Northern Rally Sprint Series Home of the best rally sprint series in the country
Hi everyone,
It’s been a while since a decent update so whilst we have an unfortunate break between our last round, the Pirongia West road event, and our final round on the 9th September I thought I’d put up a post to let you know things are not standing still regarding the series.
But before we go any further I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved with the series. The Car Clubs and their members, the competitors who have really come out in great numbers to support the series, Our sponsors & supporters, and of course a bunch of people who let all this happen…..the residents who allow us to use their roads, Probably none of them will ever see this post but never the less your tolerance is greatly appreciated.
Round 5 of the series has just gone by, and what a superb event, set as usual in stunning country side with a road “as smooth as a baby’s bum “, 60 crews took to the start line, and what a line-up of cars. Where else would you have such a number of entries with such a variety of cars covering 70 decades of motoring, from Phil Campbell’s Fiesta AP4 car to Jo Worth’s Volvo Amazon and Chris Alexanders MK1 Cortina.
It was an event full of incidents, which lead to a nail biting last run, Congratulations to Matt Jensen on taking the victory, congratulations also to Phil Campbell for building such a car and going extremely well on his debut event, fastest on the first three runs but, a bit of a splutter on the fourth. Jensen, however was super-fast on his fourth, but you can read all about it in the next report in A Little Bit Sideways. As mentioned above there was of course plenty of other little incidents and accidents!!! Which you can read about in the same report.
The results of this event have really made the upcoming last round very interesting, there are quite a few very close scenarios that could play out, especially when you take into consideration the “Drop round”. So although round 6 is some time away, it’s going to be a cracker….and the other consideration is the fact that a few competitors now have time to fix up their cars, were as if we were running next month then their season could well be over!
Prior to this next round we will be having a convenors meeting, were I know we have a lot to talk about, mainly the disruptions of the early rounds, timing issues and correct protocol of our rules & regulations. Next seasons dates will also be another big topic, as it always is but, the recipe we had for this year’s calendar was pretty good apart from this big gap between rounds 5 & 6. So, hopefully we do the same in 2019, and can rectify this break in our calendar.
Another topic on the discussion list will be our 2018 prize giving, with our last round being in early September it’s fair to say that sometime in mid to late October would be the date.
Work behind the scenes is also ongoing regarding “North v’s South” Rallysprint, that’s a one off rallysprint at a neutral venue between the competitors of the” ABC Pipefitters Northern Rallysprint series”, and the competitors of the “Engine Room Automotive Sprint series”. This event could well be a fantastic finale to both series, the interest it could potentially stir up for our sport would be invaluable, so fingers crossed we can pull it off…..more to come on this topic soon.
Last, but certainly not least is this new look website, which if your reading this your obviously on to it. We are in the early stages of development, the information posted on here at the moment is virtually the same as the old site but hopefully it’s easier and more attractive to look at than the old site. There’s a lot more to come, so please keep calling back, any updates on the site will be also posted on the ABC Rallysprint facebook page. I would also like to thank Jason Byrne for all his hard work on building and updating this site, his help, patience, knowledge and enthusiasm is unbelievable, it’s the same passion that he puts into his magazine, hopefully it rubs off on you and you all subscribe to his mag. See else were on this site to find out more details.
Well, there we have it. A superb series so far, plenty of ups & downs, plenty of controversy, plenty of incidents but still plenty to look forward to, read all about it in A Little Bit Sideways. Keep checking back.
Cheers for now.
Steve Russell.
