Pre Rally Waitomo - October 2017
2017 Rally Waitomo is taking place on Saturday 14th of October. This is the first time I have competed on this event so every stage will be completely new to me. The event is still 100 % on gravel. The event starts in Pio Pio and heads south into the King Country region before returning back to Pio Pio for our lunch time Service, the then rally heads north east to Otorohanga / Waitomo District before we tour to the finish being hosted at the Hamilton Car Club Clubrooms.
The format of the event makes it a real endurance type event that compromises of just 6 special stages with a total of 208 km of racing. The shortest stage is 16 km long and longest at 45 km. Its going to be a real weekend of measuring your pass against other competitors while managing the car by taking no risk that could cause mechanical issues. The service team this weekend will all need to be on there toes as well with the service areas being in multiple locations they will be packing and unpacking our service gear every couple of hours.
81 competitors have entered and all crews are really looking forward to getting into the action on Saturday morning. We are seeded 4th on the road, I can only speculate on past experience from gravel events this will be a good place to be in the road order. there should be a slight swept line starting to form if the gravel is thick and if we have an event in rainy conditions the road will still be in good condition for us, the further back you run in the order you risk the base being pulled threw making it slippery.
We have made some geometry and suspension changes to our car since the last event and after a test session in the weekend everything is feeling really good and it has made even more inroads to the handling of our Subaru, Which I’m looking forward to being in competition in the weekend it will be a great measure of performance.
© GEOFF RIDDER
© GEOFF RIDDER
We are Currently in 3rd place in the New Zealand Championship title hunt this year we are looking to get a good points haul and solid finish to continue to close the gap to our nearest competition. This year we haven’t picked up any bonus points in the power stages so its a real target to have the raw speed on single stages to grab some of these points.
© GEOFF RIDDER