Motorsport: West pips Mason in Otago

Chris West didn't care that his winning margin was just 0.2s in the Otago rally at the weekend

Chris West won the closest national championship rally in the 32-year history of the series when he finished the Otago event just 0.2 of a second in front of Richard Mason yesterday.

The pair led another Subaru clean sweep of the top placings, reversing their individual positions from the first heat of the rally on Saturday when Mason finished 9.5s ahead of West.

"It was a bit close but it doesn't matter how much you win by," West said after winning the second heat to narrowly overhaul Mason.

Debuting the 2006 model Impreza WRX STI, West pulled back the deficit only on the final two coastal forestry stages south of Dunedin, in which he was 13.5s faster than Mason.

"I love those stages. Our notes are pretty good and we certainly weren't going to give up trying. I just went for it," he said.

His efforts turned a 3.8s deficit into a 9.7s advantage for the day and left him 0.2s ahead for the weekend, going into the final stage around the Forbury Park trotting track in Dunedin.

On that final stage Mason and West recorded the same time, to leave the final margin at 0.2s after 225km over two days.

They now head to the next round in Rotorua in three weeks tied on points as both had a first and a second in the two heats of the Otago event.

- NZPA