Masons clinch stunning win

The power of positive thinking was the catalyst to the remarkable win by Masterton husband-and-wife team of Richard and Sara Mason in the Rally of Wairarapa.
In fact, the word "remarkable" hardly does justice to an effort which saw them drop from ninth in Saturday's morning first stage to 18th in the third because of a turbocharger failure in their Subaru Impreza WRX.
By lunchtime the Masons were three minutes adrift off leader Chris West and the general consensus seemed to be that, with some difficult terrain to come over the next day and a half, their chances of overall success, and with it their hopes of grabbing the lead on the Rally of New Zealand points table, were practically gone.
Fortunately, however, Richard Mason himself was one of the few who didn't share that pessimism. He admits to being surprised at the positiveness of his thinking, because never before had he needed to make up that much leeway to win a major event.
"I don't know why it was but I never gave a thought to not getting right back into it, the whole focus was on coming up with a game plan which made it happen," he said.
The formulation of that game plan didn't take long, with the Masons quickly coming to the conclusion that if they were to make up the lost ground their focus had to be on going as hard as they could for as long as they could.
"I guess the problems we had actually made it easier for us to decide to what to do, we really didn't have too many options," Mason said. "It was basically a matter of all of nothing and just hoping that everything hung together. We knew that meant taking a lot more risks than normal but there was no other way."
Before their new tactics were applied, the turbocharger had to be prepared, with Mason, on reflection, believing the damage had been induced in the tuning-up process before the rally began. "We obviously pushed things a lot harder than we needed to but we weren't aware of it until we actually got going; we have to take the blame, it was our own fault."
Stages 4, 5 and 6 saw the Masons start their amazing comeback, but it was stage 7, the longest of the first day, that proved to be the turning point. Over 30km on a variety of surfaces it was always likely to be a key factor in the end result, and so it proved. The Masons turned in a spectacular effort to be 50secs faster than the next quickest team.
They clawed back more time on the leaders during stage 8, and went into the second day in fifth place, 55secs behind front-runner West - a big margin but not insurmountable.
"We were pretty rapt to be as close as we were and it was all about keeping the pressure on, we knew we couldn't let up, it was still all or nothing."
Sunday's nine stages saw the Masons continue their charge, helped by the news West had incurred more than two minutes of penalties when his Mitsubishi suffered electrical issues.
Three of the stages were won by the Masons and they overhauled the then leader, Dean Sumner, on the penultimate stage.
The fun wasn't over yet, though. The Subaru's suspension was not gripping that well on the last stage, especially on left-hand corners, through a rear bumper having been knocked off. As well, valuable time was lost when it slid into a bank and spun backwards. Happily, however, Richard Mason was able to right the situation and make it to the finish with a 4.4secs advantage over Sumner. "We didn't need that, it was bit hairy there for a few seconds," Mason said of that final mishap.
He felt "absolutely knackered" at the end, saying concentrating so hard for so long had taken its toll.
"Mentally it was tough, there was no time to relax, even for a minute or two. It was something new for me and it was pretty exhausting, I can tell you that!"
Their Rally of Wairarapa win means the Masons now lead the Rally of New Zealand points table.
They have 302, with Hayden Paddon - who missed the Wairarapa event because of commitments at the Rally of Argentina - on 256. Emma Gilmour is next with 239, followed by Sumner on 228 and West on 191.
The drivers now get a six-week break before the next Rally of New Zealand event in Whangarei, where Mason and Paddon are expected to lock horns.