Protest room win for Hunt leaves a sour taste

EDITORIAL

This weekend is shaping up as another busy one for motorsport fans, with both the New Zealand and Australian rally championships wrapping up, and the Brazilian Grand Prix running in Sao Paulo.

It’s unfortunate that the guts have been ripped out of what was a tight national championship title fight between Ben Hunt and Robbie Stokes following the latter’s exclusion from the recent Bay of Plenty Rally. For those not up with the play, Stokes won the rally on the day but was fined $250 for wrongly entering the service park at the event.

Hunt and co-driver Tony Rawstorn then applied to Motorsport New Zealand for a judicial hearing which has now resulted in Stokes’ exclusion from the rally, thus losing his points from that round.

Consequently, what was a nine-point gap in points between the battling drivers is now a 41-point gap in Hunt’s favour, and the prospect of an enthralling finale at Whangarei this weekend has been dashed.

I’m not suggesting for a moment that Hunt and Rawstorn were not within their rights to request a hearing, and the verdict reached was technically correct.

However, what Stokes did had absolutely no bearing on the outcome of the rally in terms of the drive, and in such circumstances being seen to try to secure a championship win in the protest room is never a good look.

So, to be frank, I am disappointed by Hunt and Rawstorn’s action. The duo won their third national crown last year, they are a formidable combination on the special stages, and they had every chance of winning the championship again this weekend fair and square. Sadly, they have taken that opportunity away from themselves.

Robbie Stokes’ best response now will be to win in Whangarei, and I am sure he will be fired up to do so. He will start second seed behind Hunt, with both drivers in Skoda Fabias. Robbie’s brother Jack (Ford Fiesta) is seeded third ahead of Mike Young and Jack Hawkeswood in Toyota Yaris GRs.

With Hayden Paddon and Emma Gilmour both rallying in Australia this weekend (see below), the top-seeded Otago crew at Whangarei are Dunedin’s Tim and Lauren Mackersy (Ford Fiesta). They are placed second in the national championship two-wheel-drive category. Local interest will also focus on Southlander Caleb Macdonald (Subaru Impreza) who will be looking to take out the rally challenge title.

Paddon and Gilmour, meanwhile, have contrasting objectives as they contest Rally Tasmania.

For Paddon and co-driver John Kennard, it’s time to wrap up a first Australian Rally Championship title. Having already won four of the five prior championship rounds, the Cromwell-based Hyundai driver need only steer his way to a top 12 result this weekend to confirm the crown. He’s already indicated a safety-first approach that will involve driving at a measured pace and carrying more spare parts than usual in the car.

Gilmour’s trip to Tasmania is a one-off appearance in Australia as far as this year is concerned. She’s driving a Skoda Fabia Rally 2 car for the first time, and tackling this event for the first time too. Regular co driver Ben Searcy (who is Australian) will be alongside her to call the pace notes.

The event is very much about having fun and trying something new, though naturally Gilmour will also be looking for a solid result.

A solid result is something Liam Lawson also needs as he lines up for the Brazilian GP, Red Bull having extended its timeframe for deciding who will be racing for both its premier Red Bull and second-tier Racing Bulls teams next year. There have been rumours in the past week that Yuki Tsunoda, who is Lawson’s key rival for a 2026 F1 drive, may resolve matters himself by leaving F1 for Indycars. That makes some sense in that Honda, which is Tsunoda’s key backer, is one of the two engine providers for Indycars. But for now, rumours are just rumours, and F1 is a sport that is rife with them.

As a bit of a footnote to recent media coverage of Liam Lawson, it was interesting, but hardly surprising, that while motorsport’s international governing body cleared Lawson of any wrong-doing in the incident with track marshals at last month’s Mexican GP, that country’s governing body maintained it was all Lawson’s fault. Lest we forget, it was Lawson who replaced Mexican driver Sergio Perez at Red Bull after last season, and so the Kiwi is not fondly regarded in that country.

While Lawson’s performance this weekend will be of interest to Kiwis, it will hardly raise a ripple in most of the world, as all F1 attention is focused on the battle for the driver championship crown between McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

For now, my money is on Norris.