Rotorua's Sloan Cox showed plenty of promise in the opening round of the New Zealand Rally Championships but ultimately came away disappointed.
Mechanical problems on both days meant high speeds were not rewarded with results.
Cox started the weekend's Rally of Whangarei confident of a strong showing. However, halfway through the opening stage, his Taslo Engineering Mitsubishi Evo 10 dropped to three cylinders. With another three stages before service, Cox and his co-driver, sister Tarryn, lost more than four minutes and dropped to eighth.
Then, with the car back to full speed after a service break, Cox recorded the third fastest championship time, a second in stage six and the fastest championship time on stages seven and eight.
Day two began well. But as Cox neared the end of the third stage, flames from under the car indicated all was not well. Although the fire was put out, the pair were forced to retire.
