The Silver Fern Rally is all over for this year, and if you missed the action you can catch a round-up of it on Sky TV tonight during the Fujitsu Motorsport show. If thats not enough for you the official 2008 Rally DVD can be pre-ordered and delivered to you later this month, details are on the Silver Fern website.
There is also full results, photos and event details on the Silver Fern website.
To visit the website click here
Christchurch’s Andrew Grundy and Mark Smith continue to lead the 2008 NZ Silver Fern International Marathon Rally after five of the eight days in their Mazda RX7 bat-car. Grundy today commented “we are just running at our own pace, which seems to be fast enough to keep us ahead, the car is going just great and we’re loving it.”
Had it not been for an uncharacteristic 4-1/2 minute off road excursion in the last stage of the day (Moir Farm near Balclutha) Christchurch’s Brian Stokes and Grant Marra in their Ford Escort MKI would have been within 10 seconds of the lead. He now sits second overall at 4 minutes 37 seconds behind Grundy.
Stokes had earlier in the day damaged a wheel hub touring to the first special stage of the day. “I just made more work for the guys in the team effecting repairs — sorry guys” said a philosophical Stokes.
He temporarily withdrew from the event, but the team were able to make the repairs and he made it to the stage just in time to run and as a result has been at the back of the field for the rest of the day. He then proceeded to put in times for every stage except the last of around one minute faster than everyone else.
Holding on to his third position was Auckland’s Craig Marshall in the little Peugeot 205 GTi 180, 5 minutes behind the leader. Englishman Grant Shand’s Escort is fourth a further 2-1/2 minutes back followed by Hamilton’s Charlie Evans in his Mazda RX7.
The last stage of the day where Stokes went off, also caught a number of other competitors, including the BMW of Nelson Garry Adcock, and the Ford Escort of Englishman Andrew Barns.
The competing cars and their teams left a damp Invercargill at 7.15am and headed for the Gore area before a lunchtime service break in the Tapanui township. The afternoon saw crews stages in the Balclutha area before crews ended the day at the Scenic Circle Southern Cross Hotel in Dunedin.
Tomorrow’s (Tuesday Oct 21) sixth day of the eight day event, will see competitors travel north thru the inland Otago area before finishing the day with a motorsport show and dinner at Timaru’s Caroline Bay at around 5.00pm.
The days competition stages will take place on roads near Macraes (8.40am), Hampden (10.15am) Herbert (10.55am) and Oamaru (12.05), before a service / lunch break in the Kurow township at around 12.30am. In the afternoon the teams will tackle Meyers Pass (1.45pm), the Waimate Forest (3.05pm) and Backline Road (4.10pm) before continuing to end the day in Timaru.
The event then travels north to Christchurch before ending up at the new Marlborough Convention Centre in Blenheim on Thursday October 23rd at 3.30pm.
The fourth day of the NZ Silver Fern International Marathon Rally has seen drama galore, finishing with rally leader Andrew Grundy’s Mazda RX7 losing around 4 minutes with a puncture in the very last stage of the day and dropping to second overall.
Scotland’s Jimmy McRae and his English co-driver Pauline Gullick now lead the rally by 19 seconds in their Ford Escort MKII. However all is not well as Jimmy crashed the car off the road and into a fence post in the last stage, and his team have a lot of work to do to repair the damaged radiator and engine before the re-start at 7.30 tomorrow morning from Invercargill’s Ascot Park Hotel. The team were not hopeful the repairs could be made.
On the second stage of the day just south of Dunedin, the BMW of Nelson’s Garry Adcock left the road and ended up in a farmer’s paddock. He was able to regain the road and continue the event, and eventually finished the day in 42nd place.
Not so lucky were the English pairing of Steven French and Colin Booth who were injured when they crashed their Ford Escort RS1800 at high speed, in the Owaka area, forcing organisers to stop and then cancel that stage. Top work by marshal’s, officials and the events emergency procedures saw both promptly transported to Hospital for observation.
Bad luck continues for Christchurch’s Jeff Judd whose Escort’s diff was replaced overnight, after his rollover the day before, then he today experienced clutch failure in the day’s second-last stage dropping him to 27th overall.
Auckland’s Craig Marshall continues his fine run in the little Peugeot in 3rd overall followed by the fast approaching Brian Stokes Escort MKII in fourth 3 minutes behind.
Several other top runners experienced problems today including Waiuku’s Stumpy Holmes who was another to experience clutch failure and he limped out of Stage 23 near Wyndham, while Shane Murland slid off the road in the Burntflat stage. Englishman Iain Freestone’s Escort has been beset by all sorts of little problems with the distributor, then in the second last stage of the day he went off the road and lost more time.
Very few of the competitors have actually escaped problems of some sort or another, but the field at the top is starting to bunch up unlike the previous event in 2006 where leader Brian Stokes ran away with the event. However 2 ½ hours separates first to last with French and Booth still classified and in 49th placing.
On a brighter side, Australian’s Keith and Maryanne Callinan have powered their Ford Escort into 7th overall, having forsaken their previous car, a powerful tyre eating Holden Monaro, for the more nimble Escort on this event. They are closely followed by another Aussie, David Hills also in a Ford Escort.
The amazing little MGB of Auckland father and son team Paul & Andrew Walbran, continued today after engine repairs, and is placed 46th of the 49 remaining competitors.
The competing cars and their teams left a beautiful day in Dunedin at 7.00am and headed for the Catlins area before a lunchtime service break in the Owaka Township. The afternoon saw crews tackle a 40km and a 50km stage in Waikawa Valley before crews ending the day in Invercargill.
Today’s (Monday Oct 20) fifth day of the eight day event, will see competitors travel south thru the northern Southland area before finishing the day outside the Scenic Circle Southern Cross Hotel in Dunedin at around 4.30pm.
At the end of the first day’s competition of the 2008 NZ Silver Fern Marathon Rally, it’s 2006 all over again, as Kaiapoi’s Brian Stokes and co-driver Grant Marra lead the field into Queenstown in their Ford Escort MKII.
However Stokes’ small 37 second margin could be in doubt, as he experienced gearbox problems at the end of the last stage of the day, and reports “it sounds like fourth gear, we are flat out looking into what to do, but we should be able to get it fixed at service tonight.”
Currently in second place is Christchurch’s Jeff Judd and Greg Kennedy in their Ford Escort RS1800, with fellow Cantabrian’s Andrew Grundy and Mark Smith in their Mazda RX7 just 5 seconds behind Judd.
Holding down an excellent fourth place overall is the Honda Civic driven by Aucklander Dave Strong, a further 16 seconds back. Strong began the day well and was up in second placing overall after three of the day’s six special stages.
Considering Strong lost his Rally Car and a lot of his team equipment in the huge Auckland fire at his Strong Bros car dismantling business, and has only just rebuilt this his spare car, it’s an impressive performance. Strong said “we have to take advantage of the day’s fast stages as we don’t compete quite so well in the tight stuff.”
Amongst those to strike problems on today’s first day of competition, was Palmerston North’s Brian Green and Fleur Pedersen, whose Ford Escort WRC came to a halt with a suspected cam-belt failure, a repeat of what put them out of the event in 2006. This time however parts are being flown down from Auckland and the team lead by Neil Allport will attempt to repair the car overnight.
The competing cars and their teams left a fine Christchurch at 7.30am and headed for the Geraldine area where a series of four short stages were tackled before a lunchtime service break in Fairlie. The afternoon saw stages near Tekapo and Tarras before crews ended the day in Queenstown.
Tomorrow’s (Friday Oct 17) second day of the eight day event will see competitors travel out to the Alexandra area before returning again to overnight in Queenstown, where organisers have a dinner function planned.
The event then travels to Dunedin, Invercargill, back to Dunedin, up to Timaru and Christchurch before finishing at the new Marlborough Convention Centre in Blenheim on Thursday October 23rd at 3.30pm.
Motorsport fans came from all over New Zealand to join with members of the public in Christchurch’s Cathedral Square to attend a rally show and to check out the cars entered in this weeks NZ Silver Fern International Marathon Rally.
The show promoted by the Christchurch City Council’s Recreation and Sports Unit and Events Team, which included classic and car club vehicles, saw the square filled with around 100 rally cars and motorsport displays.
Amongst the display highlights were the ex Ford UK team Escorts, Ari Vatanen’s 1979 Rothmans Ford Escort RS1800, now owned by Christchurch’s Brian Walker, and Roger Clarks Shell Ford Escort RS1800 now owned by brother Jim and Tony Hewlett also of Christchurch. The show also included the visiting Lotus Car Clubs South Island tour.
Tomorrow’s (Thursday Oct 16) first day of the eight day event will see competitors travel out to the Geraldine area before travelling on to their first overnight stop in Queenstown.
After leaving Christchurch’s cathedral Square at 7.30am, the days competition stages will take place near Waitohi (9.45am), Kakahu Bush (10.20am), Kakahu (10.55am) and Spur Road (11.25am) before a service / lunch break in Fairlie at around midday. In the afternoon the teams will tackle the Braemar stage neat Tekapo (1.00pm) Phillips Road near Tarras (3.10pm) before heading to a service area on Lake Rd Frankton at around 4.30pm. The cars will be parked up overnight at Whakatipu High School from 5.30pm.
The October 16th – 23rd 2008 event, will start in Christchurch’s Cathedral Square, at 7.30 am tomorrow morning, and take competitors south to Queenstown, Dunedin, and Invercargill, back to Dunedin, Timaru and Christchurch before finishing at the new Marlborough Convention Centre in Blenheim.
Canterbury’s Autosport Club has re-scheduled their JR’s Bar & Grill Tarn Road rally-sprint to accommodate some of the NZ Silver Fern Rally competitors who wish to use this event as a shakedown in preparation for eight days of rallying.
Set to run this Sunday (October 12th) the 8.5km gravel forestry road has attracted interest from a number of the top Silver Fern contenders including local driver Brian Stokes in his newly finished MKII Escort, Akaroa’s Willie Rutherford in his ex Gilmour / Rawstron Porsche 911, as well as Christchurch’s Leigh Marston’s Subaru Legacy.
With seventeen international competitors in town for the Silver Fern event, it is expected a number of them will also attend to give their cars a run after weeks on the water from the UK and Europe. Organisers say they will accept entries on the day at the Ashley Forest.
The event will be signposted from the Ashley River Bridge, with the action set to begin from 10am.
The 2008 NZ Silver Fern Rally, will start in Christchurch’s Cathedral Square, and take competitors south to Queenstown, Dunedin, and Invercargill, back to Dunedin, Timaru and Christchurch before finishing at the new Marlborough Convention Centre in Blenheim. The event runs from October 16th – 23rd.
Interest in the Silver Fern Rally show and Ceremonial Start in Christchurch has been boosted by the announcement that two very historic rally cars will be amongst the displays.
1981 Finnish world rally champion, Ari Vatanen’s 1979 Rothmans liveried Ford Escort RS1800, and ex Ford UK works driver, Englishman Roger Clark’s similar car, in its original Shell livery, will be amongst the 100 or so classic and historic motorsports vehicles lined in Cathedral Square on Wednesday October 15th.
Now owned by Christchurch’s Brian Walker, and fully restored back to its original left hand drive format, the ex Ford works built Escort first appeared in New Zealand for the 1979 Motogard Rally, where Vatanen drove it in the Rothmans Team colours.
It then competed in the 1980 Castrol Australia Rally with Vatanen again at the wheel, but in Masport colours. Later that year back in New Zealand, the Masport Team ran another Fin, Pentti Airikkala in the 1980 Motogard Rally an event which ran from Nelson to Christchurch. Unfortunately Airikkala crashed the car heavily mid way thru the event.
When repaired it was sold with 1600 engine to Nelson’s Dave Parkes, and since that time it has past through a number of owners including Brian’s brother Colin, before being extensively restored to its original condition.
Christchurch brothers James (Jim) and Tony Hewlett are the proud owners of the other Escort, another ex works built car, and now restored with its original Shell livery, the car that was originally driven by 1972 and 76 British RAC winner Roger Clark, in the Morocco Rally (DNF) in 1976. Clark also used the car in the 1976 Australian Southern Cross Rally.
In 1976, the car was imported by Ford New Zealand for Aucklander Mike Marshall to drive under the Motorcraft Ford parts banner. Marshall later bought the car from Ford, and rallied it extensively before it moved to Wellington’s Colin Taylor.
Silver Fern Rally show organiser Nic Jones said “it will be an impressive attraction to see these two famous cars, both of which are seldom out of their garages on public display.”
Supported by the Christchurch City Councils Recreation and Sports Unit and Events Team, the rally show and ceremonial start will also feature a number of local rally cars, trade displays, the Silver Fern competitors, and members of the Lotus Car Club whose rally also passes thru Christchurch at the same time.
The 2008 NZ Silver Fern International Marathon Rally, held over 8 days in New Zealand’s South Island, is the longest duration motor-sport event currently being held in NZ, and takes its roots from the Silver Fern and Heatway Rallies of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.
The October 16th – 23rd 2008 event, which starts in Christchurch’s Cathedral Square, then takes competitors south to Queenstown, Dunedin, and Invercargill, back to Dunedin, Timaru and Christchurch before finishing at the new Marlborough Convention Centre in Blenheim.
