MOTOR RACING - North duo set to give battle in rally series

NORTHLAND interest in this year's national rally series starting tomorrow will focus on two 18-year-old drivers, Kirsty Nelson and Ben Jagger.
The two Northlanders head to Masterton for the Rally of Wairarapa for the first round of the season, which will include the Rally of Whangarei, the Rally of New Zealand, and end at the Rally of Nelson on September 20.
Nelson, a favourite with not only the Northland crowd but the entire country after contesting the WRC round in 2006 as a wild card entry, will again take on the country's best in her ex-Richard Mason Subaru WRX.
She remains the youngest female in the series this year and will go up against strong contender Emma Gilmour. Notably these two women are from complete opposite ends of the country, with Gilmour residing in Dunedin and Nelson originally from her parents' farm in Waiotira, on the outskirts of Whangarei.
Last year at the Rally of New Zealand, where the Kiwis shared the event with the World Rally Championship, a stellar drive against a struggling Gilmour earned Nelson the award for first female home.
Due to commitments at school last year, Nelson contested only four of the six rounds.
She is now at Waikato University doing a bachelor of business and will contest all six rounds.
"For this weekend's rally the plan is to put my foot down and don't crash. We plan to do all six rounds but it is always a matter of cost and how the season goes, but I'm 99.9 per cent sure we will be doing the WRC round again," she says.
Nelson will again have Michelle Brunt as co-driver.
Jagger is new to the NZ Rally Championship, driving a Ford Fiesta in the two wheel drive class known as Kiwi 2. Jagger will also be in contention for the NZ Ford Fiesta Trophy, which can open the door to international competition including an entry into the Fiesta Trophy in the UK.
Ben Hawkins, aged 22, is Jagger's co-driver. At last year's Rally of Whangarei the pair showed promise and later went on to take a class win at the Rally of Hawke's Bay in their 1300cc Suzuki Swift.
The talented teenagers will be seen ripping up their local roads when they compete at the Rally of Whangarei in early June.
The rally is also round three of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship and is expected to be an even greater success than last year when the city of Whangarei first hosted the event.