Rd 5 - Coromandel Rally
This weekend is round 5 of the Brian Green Properties New Zealand Rally Championship. Based out of Whitianga and held in the stunning Coromandel region, this rally produces some of the closest racing of the year and because of its location some of the best photographs. Three repeat stages are all that awaits us this weekend making the event feel almost like an extended rally sprint, we start out on the Kennedy Bay stage this stage runs twice back to back, before we head back to service via the 309 public road stage, in the afternoon we loop the Coroglen and 309 stages before finishing on a brand new street stage in Whitianga township.
Copyright - Geoff Ridder
The NZ rally championship recently ran a survey with those involved in the championship and have released the results from there findings, Its been humbling to have been voted the championships best driver this year securing 83% of the votes. Our Subaru also polled as the most competitive car in the championship which is a real credit to the team and all our sponsors who back us to allowing us to continually develop and fine tune our car into a rally winning machine.
This weekend we have a real chance of winning the overall 2019 Rally Championship, heading into the event we hold a 46 point lead in the championship, If we secure 15 points over the course of the weekend we will have an unbeatable lead seeing us crowned Gold Star champions with one event to run. As ever we will be targeting to have a good tidy event finishing all stages. A result higher than 8th will net us enough points to secure the championship. We have a great set of notes for the event that have been refined over the past seasons at this rally, which gives us great confidence leading into the event. Being first on the road isn’t a major disadvantage, the public roads in the coromandel region have daily traffic using them giving them a hard packed base and a swept line down most straights. Im really looking forward to being behind the wheel and competing again it always feel like an eternity between events.
Copyright - Scott Johnson