Northern Rally Sprint Series Home of the best rally sprint series in the country
The 23′ Northern Rallysprint Series reaches the halfway mid-point.
3 club events in & 3 to go, we’ve got a window leading into the next round, the rescheduled HCMC Arcadia Road round 4, Saturday 15th July.
The 23′ series has had a strong following this year. New faces, great roads, the spirit of clubsport racing at its finest. Even a few directional tweaks to some of our bread-and-butter roads hasn’t deterred people.
To arrive at the event and have to haggle for a good pits spot, well, competition on! Class battles, give it your all, this humble series just keeps on giving. It is the clubs though that make the series. Every contributing club plays an integral part in the series future. Keep on delivering us the good roads, and we’ll push hard to keep this series going for years to come!
In between rounds, while wallets accrue and extra cable ties are securely fixed, buy those extra tyres and bolt them on ready for the final rounds. It’s a small price to pay but it pays dividends on race day!
The HCMC rallysprint round falls on Matariki weekend, the star cluster known in Japan as Subaru. No bias here – but which type car will sit in the no. 1 spot at the end of this round?
Series points now live; upload delays were due to the series admin off catching the action at the recent International Rally of Whangarei.
A solid 23′ series delivered so far, whether it be pre rally testing or serious series contenders, these rallysprints are running hot and keeping the dream real for most weekend warriors.
Phil Campbell continues to top the overall series drivers table with a 10-point lead over rival Jay Pittam’s. The margin is doable though for fellow competitors to leapfrog as we draw into the final rounds. We all know, it only takes a snag on race day to bamboozle your overall and class standings.
3 women codrivers showcase the top overall series codriver table, Brianna Little, Olivia Robinson and Carol Liston, Little with a safe distance from her second-place rival Robinson.
The codriver series is going from strength to strength, series admins are now able to piggyback off clubs codriver sign sheets to confirm who’s codriving round to round. It’s quite a task tallying codriver points, we now welcome Simon Rabbidge to assist Grant Liston in this dept.
Early series reverse rounds indeed changed it up, however driver teams adapted quickly to the challenge and embraced these changes. As we move back into familiar territory with Arcadia Road and Hoddle Road coming up, experienced teams will no doubt be pulling out historic notes, adding in real time updates knowing there’s seconds to shave.
The pace notes have been a huge advantage to teams, new and old. Series sponsor Neil Allport enlightened to hear from codrivers as to the benefits the provided notes bring. Thanks to Neil who has been out on stages this year pace noting the new/old courses.
Volunteers also play a huge part of the running of these events, so please take the time to say hi or thanks when you can on race day, it speaks volumes to those who give up their time to aid the running of these events. The crew and the wife are equally very important!
MBOP have a game changer planned for the last round of the series. 12th November, Kaharoa/Penny Road is a tarmac round. This may not be to the fancy of all but, let me be bold here, are you up to it? Rally gravel by nature, do you tarmac as well? Bit of set up changeover sure, versatility is the name of the game here and an evolving series with a sprinkle of new to the existing recipe, adds to a new flavour.
Supporting the member clubs with what they have to offer keeps the series alive. Where’s the fun if you know what’s what.
Regionally, it also diversifies the field, introducing new competing teams to the mix. Maybe just the push you need to make sure you’re properly dialed in. We want to see the final round well supported, so make sure there’s a set of tarmacs on the shelf leading into November.
Prizegiving plans are underway and soon to be announced. It will be in the Auckland region, late November, shortly after the final round, date TBC. A chance to congregate in a social setting, out of overalls, to enjoy an evening with our rally mates. We’ll get through the last few rounds and allow time to line up the glassware and prepare for our wrap up celebrations, we do hope we’ll see you there.
Post photo credits: Geoff Ridder, Matt Smith & other unknown photographers.
