Motorsport: Rally field strong even without champs

Emma Gilmour has high hopes for the season in her all-new Suzuki Swift-based rally car. Photo / Euan Cameron

International drivers make up for loss of Mason pairing who fail to secure sponsor for season’s opening event

National rally champion Richard Mason and co-driver Sara Mason have decided to skip the International Rally of Whangarei and make Rally Otago their first event.

"It was a really hard decision to make to miss the opening round," said Mason. "In the end we couldn't get a major sponsor across the line for this weekend's rally, which is a real shame as Sara and I were looking forward to getting back in action again.

"We decided to take the hit this round and get ourselves sorted for the rest of the championship. And anyway, you get to drop your worst round in the series so let's hope this is our worst."

Not having the defending champions on the dance card is disappointing, but the rest of the field are no mugs, especially with the international drivers making the trip for the start of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship campaign. Chief among them is Indian Gaurav Gill, who is returning to defend his 2014 International Rally of Whangarei win, along with drivers from Sweden, Japan, New Caledonia, Indonesia, New Zealand and America.

New Zealand also welcomes back 'Hoonigan' Ken Block who was last in New Zealand back in 2007 and also competed in the World Rally Championship.

He is probably best known for his exploits in the Global Rallycross series his outrageous Gymkhana series of online videos.

The Kiwi lineup is pretty solid as well, despite the absent Mason, with Emma Gilmour (co-driver Anthony McLoughlin) among the leading contenders.

She'll have her work cut with the likes of Alex Kelsey (with Mal Peden), Ben Hunt (with Tony Rawstorn), Andrew Hawkeswood (with Jeff Cress) and David Holder (with Rob Scott) to name but a few.

Leading woman driver Gilmour only competed in two NZRC rounds last year in an all-new Suzuki Swift-based car due to Global Rally Cross commitments in the US.

In 2014 her Suzuki showed promise on occasion before inevitably succumbing to mechanical gremlins.

It wasn't until the end of the season that her crew discovered the head gasket was causing all the problems. The Dunedin-based driver has finished second in the New Zealand championship three times and is determined that this should be her year.

"We've had a look at the roads and they are amazing. There's not a lot of gravel on them and they should be fun," said Gilmour after a recce.

"Anthony [co-driver] has put some good notes together and the car is running fine. We've done a lot of testing and we've done the best we can and are looking forward to rallying at speed.

"We need a little bit of luck to go our way, but we've prepared really well for this event and hope this will be our year to grab the top spot and win my first national title.

"It's a great field for the New Zealand championship and it's going to be an interesting championship with a number of new cars competing.

"It'll be a tough rally to win this weekend and there's going to be some fierce challenges and we're looking forward to a good weekend."

The re-mapped rally covers 282km of gravel roads over 16 special stages. The event started last night with two tests at the William Fraser Memorial Park at Pohe Island. There are eight stages today over four sections of roads repeated in the afternoon.

Wrapping up each run is the 14.82km Helena stage - a new addition starting inland of Helena Bay on the $50 million retreat of Alexander Abramov. There are six more stages tomorrow, finishing at the Whangarei Quayside town basin.