Yesterday it was the setting for stage three of the Silver Fern Rally. Forty-five cars and their crews arrived in town on Tuesday night and will be racing around the South until Saturday.
Forsyth Barr Stadium will act as the starting and finishing line over the five-day stretch. The rally coincides with the D1NZ drifting championship and other motorsports at the stadium this weekend.
The Silver Fern Rally is a weeklong event with seven stages, made up from 47 individual stretches of road, totalling over 1000km. The event has two categories - classic rally and the main historic trophy section.
There are 26 New Zealand drivers and 19 international entries across both competitions.
The international entries include Australian, United Kingdom, German, Scottish, Welsh and Swedish teams.
Yesterday's third stage was made up of seven individual routes in which drivers competed across the province on stretches ranging from near Waikouaiti, Middlemarch and Milton.
Before that, the teams completed two stages before arriving in Dunedin.
After the first day's racing, internationals driving Ford Escorts held the top three spots in the historic category. Brit Simon Tysoe led Australian Stewart Reid by 6sec with a further 36sec back to Welshman Meirion Evans in third. Defending champion and No1 seed Dave Bristow had clutch issues on the first day which forced him back to 11th place.
Evans was the only one to hold a top-three spot after the teams arrived in Dunedin after the second stage. Canterbury's Brian Stokes took the lead by over 1min from Evans and the Matthew Robinson, of the UK. Bristow moved up one place into 10th.
The challenge section, for newer front or rear-wheel-drive cars, had similar changes from day one to day two. Auckland driver Dave Strong and Gore's Derek Ayson were first and second initially.
They were relegated to third and fourth by Cambridge's Brent Taylor, who took the lead over Palmerston North's Bruce Herbert in second.
In yesterday's third stage, drivers competed across the province on stretches from the Waikouaiti, Middlemarch and Milton areas. In the historic section, Evans continued his consistent form, leading after the completion of racing yesterday. He is more than 1min in front of Robinson and third placed Reid.
In the challenge section, Ayson and Strong got back to where they were after day one. Yesterday though, Ayson overtook Strong to take the lead. He has a 24sec advantage, with more than 7min back to the thirteen remaining challenge drivers.
The rally starts from Dunedin today and finishes in Gore, where it resumes from tomorrow.
Leading off in front of his home crowd while maintaining his overall lead was a goal, Ayson said.
''That's the goal, starting from No1 when when get to Gore.''
Ayson praised his team and co-driver for helping him through the rally. ''We had a couple of wee dramas on the first day - electrical issues.''
-By Jonny Turner
