Jagger finishes season on a high note with a win at home

Whangarei's Ben Jagger and co-driver Ben Hawkins finished their up-and-down season in the best possible way on Saturday with a victory in the Rally of the North.
Jagger said winning their home event was the perfect way to thank their team and supporters for their efforts throughout this year's rally season but also to remind sponsors of their potential before they turn their attention to a new season in the national championship in 2011.
"Getting a result like this has really given us some confidence for going into next year and we'll give the car a good going over in the off-season and get it into mint condition - hopefully we can find some more money," he said.
After winning the Group N two-wheel-drive championship in 2009 and becoming the Rally New Zealand Rising Stars Development Award recipient for the 4WD championship, Jagger's first year in the SeedForce Subaru Impreza WRX and four-wheel-drive class has been a mixed bag.
Finishing the Vantage Aluminium New Zealand Rally Championship in 13th place overall at final round Rally Nelson last month he has shown top level pace at times including finishing Rally Otago in fifth.
"We've had a tough season and we don't want anyone to lose the faith in us so to finish it off like this is just wicked," he said.
On Saturday, as the field began their march northwards from the rally base at Paihia, a slow start for Jagger and Hawkins saw them down in seventh place after the first special stage. By the midway point of the rally, the lunchbreak held at Peria School east of Kaitaia, they had clawed their way back to fourth place.
The afternoon's stages saw the teams head southward and at the end of the first of the four afternoon's special stages "The Two Bens" - as the Jagger/Hawkins pairing have become known as - had taken the lead from Kerikeri's Kingsley Thompson, where they would remain for the rest of the day.
The pair eventually stormed across the finish line at Crows Nest Rd, Hukerenui, winning Rally of the North by 1m 21s over top-seeded driver Neil Marshall from New Plymouth, who was then followed home by Thompson, who took third.
The win didn't come without overcoming a few hairy moments.
"We had a few moments in the rally, we took the back bumper off when we hit a fence which I think everybody hit including the zero car.
"But winning this rally is just such a great way to end off the season and we knew that going in to this weekend it would be tough because there was a lot of good competition," Jagger said.
Fourth place was taken by Stephen Burley with Whangarei's Brendan Oakden taking fifth and sixth place going to another Northlander, Carl Adnitt, from Te Kopuru.
The Rally of the North is an annual one-day event based out of Paihia. This year it consisted of eight special stages taking the field of over 50 drivers from around the North Island up towards Kaitaia before heading back towards the finish at Crows Nest Rd at Hukerenui.