Hawkeswood increased his points lead after day 1.
http://chrissport.co.nz/points/2017/nzrc2017.htm
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Hawkeswood increased his points lead after day 1.
http://chrissport.co.nz/points/2017/nzrc2017.htm
Hawkeswood wins NZRC
https://www.facebook.com/newzealandr...5986668432201/
Hawkeswood retrospective
https://youtu.be/bFoHtK5zmIQ Pikes Peak
https://youtu.be/dX4tMdAjT3Y Takes off roof Rally Otago
https://youtu.be/4o6sZWiPu84 Quattro replica
https://youtu.be/J27dkSHvA8k Mazda 2 maxi
So the NZRC is over for another year, coming into this - the final round of the championship, Andrew Hawkeswood was leading, Ben Hunt in second and Matt Summerfield in third.
Andrew Hawkeswood, who is perhaps one of the most spectacular drivers in the series proved he can also play the consistency game, and won the championship without actually winning a round of the championship outright. He certainly didn't hold back too much, with plenty of sideways action still. He completed the rally in third overall, which was enough to clinch the title.
https://thumb.ibb.co/dCXs2m/DSC03415.jpg
https://thumb.ibb.co/hDaehm/DSC03416.jpg
https://thumb.ibb.co/njU0oR/DSC03390.jpg
Ben Hunt, the 2015 champion had seized rear brakes that slowed him, then 3 punctures in one stage, so that knocked him out of contention. He ended up finishing the rally in 11th, and the championship in third.
https://thumb.ibb.co/kQxmTR/DSC03476.jpg
Matt Summerfield (in a much older N13 Impreza), managed to complete the rally in second overall, even with a slowly dying headgasket but he need to win the round and have some luck with where Andrew finished, to really have a chance of winning the championship. So he ended up second for the year, after winning two rounds outright:
https://thumb.ibb.co/m1aC2m/DSC03394.jpg
There was considerable tyre degradation issues on Saturday on the Raglan stages (former WRC roads). Many pictures around of completely bald rally tyres. Walking some of the roads, the surface was down to completely hard rock like surface that just ate tyres. There was also quite a bit of dust, and not a lot of wind:
https://thumb.ibb.co/dBNya6/DSC03386.jpg
Adam Bligh was second in two stages, behind Paddon, in an older Evo, but had to do a temporary withdrawal with misfire issues. He however wrapped up the Class 5 championship, which is run over the first day of each round of the championship.
https://thumb.ibb.co/cKfO8R/DSC03435.jpg
https://thumb.ibb.co/dZXmTR/DSC03501.jpg
Max Bayley, who was third overall in the previous round, driving the Fiesta R5 for the first time, didn't have a great run, rolling about 200m from me on the first stage of the rally. So we went over and helped them out of the car and then rolled the car back over and pushed it off the road for them:
https://thumb.ibb.co/cBeuF6/DSC03411.jpg
https://thumb.ibb.co/kCuQ56/IMG_9201.jpg
https://thumb.ibb.co/mxpKXm/IMG_9191.jpg
https://thumb.ibb.co/gBAyQ6/IMG_9198.jpg
While the damage didn't look massive, he retired rather than risking the engine.
Overall, Hayden Paddon won the rally by a massive 7mins and 28 seconds, including winning every stage and resetting a number of stage records that date back to as far as 2007 in one case.
A couple of more pics, because why not?!
https://thumb.ibb.co/drTzhm/DSC03404.jpg
https://thumb.ibb.co/kxsaNm/DSC03459.jpg
https://thumb.ibb.co/ctuda6/DSC03379.jpg
https://thumb.ibb.co/gmEY8R/DSC03457.jpg
superb spectator spot on Saturday morning. Cars in sight for about 2km
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP0v5dNMbYg
Dalton tuning Fiesta for NZ?
https://www.facebook.com/rallynsw/vi...3359919550839/
billet 4g63 does that get a 10mm diameter restrictor for the nzrc?
Rally New Zealand 2017 highlights video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ROlzGG7grM
Hawkeswood looking to expand rally program for 2018
https://rallysportmag.com/nz-rally-c...-into-the-usa/
Think that Swedish chap Koenigsegg & F1 etc teams have already done this years ago.
http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/news/201...xchangers.html