Though Supercars driver Shane Van Gisbergen won the overall title, Hey won the two-wheel-drive event in the inaugural race at the newly designed circuit.
The event was on a circuit which had been specially built on former national champion Andrew Hawkeswood’s property in Whitford, near Auckland.
The 6km course, with its well-cambered gravel roads and spectacular jumps, was given the thumbs-up by drivers. The circuit was going to be part of the FIA NZ Rally which was canned earlier this year because of Covid-19. The event took place in front of a sold-out crowd of 5000.
Hey lined up with about 15 2WD competitors and after a couple of runs, ran out as the overall winner of the class.
He was driving a Toyota MR220 which he built way back in 2003 and had been been working in improving over the past few years. It is powered by a Nissan 2.2-litre turbo engine. He was nearly a second ahead of second-placed Marcus van Klink, of Christchurch. Charles Evans, of Hamilton, finished third.
Hay was joined in the car by his son Koby (15), a year 10 pupil at Taieri College, as co-driver, and Hey completed the up and down course in just over 1min 30sec.
Hey said it was a difficult course with plenty of tight corners and had plenty of climbing.
The Mosgiel man sits second in the NZ hillclimb championships overall and leads the 2WD section by a considerable margin. The final leg is in February next year and will be the Burma Rd hill climb, in west Otago, which is run by the South Otago Car Club.
Cromwell driver Hayden Paddon won the Auckland Rally last Saturday but crashed out in the final eight elimination round of the Battle of Jack Ridge open grade, clipping a bank and rolling his car.
