Wairarapa rally driver Richard Mason left Whangarei yesterday vowing to return here next year but promising to leave behind his gremlins.
"What will it take to win at Whangarei?" was his parting query, after a dominant and certain victory at the International Rally of Whangarei went up in smoke in the
Waipu Gorge on Sunday afternoon.
Having won eight of the 12 high-speed special stages, and almost doubling their overnight lead to 46 seconds, the Masterton team were right on track to repeat their 2006 Whangarei success in New Zealand's round of the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship.
But then, just like at their previous FIA event - the WRC Rally New Zealand last August - Special Stage 13 stepped in to deal a bitter blow.
"It really was a mirror image of Rally New Zealand last year," Mason said.
Mason and wife Sara, who is his co-driver, had won all the second-day stages and were beginning to feel comfortable with the ride home.
"Then it all just happened without any prior warning. We blasted off the start line as usual, suddenly the car faltered and our rally went up in smoke," he said.
The gremlins had signalled a cryptic warning before the start of the stage.
"Sara said before the start that we were going to do this one in 'Rally NZ mode', but we sure didn't plan to have exactly the same Rally NZ outcome," he quipped.
"But, as always with this sport we are so passionate about, we live to fight another day, and that is exactly what we will be doing at home next month."
The penultimate round is the Trust House Racetech Rally of Wairarapa on July 18-19.
Mason now trails Rally of Whangarei winner Hayden Paddon by 27 points in the 2009 national championship drivers' series, but still maintains a slim lead over third-placed Emma Gilmour.
One of the three drivers will take out the title depending on performances in the final two rallies, culminating in the Rally of Nelson in September.
