Back in the world championship for the first time since 2012, Rally New Zealand roars into life in Auckland late next week. Several Otago competitors, and dozens of Otago fans are heading to the event, including Drivesouth’s David Thomson. Today, he explains what all the fuss is about.
The heritage
Rally New Zealand was first held in 1969. It became a regular part of the world championship in the late 1970s, and from 1977 through to 2012 was part of the championship on all but five occasions.
Over that period all the global superstars of rallying competed here, and most rated our roads as some of the world’s best for rallying. Their exploits captured the imagination of the public as well as motorsport fans, with the likes of Hannu Mikkola, Ari Vatanen, Carlos Sainz, Colin McRae, Tommi Makinen, Marcus Gronholm and Sebastian Loeb becoming household names.
The aspirations of Kiwi rally drivers were also lifted, and among those inspired to test themselves overseas, Possum Bourne and Hayden Paddon proved to be genuinely world class.
But while New Zealand is an attractive destination for drivers, it’s also an expensive and inconvenient one for the top world championship teams, all of which are based out of Europe.
A short-lived endeavour to host the WRC year-about with Australia rapidly ran aground and our time as a regular host of the series ended in 2012. Rally NZ wasn’t held at all from 2013 to 2017, but it was revised as local, non-world championship event in 2018 and 2019, ahead of a planned return to world championship status in 2020.
Covid-19 caused the cancellation of that 2020 event (along with nine other scheduled WRC rounds), and there was no Rally NZ last year either.
Rally NZ 2022
New Zealand returns to the WRC in the 50th year of a championship which ranks second only to Formula One in terms of motor racing’s global profile. Our event, which is being held for the 45th time (and as part of the world championship for the 32nd time), is the 11th of the 13-round series, with rallies in Spain and Japan to follow.
The days when a world rally was a cross-country adventure covering half the country or more, with stages run day and night, are long gone. Instead, a modern WRC event runs to a tight format, with less than 300km of competitive special stages.
It’s Auckland-based, in part because that’s convenient logistically for international teams, but also because our largest city has stepped up, unlike central government, to provide substantial support for an event that will promote the country widely on the global stage.
After a short opening stage in the Auckland Domain on Thursday night, the rally heads to West Waikato for six stages on Friday. Six more stages on the Saturday, and four on Sunday (including the Jacks Ridge super special stage) conclude the event.
The cars
The battle for outright Rally NZ victory will be fought out by overseas competitors driving state-of-the art, factory-backed Toyota, Hyundai and Ford petrol-electric hybrid Rally 1 formula cars.
This is the first year of hybrid technology in the WRC. The Rally 1 hybrids all combine a roughly 280kW/450NNm 1.6-litre turbo petrol engine (running on synthetic fuel) with a 100kW/180Nm electric motor. As well as providing a power boost during the competitive special stages, the electric motor powers the cars on the touring sections between special stages.
Ford won the opening rally of the hybrid WRC era, but Toyota and Hyundai have dominated since then. Heading for New Zealand, the tally stood at five wins for Toyota’s GR Yaris, four for Hyundai’s i20 N, and one for the Ford Puma.
Non-hybrid Rally 2 cars are the second tier on the WRC ladder and include some of the front-running cars from the New Zealand Rally Championship. While a second or so slower per kilometre than the full Rally 1 machines, the Rally 2 cars are still blindingly fast. Skoda’s Fabia dominates the list of Rally 2 starters here, but there are also a couple of Ford Fiestas, a Citroen C3, a VW Polo, and Hayden Paddon’s new Rally 2 Hyundai i20 N.
Beyond the 23 Rally 1 and Rally 2 cars, the Rally NZ field comprises an array of more than 50 mainly local cars complying with our national regulations, including a swag of current AP4 cars (our rough equivalent of Rally 2).
Looking across the entire field, Ford is the most numerous marque this year, accounting for 16 entries. Toyota ranks second with 13, followed by Subaru (9), Skoda and Mitsubishi (8 each). Mazda (5), Hyundai and Honda (both with four entries), and Holden and Volkswagen (two apiece) are also represented by more than one car. Audi, Citroen and Suzuki have one each.
The leading drivers
To get the obvious question out of the way first, Hayden Paddon has no realistic chance of beating the Rally 1 drivers to victory. He should dominate the Rally 2 category, though, helped by the fact that none of the leading Rally 2 WRC regulars that would be his usual rivals have made the trip here.
Out front, the battle for outright victory is expected to feature current championship leader Kalle Rovanpera (Finland) and his Toyota teammates Sebastian Ogier (France) and Elfyn Evans (United Kingdom) on the one hand, and Hyundai’s Ott Tanak (Estonia) and Thierry Neuville (Belgium) on the other. Ford’s best prospect is the mercurial Irishman Craig Breen.
Just 21, Rovanpera has scored all five of Toyota’s wins in 2022, and a sixth here would confirm the sensationally quick Finn as rallying’s youngest ever world champion.
Ogier, meantime, stepped back from fulltime competition after winning his eighth world crown last year. His limited 2022 programme includes New Zealand because it is one of very few world rallies he has yet to win; he should have done so in 2010, but lost victory by spinning on the final stage.
“Rally New Zealand was on the top of the list of rallies that I wanted to do this year,” says Ogier.
“I have only done this rally once before. The rally itself is really beautiful. Your roads are some of the best in the world for rallying.”
Evans, like Rovanpera, is a first-time competitor here. The hard-charging Welshman came very close to winning the world title last year and has finished runner-up in five events in 2022.
Tanak, the 2019 world champion for Toyota, has been leading Hyundai’s efforts this season. Currently second in the championship, he has shown massive commitment behind the wheel of an i20 N that doesn’t seem to handle quite as well as the GR Yaris.
Despite this, the Estonian has already won three times in 2022, with his victory on last month’s Rally of Finland an especially masterful display. Tanak’s Hyundai team-mate Thierry Neuville arrives fresh from a fine win at the previous championship round in Greece. The Belgian finished fifth here the last time we hosted a world championship round in 2012.
Sweden’s Oliver Solberg takes the wheel of the third factory Hyundai. The 20-year-old son of former world champion and 2004 Rally New Zealand winner Petter Solberg, he is still looking for his first podium finish in the WRC. Toyota’s fourth car is in the hands of Japan’s Takamoto Katsuta, who has finished in the top six in all but one WRC event this season, with third place his best result.
Quicker, but not as consistent as Katsuta, Ford’s leading challenger Breen has been on the podium several times in his career, but never better than runner-up. While capable enough, none of Ford’s other three drivers — Gus Greensmith, Adrien Fourmaux and Lorenzo Bertelli — are likely frontrunners.
Paddon can realistically target beating the slower of the Rally 1 drivers, and allowing also for others striking trouble along the way, has every chance of finishing well inside the top 10 overall, and perhaps event nudging into the top six. His closest Rally 2 rivals will be a quartet of Skoda drivers comprising Poland’s Kajetanowicz, Australia’s Harry Bates, former Kiwi champion Ben Hunt, and multi-talented V8 Supercars ace Shane van Gisbergen.
The appearance of van Gisbergen adds real spice to the Rally 2 tier of the field, as the Australian-based Kiwi showed impressive pace when he rallied the Skoda Fabia at the Hawkes Bay Rally earlier in the year. Perhaps that should come as little surprise, for while van Gisbergen has achieved motorsport success as circuit-racer, he grew up around rallying, with his father a longtime competitor.
Otago prospects
Paddon excepted, and with Emma Gilmour overseas with the McLaren team, Ari Pettigrew (Holden Barina AP4) is the strongest Otago-based prospect in the field. The Cromwell-based driver is third in the national championship, behind Paddon and Ben Hunt.
Other Otago contestants include 49th seed Duncan McCrostie (Mazda AP4), Nikita Gibson (co-driving for Amy Keighley, seeded 72nd in a Subaru Impreza H6) and Dunedin husband-and-wife duo Tim and Lauren Mackersy (Ford Fiesta).
Rally New Zealand is a double-header event for the national series, with Thursday and Friday’s stages counting as one event, and Saturday’s stage as another.
- David Thomson
