Motorsport: Rallying round-up

Skoda were not impressed when young Finn Jani Paasonen crashed their new Fabia on its debut in Mexico. They have decided to replace him with another Finn, Janne Tuohino, for Rally New Zealand in two weeks.

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Mitsubishi, whose Rally New Zealand ended disastrously last year when the cars failed at the opening Superspecial, have opted for relative unknown Gianluigi Galli to drive their second car in two weeks.

Galli, who replaces tarmac specialist Gilles Panizzi, competed in the production car class here last year.

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A move away from West Australia for Rally Australia would be good news for Kiwi drivers.

The West Australian state government intends to end its contract with the rally in 2006 in light of concerns over the economic viability of the event.

Canberra, Melbourne and Queensland have expressed interest in taking over the world championship round and any move to the east coast would be an incentive for New Zealanders to cross the Tasman to compete.

WA Tourism Minister Mark McGowan said he had made the decision to redirect the A$4.7 million ($5 million) in funds towards other events.

"Last year's event cost Western Australian taxpayers A$5.9 million to stage, but generated only A$9.3 million - representing A$1.60 for every A$1 we spent," McGowan said.

Rally New Zealand receives only a fraction of the state funding provided in Australia. This year Tourism New Zealand, for the first time ever, has chipped in around $250,000 and local authority contributions are about $100,000.

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Richard Mason showed what a loss he will be to the national rally championship when he scored an impressive victory in Bay Rally Gisborne last Saturday.

The Masterton driver has not been able to arrange sponsorship for the full championship and is running in the new Rally Xtreme competition, which is not restricted to Group N cars.

Mason, in a Mitsubishi Evo5, traded stage wins with Aucklander Andrew Hawkeswood in another Mitsubishi until Hawkeswood hit a tree and damaged the rear of his car.

When the rally ended prematurely because of road damage, Mason led second-placed Mark Tapper by 1m 7s.

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Monster Tajima is the king of the Race to the Sky at Cardrona, but two Aucklanders will be hoping to make their mark.

Fresh from winning the Ashley Forest rallysprint Marty Roestenburg will pilot the 650hp PSD Subaru.

Andrew Hawkeswood will strap himself in to his 750hp Mitsubishi rocketship, which has been built specifically for the 15km hill climb challenge.

Weighing just 850kg, the Lancer has a power to weight ratio of almost one horsepower per kilogram.

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Christchurch driver Andy Knight, who leads the national Formula Ford standings, had little luck in his first outing in the Australian championship at Adelaide.

He qualified 10th with what he described as a down-on-power engine, finished seventh in the first race, was taken out in the second and finished 15th in the third after starting from 29th on the grid.

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There was disappointment for young New Zealand racing drivers Gene Rollinson and Barry Holden at the Malaysian Formula 1 Grand Prix meeting at Sepang on Sunday.

Both were forced out of the Formula Malaysia support race by differential failure, Hamilton driver Holden on the first lap, Aucklander Rollinson - while leading - on the second.

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The final two rounds of the OSCA Supersaloons championship are drawing big fields to Taupo this weekend and next weekend at Manfeild.

The first two rounds held in the South Island had fields of around 28 cars. Current entries for the Taupo round indicate that there will be a full field of 30 cars, including nine from the South Island.

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Two old rally rivals will be back in the international fray next month when Neil Allport and Brian Stokes compete in Rally NZ.

For years Canterbury driver Stokes competed in a variety of Fords while Allport won national championships for Mazda.

Allport returned to the national championship last season in a Mitsubishi and Stokes is back this time in a similar car. Allport has yet to commit to another full championship campaign.

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With the national karting championship meeting being hosted by Invercargill over the Easter weekend, Auckland area competitors had to do some head-scratching to get their karts and race-day equipment to and from the country's southernmost city.

They hired and outfitted two 40ft containers for the karts and most of the equipment then mixed and matched 20 other car, trailers and utes to transport the rest.

The result? The club will have 44 competing members at the Fulton-Hogan-sponsored meeting on the recently re-sealed raceway just over the sandhills from Oreti Beach.