Masterton driver Richard Mason celebrated a home-town double yesterday when he won the Rally of Wairarapa and secured the national series as a result, with a round to race.
Building on his day one advantage, defending champion Mason was again in the top bracket despite the pressure of needing to place
in the top three in order to reclaim the drivers' crown.
After winning the opening 14.9km stage, he kept ahead of the majority of his rivals, with Chris West (Subaru Impreza) the only driver to better his efforts.
In the third stage Mason's main championship rival Sam Murray (Subaru Impreza) left the road, relieving the pressure on the leader.
Mason had enough points to claim his second successive championship victory so he took co-driver Sara Mason to her first title.
While West won the remaining stages for the day, Mason didn't ease off too much ? the biggest gap accrued in the final stage put him 4.6 seconds behind for the day, but 25.3 seconds ahead for the overall rally.
West picked up 32 championship points.
"We realised we couldn't make up the 30 seconds we lost in yesterday's leg so all we did was make sure we had enough to win today," former champion West said.
For Mason, successive victories at home meant he also wrapped up the national champs.
"We were prepared to give away the rally win this weekend but circumstances fell into our hands really and we ended up winning, it's awesome," he said.
At 20, Sara Randall becomes the youngest rally champion as Mason's co-driver.
"It feels really, really good," she said.
Brett Martin was third and Dunedin's Emma Gilmour fourth.
Gilmour drove in a world rally championship event last weekend.
"It took a bit of getting used to yesterday morning, but we've been a lot more at home with it today. We had an enjoyable weekend and the roads were fantastic," she said.
Leading results and standings after round five of the six-round national motor rally championship:
Heat two placings
Chris West (Subaru Impreza WRX STI) 50min 00.9sec 1, Richard Mason (Subaru Impreza WRX STI) 50:05.5 2, Brett Martin (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9) 50:48.6 3, Emma Gilmour (Subaru Impreza WRX STI) 51:09.5 4, Hayden Paddon (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo8) 51:12.3 5, Dean Sumner (Mitsubishi Lancer 8) 51:35.7 6, Stewart Taylor (Mitsubishi Lancer 9) 52:14.1 7, Dylan Turner (Mitsubishi Lancer 9) 52:27.4 8
Overall standings: Mason 2hr 9min 4.2sec 1, West 2:09:29.3 2, Martin 2:10:25.0 3, Gilmour 2:11:18.2 4, Paddon 2:11:59.0 5
Leading drivers: Mason 296 points 1, Martin 202 2, Gilmour 188 3, Sam Murray (Subaru Impreza WRX STI) 183 4, West 182 5.
Masterton driver Richard Mason celebrated a home-town double yesterday when he won the Rally of Wairarapa and secured the national series as a result, with a round to race.
Building on his day one advantage, defending champion Mason was again in the top bracket despite the pressure of needing to place
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