Oakden faces tough challenge in Possum before Rally of the North

Brendon Oakden is eyeing a success in the Rally of the North in October to win the 2009 Top Half Series but, first of all, there's  a small matter of acing the upcoming Possum Bourne Memorial. 
Despite the fact that the Waikato rally - which last year was the WRC event - has been hugely downsized this year with the WRC event staged in Australia,  Oakden said interest in the rally  was building.
"The Far North will be the big one but we'll have to do well in the  Possum Bourne too and I hear there's going to be quite a bit of competition there,"  he said.
The rally is still part of the Pirelli Star driver competition, so some  competitors in the Rally of New Zealand series will be showing up to compete.
 The rally  starts on August 23.
 In the overall rally, the standard of those cars will probably outclass Oakden and his navigator and sister, Natasha, in their pre-1996 Subaru Impreza.
"You have to forget about them and it might just be a matter of not worrying about what everyone else is doing and just go out and do your own thing."
Oakden is confident that a new suspension will get a full workout at the Whangarei Car Club's Rally Sprint in the Glenbervie Forest.  "This weekend will act as a bit of a shakedown for me because my suspension's just been redone, so it'll be good to see how it handles," he said.
 Oakden is looking for  sponsorship to buy some new tyres for the Waikato rally.
He has his eyes on the Top Half series only and, with a second place behind Neil Marshall in the Waitomo Rally at the end of June, he has moved up to second place in the competition overall.
Aucklander Craig Stevens currently leads the series but only on paper.
"He's already completed three rounds but he'll have to drop one. At the moment, I'm in second and I still have to drop one."
A good result in Waikato could see him favoured to take out the event, with a good showing at the  Paihia-based Rally of the Far North on October 10.