Rallying: Favourites fall by wayside

Ben Hunt.
Ben Hunt.
Punctures and suspension damage left the podium spots devoid of the usual New Zealand Rally Championship frontrunners at the Rally of Coromandel on Saturday.

Tauranga's Phil Campbell (Mitsubishi Evo 9) was the top-scoring national championship driver after the nine stages, although he finished runner-up to event winner Geof Argyle in an Evo 8.

Argyle (Palmerston North) is only contesting the regional Rally Xtreme series.

Masterton driver Richard Mason, who has already won the NZRC title, led from the outset in his Subaru Impreza WRX STI, winning the first five stages, albeit under close pressure from Nelson's Ben Hunt in another WRX STI.

Hunt lost 3min 20sec when he stopped to change a puncture on the second run through the fifth stage.

''We hit a rock with the left front wheel. We had no option but to stop and change it,' Hunt said.

Mason had a lead of 2min 23sec at the end of that stage when he went into stage six.

He then broke the toe link of his left rear suspension after hitting a rock and his goal of going through the season unbeaten had disappeared.

Efforts to perform a repair in the stage were in vain and he was forced to withdraw.

Hunt won the last two forestry stages in his efforts to make up lost time after the puncture and climbed back to 10th place overall and fifth in the NZRC category.

Without the time-consuming puncture, he would have won the event, taken maximum championship points and finished more than 80sec in front of Argyle.

Tauranga's David Holder was fifth overall in his Evo 8 and second among the NZRC contenders, just 17.2sec behind Campbell but, like, Hunt was left wondering what might have been.

Holder's co-driver, Ben Hawkins, was physically sick during the second and third stages on the tight and winding roads and was not always able to read the pace notes properly to Holder.

Local hope Alex Kelsey, of Coromandel, driving his home-built MC2 custom rally car, fired out of the blocks fast, recording the third-quickest time on the first two stages.

He then withdrew on the third stage with a misfire.

While Mason did not add to his points tally, there was a shuffle around among the other drivers battling for the podium positions.

Holder is now second overall, just three points in front of Hunt going to the final round in Manawatu in five weeks' time.

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