Home town win icing on cake for Mason

THERE was no way that Richard Mason was going to miss out on overall honours in the Racetech Rally of Wairarapa at the weekend.
"It's been hard out all weekend and we've brought home the Tom's Autos, Total Oils Subaru in the right place. To do our best in front of our home crowd is just fantastic, we're over the moon," said rally winner Richard Mason.
"We definitely had to pull one out of the bag. We had the full on charge, and we were determined to have the win. It was absolutely flat-out on the last stage, we just had to work very very hard to keep it on the straight and narrow."
The third of six rounds in the Parker ENZED New Zealand Rally Championship, Mason extended his overall leg 1 margin to beat fellow Subaru driver Chris West by 31.2 seconds, followed closely by another Subaru of Sam Murray.
Synday's leg of six stages took competitors on a 100km journey north of Masterton, to be based around the small rural town of Pongaroa.
Starting the day at 7am, the drizzly rain gradually cleared as the morning wore on ? leaving the stages damp and slippery after the passing cold southerly blast. Yet today's weather was more hospitable, with a light breeze and predominantly high cloud.
Of the 16 championship competitors who finished the day, the ceremonial finish at Masterton's Solway Park Hotel was to celebrate the first back-to-back leg and rally victory ? of Richard Mason and co-driver Sara Randall.
While West was second overall for the event, his championship points standing has been further reinforced to lead the series by 21 points from Emma Gilmour (Mitsubishi Lancer).
As the Subaru pair of Richard Mason and Chris West swapped stage victories, West's four to Mason's two made for an exciting battle. West held a 12.6s lead heading in to the final stage, when a stunning charge by Mason reversed the result ? Mason was nearly 1s/km quicker than the rest of the field to confirm his win for the day, and overall for the rally.
In the shadows, but not out of reach, Palmerston North's Sam Murray had a turn-around of form. The crew are still in development of the suspension fitted to the 2005 Subaru Impreza, and the 27-year old driver progressively strengthened his campaign by coming a solid third in stage times after the Mason/West battle. His result gave a Subaru 1-2-3 for the event ? and a healthy dose of manufacturers championship points.
As it was Murray's first podium finish for the season, he was pleased to get a result from the new car: "A very good result. Saturday was a bit disheartening, getting in to third spot and then losing it. But we made a lot of changes Saturday night, some big changes, and it was a 50/50 that it'd pay off - and it did. We're definitely on the right track now."
Following Saturday's early demise from the leg ? Auckland's Mark Tapper returned with a cracking pace. Although the leading Mitsubishi, he was unable to match the Subaru charge, and instead had Emma Gilmour, Glenn Smith and Brett Martin all vying for the first of the minor placings.
At the end of the 586km event, it was the younger Martin who placed first for the Mitsubishi brand, followed by the second successive rally finish for Glenn Smith ? both driving Lancer EVO VIII's.
Mixing up the Group N 4WD results, the Kiwi 2 class again belonged to Dave Strong (Honda Civic), with a 1m28s lead over the Suzuki Ignis of Chris West ? even after Strong punctured and lost around 3 minutes.
"Everybody is going quite fast this weekend. A couple of stages we went 100 per cent, it felt great, but I was having to push myself," commented Strong.
It was very much a day of attrition for the class, James Hancock (Honda Integra) and James Holder (Toyota Levin) both suffering from accident damage. However it was the faster pace of Hancock that left the biggest impact, his pace saw him leave the road in spectacular fashion, careering in to a small body of water. Hancock and co-driver Mike Catty were disappointed after being in line for a podium finish for the class.
That let Holder off the hook. Sustaining a heavy impact in stage 9 on Sunday morning, he was able to finish the day with a class podium placing of third: "It was driver error, I lifted a wheel up on a bank and it tipped us over on the roof. Thankfully it ended up back on its wheels, although in a ditch. We managed to get it out and nursed it through the rest of the stages."
Shane Watkin was also expected in for a class placing, but a tree cracked the gearbox casing in the Nissan Pulsar, forcing Watkin and co-driver David Calder to stop repeatedly to top-up the gearbox with oil so they could get to the finish.
West, acknowledged the battle, commenting on the increased pace of competition this season: "We've had an awesome battle all weekend. (On Sunday) we grabbed the lead and then lost it on the last stage. It was my fault, we clipped a fence post on the last stage and it pushed the wheel back a little bit. Then we knew it'd be impossible to hold him (Mason) back going through that last stage," West said at the finish.
"The pace is just awesome. Compared to last year it is just another world ? its pretty hot.
But it's been an awesome weekend, we've come away with the championship lead and that's what its all about."
With a two-week break between rounds, the competition moves to Rotorua for the Hella International Rally of Rotorua ? which is also round three of the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship (17-19 June 2005).
Television coverage from the event is scheduled to be screened on TV3's 'Arena' sports programme ? 19th June from 3pm.
Results from leg 2 of the Racetech Rally of Wairarapa:
Pos. No. Driver/Co-Driver Vehicle StageTimes TotalTime Tbl
1 3 Richard Mason/Sara Randall Subaru Impreza WRX 39:25.9 39:25.9
2 1 Chris West/Garry Cowan Subaru Impreza WRX 39:32.8 39:32.8 +0:06.9
3 2 Sam Murray/Stuart Jenkinson Subaru Impreza WRX 40:21.4 40:21.4 +0:55.5
4 8 Brett Martin/Raymond Bennett Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 8 41:43.2 41:43.2 +2:17.3
5 6 Glenn Smith/Colin Smith Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 8 41:47.5 41:47.5 +2:21.6
6 5 Emma Gilmour/Chris Randell Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 6 42:17.2 42:17.2 +2:51.3
7 4 Mark Tapper/Jeff Judd Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 7 42:29.8 42:29.8 +3:03.9
8 11 Dylan Turner/Sandeep Bansal Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 6 43:35.6 43:35.6 +4:09.7
9 10 Dean Sumner/Jeff Cress Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 8 43:38.8 43:38.8 +4:12.9
10 9 Marty Roestenburg/Greg Harnett Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 8 45:52.7 45:52.7 +6:26.8
11 16 Dave Strong/Bruce McKenzie Honda Civic R 53:57.3 53:57.3 +14:31.4
12 14 Lee-Anne Barns/Erin Kyle Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 8 54:26.3 54:26.3 +15:00.4
13 20 Jason West/Charmaine Helm Suzuki Ignis 55:35.4 55:35.4 +16:09.5
14 12 Brent Taylor/Chris Ramsay Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 6 55:57.4 56:07.4 +16:41.5
15 17 Shane Watkin/David Calder Nissan Pulsar GTi 06:21.7 07:31.7 +28:05.8
16 18 James Holder/Richard Ellis Toyota Levin 31:35.0 31:35.0 +52:09.1
Retirements:
7 Grant Barber/Bede O'Connor Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 8
15 Tony Burrowes/Catherine Dobbie Subaru Impreza WRX
19 James Hancock/Mike Catty Honda Integra R
21 John Roberts/Steve Wilcox Mitsubishi Proton
22 Rhys Musson/Aidan Smith Toyota Corolla
23 Reg Cook/Tony Mattson Nissan Pulsar GTi
24 Nick Marshall/Nick Sundberg Peugeot 106 Maxi
Parker ENZED New Zealand Rally Championship: Driver points
1 Chris West 145
2 Emma Gilmour 124
3 Richard Mason 123
4 Mark Tapper 106
5 Brett Martin 93
6 Sam Murray 88
7 Glenn Smith 86
8 Marty Roestenburg 85
9 Dylan Turner 72
10 Dean Sumner 62
11 Grant Barber 52
12 Tom Pritchard 49
13 Lee-Anne Barns 45
14 Dave Strong 38
15 Tony Burrowes 36
16 Brent Taylor 31
17 Jason West 24
18 James Holder 22
19 Darryl Jones 20
20 James Hancock 17
21 Shane Watkin 15
22 Rhys Musson 12
23 Leigh Marston 10
24 Brian Stokes 8
25 Chris Lange 4
26 John Roberts 3
27 Reg Cook 2
Nick Marshall
Cheyne Booth