International Rally of Whangārei 2022: From the passenger seat

Northern Advocate reporter Jaime Lyth braces for a ride with Duncan McCrostie in his Mazda 2 AP4. Photo / Michael Cunningham

The roads of Northland become race tracks this weekend for the International Rally of Whangārei.

The three-day rally doubles as a round of the 2022 FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship and round 2 of the 2022 New Zealand Rally Championship.

Northern Advocate reporter Jaime Lyth reflects on her first - and hopefully not last - ride in a rally car for the International Rally of Whangārei.

It's midday Friday on Pohe Island and the Shakedown for the International Rally of Whangārei is about to begin, and for some reason, I'm getting suited up to go in a car.

I was given an all-black racing suit, and to my surprise, it fitted rather well.

"You don't actually look that silly," our photographer Michael Cunningham kindly confirmed.

A hand touched my heavily padded shoulder, it was Samantha Gray, a 27-year-old rally co-driver.

"You're in my car," Gray grinned.

Gray has been involved in the rally world for seven years. She's a co-driver these days but she has been a driver in the past.

I'm surprised when I'm told that I'm a perfect candidate for the co-driver role, only because I'm just over five feet tall.

The passenger seats are tiny and deep. The men and over-grown teenage boys around me had to fold themselves like lawn chairs to get in the cars.

Northern Advocate reporter Jaime Lyth gets taken for a ride by Duncan McCrostie in his Mazda 2 AP4. Photo / Michael Cunningham

I felt like I was sinking when I hopped in the passenger seat. Gray kindly helped me strap in so I couldn't change my mind.

There was a reason I felt like I was sinking, the co-driver seat is lower and further back than the driver's seat for weight distribution in the car.

The co-driver also doesn't need perfect visibility like the driver as they're usually looking down and reading notes. I myself could barely see over the dash.

My driver was Duncan McCrostie. He's 55 and has been driving rally cars since the '90s. I told him I wasn't alive in the '90s but I don't think he could hear me between our helmets.

The car was a Mazda 2 AP4 which McCrostie leases off Auckland driver Andrew Hawkeswood who won the national championship in the car in 2017.

Duncan McCrostie and Jaime Lyth in McCrostie's Mazda 2 AP4 at the Pohe Island Shakedown. Photo / Michael Cunningham

I was happy because I drive a Mazda myself, so I felt right at home.

With his foot, McCrostie pulsed his accelerator repeatedly like a drum kick. I wanted to ask him why but there's no way he'd hear me over the sound of the gravel he kicked up past the windows.

I later learned drivers push the accelerator according to the engine speed to harmonise with the gear speeds. I drive an automatic so I don't usually worry about this.

The car is capable of over 200km/h. I wasn't sure how fast we were going but it might as well have been that.

Duncan McCrostie at his third International Rally of Whangārei. Photo / Michael Cunningham

For most of the ride, I couldn't see the track over the dash, only the sky, so it somewhat looked like we were flying.

At one point we were actually flying, there's a hill on the track that the cars drive over twice each round. I think we caught more air on the second one.

When we finished a man came up to my window and yelled at me, "Fifty-eight."

It was over in 58 seconds.

Getting out of the car was another story from getting in. I was so deeply sunk in the seat that I couldn't step out. Instead, I commando rolled myself out of the seat and then climbed out.

Co-driver Samantha Gray and driver Duncan McCrostie at the Whangārei Rally, Pohe Island. Photo / Michael Cunningham

McCrostie told me this is his third year at the Whangārei rally and he's just happy to be out and about with an audience again.

"I did it 10 years ago in the old classic rally car, and then I did it last year in this thing."

McCrostie might be the first person to describe Whangārei's roads as good and he's happy to be avoiding the rain today after last year.

"Watching Malcolm Stewart's Audi Quattro up Coronet Peak" is what McCrostie says got him into racing.

"That'll ruin anybody."

Gray told me her parents got her into racing because they were drivers themselves but they didn't want her to.

"It's addictive and expensive and you just can't get away from it."

It's Gray's fourth time in Whangārei. She said she enjoys it every time.

"It's a challenge for co-drivers up here 'cause there's a lot of corners and they're all quite busy.

"You're constantly calling every single corner and you're not really getting much of a break, which is good, I like that challenge."

After being told that I'm physically the perfect candidate to be a passenger driver, I dare to ask McCrostie if he thinks I was a good co-pilot.

"Yeah, absolutely. I didn't even notice you were there."