A melted rubber ring was to blame for what could have been a catastrophic accident for Ben Jagger and co-driver Ben Hawkins at Rally New Zealand, in Waikato.
Hurtling through one of the special stages on Saturday afternoon, the pair's Subaru completely lost all brakes while doing in excess of 120km/h
along a loose metal road.
"We very nearly destroyed the car when we were hooning along the straight flat out and we suddenly had no brakes - my foot went straight to the floor. We were doing around 120km when we hit some water which, luckily, slowed us down," Jagger said.
A large pond which had formed across the road after heavy rainfall was the lucky break the pair needed.
It would seem that an exhaust leak sent hot gases on to a rubber component in the suspension, which melted and then caught in the brakeline severing it completely.
"We managed to get to the end of the stage using the hand brake and then we fixed it before starting the next stage, but, unfortunately, we were a little late and incurred a time penalty," the Whangarei driver said.
After the first day of the two-day Rally New Zealand, Jagger was showing good form and sitting in sixth place overall.
Ahead of him were three past national champions, Chris West, Richard Mason and Hayden Paddon, plus defending champion Dean Sumner and regular front runner Emma Gilmour.
After such a good start to the rally Jagger and Hawkins were heartbroken when after just a few kilometres into the first stage on Day Two their good run came to an abrupt end.
"Just three or four kilmetres into the first stage the input shaft on the gearbox broke."
