Sara happy rallying to support

Sara Mason with 4-year-old son Khalid dressed in his own racing gear.

Rally co-driver Sara Mason, with husband Richard Mason at the helm, has won the latest New Zealand Rally Championship two races before the event finishes. Times-Age reporter Cherie Taylor speaks to Sara about what got her into rally racing and what's the secret of a good co-driver.

IT'S hard to imagine a teenage love of car racing games could lead to a successful rally racing career but that's exactly what has happened for Masterton mother Sara Mason.

The 28-year-old's latest co-driver win places her equal to top Kiwi rally co-driver Bob Haldane with 24 round wins notched on to her bonnet. She and husband Richard have five New Zealand championship rally titles to their name.

"[Bob] used lots of other drivers to achieve that. I've only used Richard," she says.

Sara giggles recalling how it all started when she was just a teenager playing PlayStation games.
"It's quite a funny story. It all started when I was about 13. I had no family involved in it. It was just a matter of playing PlayStation; Gran Turismo and from then on it became my absolute passion."

Her parents gave Sara her first rally car for a Christmas present as a 15-year-old and she's never looked back, she says.
"So I set up racing myself. With L plates on even. I did several years as a driver."

Her best result, second place in the New Zealand two-wheel championship in 2003.
Then she headed to university taking the cost of the sport out of reach for Sara.

In stepped rally driver Richard Mason, who became her husband five years ago; five years into the relationship. The couple have a 4-year-old son Khalid and they share care of Richard's 11-year-old twin daughters from a previous relationship.

He needed a co-driver and she needed to quench her thirst to be flying around gravel roads at speed.

"Richard came along and said 'hey you can jump in the car with me' and that was that. The first rally we won and we have never looked back from then on," she says. It's an extremely close relationship both on and off the gravel roads.

The couple took their record fifth New Zealand title proving they are a class act when it comes to rally racing as their performance continues to bear fruit. That win was captured two weeks before the final race of the series finished, topping off a fantastic year, Sara says.

"Two rounds to go and we have already won it. It was a great year."

They are sponsored by BNT and their most avid long-term supporter was its chief executive Greg Horne who died this year. They have driven on in his memory, Sara says.

"He'd been with us nine years. He was a massive supporter watching every event. He gave us something to strive for this year. His last words to us were, 'I've got to get better because we've got a championship to win this year'," she says.

"I guess perhaps that's some of the reason we have had such a good year because we have been focused on doing it for Greg."

They took national titles in 2005, 2006, 2011 and 2012 as well.

Sara has snatched co-driving titles four times; 2006, 2011, 2012 and 2014. She lost the 2005 title by one point (because of university exams during one round).
"They all merge into one."

It's not an easy road for them though and it's all because of their close relationship, Sara stresses, as she makes her way to the top of the navigating field.

She admits navigating isn't a walk in the park.
"It is quite difficult. You have to have such a good relationship with your driver ... you have to trust each other so much; like you are going over 200km/h on gravel and he has to trust what you are saying is correct and you have to trust what he is doing is okay. So you both have to focus so hard on your job together.

"It's not a particularly easy thing to do. Like I say, the relationship to me is the most important job."

Off the road the couple work together and regularly hit the tracks on their mountain bikes and enjoy other sports they both love.

"We do everything together we work together, race together, mountain bike together and ski together. We do everything together. We are best friends. We are busy people."

As for flying around the roads at high speed reading pace notes, keeping food down has been something Sara has learned to deal with.

She admits it can be stomach churning at times.
"I have got a trick and it's called Paihia Bombs. A lot of fishermen use them. They are sea sickness tablets and they really work. I think I could probably do without them but there is just so much at stake we just don't risk it," she says.

She admits coming close to losing the contents of her stomach at least once though - on a special piece of road in Gisborne called the Motu.

"It's incredibly twisty. It goes on and on and on. I got to Rauku and the drivers were all bent over vomiting. I just sat in the car. I came close. I was okay. I guess I learnt my lesson. It's really important to take your sea sickness medication just in case. There is so much at stake."

Working closely together with a tight-knit crew results in their success, she says.
"Richard is just incredibly talented and we work really well as a team. We have great mechanics. They are brilliant and we have a really good car. It's not one thing. It's a whole pile of things that make us a really good team ... we are all passionate, focused and have good sponsorship as well."

Their choice of beast - a Subaru - "it's really awesome".

As for the future, they have talked about it, but it's all about finances, Sara says.
They know they have the skills to compete internationally.

"We have discussed it. We have won five times. No one has ever done it. We've discussed what do we do and where do we go from here, but we'd need a lot more funding and sponsorship to be able to go overseas to race. That's our dream," she says.

"We have done a couple of years in the Chinese championship. That was really good, really, really good. But we'd like to do a lot more internationally. I envisage us doing it for a very long time. I don't know whether that will be in the very top level of the sport like we are now because it is financially quite draining and a lot of time. But for now and the foreseeable future we will continue at this level. Once we have decided we have had enough we will drop back and continue at club level."

Their passion for the sport has washed off on to Khalid. He was at his first rally in Dunedin as a 2-week-old baby, he's "well-travelled", says Sara.

Sara Mason with 4-year-old son Khalid dressed in his own racing gear.

"I know our boy is into it. He is just absolutely rally car mad. We've got little rally cars everywhere. He comes to every rally ... Richard's parents look after him when we are racing. I love seeing his smiling face. The best thing is he doesn't care if we win or lose on the day. He's there waiting and running up to us giving us cuddles."

As for advice for others wanting to take on co-driving or navigating, it's about being on great terms with your driver, she says.

"We are just a great team. I haven't co-driven for anyone else and to be quite honest, I wouldn't want to. I've just got so much faith in what Richard is doing and that allows me to do my job because I don't have to worry about him. But I think the trick is for a co-driver to find somebody they really get on well with then they can have fun and also do a much better job," she says. "I trust Richard and really enjoy his company. For us it's a family sport. We are always road tripping. It's quite relaxing being on the road. It's all good fun."

While most couples would find working side by side, day after day quite difficult, this couple have no qualms about dealing with relationship issues or arguments on race day either - it just doesn't happen, Sara says.

"That's a question everyone asks us. But we don't really have big arguments. If we do have a disagreement then we are very professional about it. We know what we have to do to achieve what we need. We work well together. We just drop it and get on with the job at hand. We never have these long silent moments. We always move on quickly ... can't afford not to."

But racing along dirt roads in a rally car isn't the only type of racing this speed-loving woman takes on. She completed her first Real Women's Duathlon in Palmerston North with friends and is keen to take on more.

"I'm going to do more ... I do quite a lot of running and thought it would be good to do and really enjoyed it."

Rally couple Richard and Sara Mason have won the Rally of New Zealand for a fifth time. The pair are shown at the celebrations outside the Copthorne Hotel and Resort Solway in Masterton.