Today's Leg One is over for the Drivesouth International Rally, with defending New Zealand Rally Champion David Holder and his co-driver Jason Farmer leading Balclutha's Rhys Gardner and Ally MacKay by 16.7secs after seven stages.
Andrew Hawkeswood and Jeff Cress clipped something in stage four and had to bypass the oil cooler before starting stage five. They were five minutes late at the time control five resulting in a 50secs time penalty.
Hawkeswood bounced back to win stages five and six and finished the day in third 35.7secs behind Holder.
Dunedin's Emma Gilmour had a rose joint on her Suzuki Swift Maxi's gear selector break in stage four and was unable to fix it on the stage. She rejoined for the tarmac super special stage this afternoon and will be running tomorrow.
Deane Buist, of Christchurch, is having a brilliant rally and not only leads the Allcomers category but is placed seventh overall in his 2WD Ford Escort Mk 2.
A huge battle is brewing in the Classic Rally between current leader Regan Ross and Lisa Hudson in a Ford Escort RS 1800 and last year's winner Estonia's Markko Martin and co-driver Stephane Prevot, with Ross holding a 23.4sec advantage going into tomorrow's seven stages.
Kaiapoi's Marcus van Klink and Dave Neill are in third in their Mazda RX7, 55.3secs behind Martin.
Tomorrow's seven stages take teams south of Dunedin again, before they finish with a prize-giving ceremony at the Dunedin railway station from 3pm.
