Clendon?s all fired up for Racetech rally

MASTERTON couple Peter and Kath Clendon are all fired up for the Trust House Racetech Rally of Wairarapa on June 2 and 3, despite a DNF at the Whangarei Rally.
The Clendons have entered their Mitsubishi VR4 in two segments of Rally Wairarapa, class E (for older 4WD cars) of the North Island championship and Rally Xtreme, for cars that no longer qualify for the Group N national championship.
The North Island series replaces last year's Central Region rally series, which they won, along with the rookie driver and co-driver titles.
The bare Whangarei result made alarming reading, a DNF with the fault listed as "ENGINE".
However the problem was minor, an unsuitable hose to the intercooler, which kept coming off, giving either zero boost or 10 per cent instead of the 22 per cent they normally run.
Over the summer the VR4 has had a major revamp, including the installation of a different type of turbocharger, and hopes were high of a strong performance.
Whangarei was a round of the Asia Pacific regional series, attracting many of the top Southern Hemisphere drivers in works cars.
In that sort of company the Clendons were seeded 58th.
In the early stages, with just 10 per cent of boost, they blasted from 58th to 24th on the road, before the hose blew right off.
They did the three stages to service with no boost, refitted the hose, and charged off again with 22lb boost.
At the end of special stage 5 the car dropped to three cylinders, and Peter and Kath weren't prepared to carry on and do serious damage. Hence the retirement.
As it turned out, the problem lay in the coil, which has since been replaced. There were out testing last weekend, and the VR4 performed flawlessly.