Champion Masterton rally driver Richard Mason is living in hope.
Mason and co-driver Sara Randall have just returned home after placing 18th overall in the production class at the latest round of the world rally championship in Japan, a superb result considering they competed in an older and virtually standard Subaru
Impreza for the Terao Autodoor team.
But impressive as it was Mason remains unsure whether it was good enough for him and Randall to raise the funds which would enable them to contest all six rounds of the world series & a figure in the region of $1m.
"You're always hoping that some of the bigger companies will come to the party and competing in a country like Japan was certainly a plus in that respect," he said. "All the big boys go there so, who knows, perhaps something positive will come out of it."
Mason said the speed of the car he drove in Japan was "much slower" than that which has won him two New Zealand production class titles.
"All the team really wanted us to do was drive for a finish, I guess we actually did better than anybody expected", a typically modest Mason said.
"Obviously we would have liked to go faster but we went there knowing what was in store so that wasn't a surprise."
Despite its vintage Mason's car was well prepared and he was pleased with the way it handled in an event which was marred to a degree by wet weather.
"The road were slippery at times and our boss told us to drive slow and avoid trouble so that's what we did," he said, adding that two of the world championship contenders had slid off the road in one of the stages.
There were also quite a few rocks on some roads and Mason did puncture a rear wheel on stage seven but fortunately little time was lost and it counted for little in the final analysis.
The effort of Mason and Randall did see them on the trophy list as they were placed third in the non-priority Subaru class.
