New blog: Heading south as Kiwi rally season kicks off

Emma Gilmour's rally season starts in Otago this weekend, with a 'new' Impreza STi '09. Photo / Geoff Ridder

Welcome to my first blog with nzherald.co.nz. Things are pretty busy for me and the team at the moment as we get ready for the start of the Vantage Aluminium Joinery NZ Rally Championship.

Our first event is the Rally of Otago this weekend.

The start of any motorsport season is usually busy but this year is busier than usual as we have bought a new car for the season.

Our new car is a 2009 Subaru Impreza STi and although the car isn't brand spanking, as it won the Asia Pacific Championship last year, it is brand new for us. The car is a sister car to the car I finished second in the Asia Pacific Championship with last year.

In preparation for the season it is important for us to strip the car and make it as brand new as possible. We bought the car as it finished last year so it required quite a bit of 'love' to get it ready.

Every component of our car is lifed to try and reduce the chance of a mechanical failure. We will start the season with a brand new engine and after 1000 competitive kilometres we will strip it down and check the engine over.

As we run in a production class, the cars run as standard showroom cars apart from the suspension and the gearbox which we can change.

Our gearbox will be checked after every 300km rally to check any wear and tear on the components.

I'm really excited about the season ahead especially with the inclusion of Rally NZ as part of the Championship. Having the event based back in Auckland will be great, with some exciting spectator stages planned around Auckland itself – it will never have been easier to come watch us rally.

We've been testing in Maramarua forest as part of the final shakedown for the car - it felt great and we did a few small fine tuning things to make it even better come the first event.

- Emma Gilmour

Catch up with Emma on Facebook or her website.