RALLY - Promise of shot at UK team drives Jagger

The spotlight might be on the world superstars of rally driving, but the chance to score a drive with the M-Sport rally team in the UK will keep Whangarei racer Ben Jagger fully occupied this weekend.
Jagger and his co-driver, Ben Hawkins, will be chasing the Ford Fiesta Sporting Trophy at the 2008 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) Rally of New Zealand based at Mystery Creek, Waikato, this weekend.
The event has the vast array of WRC stars, Sebastian Loeb, Marcus Gronholm and Mikko Hirvonen among them, arriving for the 11th round of the FIA World series.
Jagger, though, needs to close the gap from second to first in the Ford Fiesta Sporting Trophy series to get his plane ticket to England, from where he hopes to launch himself on to the international scene.
Two rounds remain in this year's championship.
A gap of 13 points between the two leading drivers leaves the chase open and Jagger, along with co-driver Hawkins, plans to regain the championship lead they held before the ill-fated Rally of Hawke's Bay last month.
The team have put behind them the cancellation of the rally's second leg and coming away with no points. While preparing to depart for this weekend's Rally of New Zealand based in Hamilton, Jagger was calm and confident about the lead in the championship.
Although Patrick Malley was hinting to the media that the championship was virtually his, Jagger discounted that attitude towards the title chase.
"A lot of people are wondering where he gets that from but it doesn't bother me, the championship isn't over yet and anything can happen. We definitely don't think it's over and we won't be worrying about him but just do our own thing and do the best we can this weekend," Jagger said.
Malcolm Wilson, managing director of M-Sport, will be at the Rally of New Zealand this weekend and along with his many WRC duties will be keeping an eye on the Ford Fiesta competitors.
M-Sport created the Fiesta rally cars and build and run the Ford Focus rally cars for the BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team.
Jagger's father, Murray Jagger, who is managing the team, says the class is ideal for developing rally driving talent.
"The lower-powered Fiesta meant that Ben would have to drive extremely smoothly and consistently well to keep the car on pace and the time spent in the car will help invaluably when it comes to stepping up to the more powerful four wheel drives after our two planned seasons in the Fiesta," Murray Jagger said.
"We know how good the car is now and think we made the right choice to move into one. As a tool for identifying young talent in rallying they are fantastic."
Co-driver Hawkins has decided to make his own way to the England if his teammate is successful.
He will make the self-funded trip in order to help Ben Jagger compete in the UK Fiesta Shoot-out that will be staged on their arrival.