Defending national rally champion Ben Hunt has been spared the usual, pre-season, ground-up car rebuild, although life changes have meant that sleep is still in short supply before the Otago Rally.
The Auckland-based Hunt Motorsport team had completed the customary down to the bare shell reconstruction of the Subaru WRX STI last year, before the 2020 New Zealand Rally Championship (NZRC) was cancelled due to Covid-19. The car has been driven only in November’s City of Auckland Rally and the Battle of Jacks Ridge, so its competition kilometres are minimal, leading into next weekend’s season-opener.
Hunt likened this year’s preparation to a between-rally workload, but instead of clocking up late nights in the garage, he has spent them cuddling his first baby with wife Emma. His days have also been jam-packed, as he keeps on top of his heavy diesel service and mobile repair workshop demands.
‘‘Work has been so crazy and obviously having little Isadora takes up plenty of time. If it’s not one thing in life, it’s another,’’ Hunt said.
After several months out of the car, he had a shakedown in the Subaru last week and, like all rally drivers, relished returning to going flat out on gravel.
‘‘It was so good to be back in the forest. I can’t wait for Otago Rally. The car felt amazing,’’ he said.
Hunt has a clear plan for the five-round NZRC.
‘‘Obviously, being the 2019 champions, we are going in there to put our best foot forward. There are some great drivers and cars out there to compete against.
We will go and be consistent and as fast as we can. If you have got a smile on your face anything can happen,’’ he said.
In his favour is the longevity of his co-driver, Nelson’s Tony Rawstorn, who returns for his 11th year calling the pace notes for Hunt. The successful partnership has been well cemented since Hunt won the Rally New Zealand Rising Stars Scholarship in 2009. Since then, he and Rawstorn added the national 2WD championship, Junior National Rally Championship and the 2015 and 2019 NZRC driver’s and co-driver’s trophies to their collective cabinets.
The duo is excited about Otago’s pristine road selection.
‘‘You have fast sections, crests and jumps. It’s like the New Zealand equivalent of Finland,’’ Hunt said.
As the defending champion, he is seeded as the number one car, but former WRC driver Hayden Paddon will run first over the 14 stages.
Now based in Cromwell, Paddon has committed to the full NZRC and will be gunning for his fifth national title in his Hyundai i20 AP4. His long-time navigator John Kennard is back in the co-driver’s seat.
The two front runners will be joined by another 112 entries across the rally field and are among 47 other teams in the NZRC category. Hunt’s production floor Subaru is the only car in the top 12 that is not either an international specification R5 machine, or a locally produced AP4 car. The manufacturer range variation is also extensive this year, the first nine cars on the road being from different marques.
The majority of their drivers are seasoned veterans, but a few young and eager up-and-comers are sprinkled throughout them.
Leading the more mature charge is Auckland’s Raana Horan (Skoda Fabia R5), who showed his speed by winning the last NZRC event at Waitomo in 2019. Snapping at his heels is fourth seed Josh Marston, who was NZRC runner-up in 2019, in his Holden Barina AP4. Christchurch’s Marston won the Mainland Series in 2020 and has experienced Gore co-driver Andrew Graves alongside him this season.
Long-term campaigners Dylan Turner, of Auckland, hometown rally heroine Emma Gilmour and Matt Summerfield are well seeded in AP4 cars — an Audi, Suzuki Swift and Mitsubishi Mirage, respectively.
Along with Gilmour, there’s additional local interest in the return of Duncan McCrostie to rallying after a break of several years. Formerly from South Otago but based in Central Otago, McCrostie will drive a Mazda 2 AP4 car next weekend.
Two on-the-rise drivers — both with NZRC-winning fathers — are running beside each other with Jack Hawkeswood in eighth and Robbie Stokes in ninth.
Hawkeswood, whose dad Andrew claimed the 2017 title, proved his mettle earlier this year, winning the NZ Gold Star Hillclimb Championship in his Mazda 2 AP4, while Waikuku’s Stokes (Ford Fiesta AP4), whose father
Brian is the 1985 and 1988 NZRC champion, recently finished fourth in the Westland Rally.
- Catherine Pattison
Photos: Geoff Ridder and David Thomson
