crew of Tim and Lauren Mackersy have had a frustrating start to the 2024 Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship despite some excellent results.
They have purchased an M-Sport produced Ford Fiesta Rally 4 car that arrived in the country prior to the opening round at Otago but a hold up with paperwork has seen them contest the first two rounds in their older model Fiesta.
“It is pretty frustrating, especially with it being such a small thing that we are struggling with,” Tim Mackersy said.
“We are really lucky we have this car sitting here still.
“It is just paperwork – it was a mistake on the paperwork, and they can’t accept it with the mistake on it.”
The car will be cleared to compete but instead of it being a simple procedure, it takes a few weeks. He is confident they’ll have the green light to enter the new car at round three – the Southern Lights Rally based out of Invercargill next month.
“The process is you need to put all your paperwork together and send it away to NZTA,” Mackersey explained. “They look at everything you’ve got and then they come back to you.
“This car [the R2T] had trouble as well and that took about six weeks.
“It would have been more than six weeks by the time Southern Lights comes around.”
Rally 4 cars have proven a hit in the competitive NZRC 2WD class with the likes of Dylan Thomson and Bryn Jones finding more speed in the newer model car.
“We have no idea what the jump is from this to that really,” Mackersey admitted. “The other guys don’t stop talking about the new car, so we are looking forward to it.
“Hopefully we can get closer to those guys.
“It will be a lot more torque and more power – everything is better.”
The Southern Lights Rally features a Friday night stage in the dark while it is likely the opening stage on Saturday morning will be fairly dark as well – a challenge Mackersy is looking forward to.
“It looks really good. I think Saturday morning will be in the dark too.
“One thing that is good is the new car came with a full set of the good lights so we won’t have to get those.”
Tweet
