Waikuku rally driver Jack Stokes won the Barry Robinson Memorial Rally Southland over the weekend to extend his lead in the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship to seven points at the midway point of the season.

Jack Stokes and co-driver Hayden Graves, driving in a Stokes Motorsport Skoda Fabia Rally 2, handled the conditions better throughout the day to pull clear of championship title rival Jack Hawkeswood of Auckland (Vertu Equipment Toyota Yaris Rally 2) by the afternoon stages to claim his second career win by 24.7 seconds.

Hawkeswood had led early but after a couple of scary moments when the rain came down at lunchtime he lost time to Stokes.

The Rally 4wd overall title was won by Haddon Patton and co-driver Jared Hudson in a Hyundai i20 AP4, winning all seven stages of the rally, over 159.2 km of special stages around Wyndham, Waikawa Valley and Dunsdale.

Rally Southland is part of the 2026 New Zealand Rally Championship, but Paddon and Hudson were only competing in the open 4WD class.

North Canterbury’s Robbie Stokes also in a Stokes Motorsport Skoda Fabia Rally 2, secured a podium finish after an up and down day on the fast gravel roads of Southland.

Local rally drivers Ari Pettigrew driving one of two Porsche 911s entered in the rally was first 2WD car home and fifth overall, while Harri Silcock (Mitsubishi EVO6.5) put in a fine performance as he chased Thomas Paul (Subaru Impreza) all day in tight battle.

Paul won the Rally Challenge 4WD class by only 2.1 seconds from Silcock.