International win for Barker

A young Northlander has capped his meteoric rise in the world of rally driving by winning the International Fiesta Shootout Trophy in England.
Stephen Barker, 22, of Kerikeri, beat off stiff competition from 17 international competitors to take out the trophy yesterday morning.
His prize includes a 12-month work experience contract with the M-sport Abu Dhabi World Rally team, which will see him based in the United Kingdom and travelling around Europe to World Rally Championship events.
The two-day competition involved a series of physical and psychological tests and a driving challenge on a 3km stage in Greystoke Forest.
Ron Barker, of Whangaroa in the Far North, was yesterday frantically changing his son's flight home. He had been due to arrive tomorrow but that had to be shunted back by a day, because Stephen had also won a chance to test-drive M-Sport's new S2000 Fiesta rally car today.
"It's been a long, hard road, and there's been a bit of attrition ... but this is bloody massive."
It was the first time a Kiwi had won the event since it began in 2006.
"It's a major break-through for Rally New Zealand and gives real exposure for down under. We've now got two kids from New Zealand, Hayden Paddon and Stephen, on the world stage."
Mr Barker said he found out via text message at 5.15am that his son was in the top six. That was followed by a phone call at 6.20am in which Stephen asked how he'd like to visit him at his new job in England next year.
Stephen has been driving since he was 12, winning the North Island Junior Rally Championship at the age of 16.
In September this year he won the group-N two-wheel drive class of the New Zealand Rally Championships in the Wairarapa, which qualified him to represent New Zealand at the November 17-18 Fiesta Shootout Trophy in Cumbria, England.
He grew up in Whangarei and went to Pompallier College before finishing his secondary schooling in Kerikeri, where he now lives. He works for Rintoul Civil in Kaikohe as a mechanic.
Stephen's travel was covered by a scholarship but that still left plenty of expenses, plus the cost of getting his co-driver Richard Ellis to the United Kingdom
Mr Barker said the support from Northland people and businesses in a tight economy, and the amount of money raised at an auction event in Waipapa last month, was astonishing.
Ken Rintoul, Stephen's boss and one of his major sponsors, said the firm was "stoked" at his win - even if it meant they would lose a valued worker for a year.
"We always knew it was going to happen because he's a talented young fella. It's the next stage in his development."
His workmates planned a celebration with "a few quiet ones" last night.
Stephen said he had been quietly confident after doing well in the fitness tests on day one, and the win had left him "over the moon".