Queenstown rally driver Caleb Macdonald’s successfully begun the defence of his national rally class title despite driving a virtually-new car.
Competing in the recent 50th Otago Rally, the 42-year-old won the first round of the New Zealand Rally Championship 4WD Challenge class, which was incorporated into the first day of the event.
Then, over two full days’ racing, he and stand-in co-driver Erin Kelly came third in the Allcomers category and eighth overall.
Thanks to a rival’s generosity, Macdonald last year took out the 4WD Rally Challenge title, with co-driver Larissa Biggar, who flew in from Brisbane for each round.
In the second-last round, in the Bay of Plenty, he badly crashed his Mitsubishi Evo 6, which put their title hopes in jeopardy.
Fellow competitor Ben Huband, however, lent them his Subaru H6, and they did enough in the final round in Whangarei to clinch the title.
For the Otago Rally, Macdonald drove a new Evo 8, though he used the suspension and brakes from his old car.
He’s delighted with how the event went — "it certainly wasn’t what I was expecting, it was just to try and get through and get the car home in one piece and get a few kilometres under the belt".
"So the way it all panned out without too many issues, yeah, very, very happy."
Macdonald says rallying’s very much a team sport, including not only his co-driver — who’ll again be Biggar for future rounds — but also his mechanics.
"Frankton Automotive have been a big help."
There are five more Rally Challenge rounds this year, starting in Canterbury on May 31.
"The competition is just so fast this year," he says.
"And there’s some really talented young guys coming through that have just got no fear, so I’ll have to be on my toes to stay in front of them, absolutely."
