Blog

Congratulations to 2021 series driver and co-driver overall & class winners!

CPS Driver winners

Series Winner, Ben Thomasen 239 Points
Second Overall, Charlie Evans 217 Points
Third Overall, Mike Goldsbury 199 Points

Overall 2WD Driver, Charlie Evans
Overall 4WD Driver, Ben Thomasen

Class E 4WD
First in Class, Ben Thomasen 46 Points
Equal Second in Class, Hamil Pala, Jack Hawkeswood, Marty Rostenberg all on 19 Points

Class H Classic
First in Class, Barry Gibbs 46 Points
Second in Class, Mark Baldwin 22 Points
Third in Class, Craig Tickle 17 Points

Class D 2001cc & over 2WD
First in Class, Dave Strong 44 Points
Second in Class, Ray Chubb 26 Points
Third in Class, Daniel Haines 21 Points

Class C 1601 – 2000cc
First in Class, Charlie Evans 48 Points
Second in Class, Anthony Te Rito 32 points
Third in Class, John Whooley 29 Points

Class B 1301 – 1600cc
First in Class, Mike Goldsbury 48 Points
Second in Class, Dondy Needham 37 Points
Third in Class, Russell Jenkins 35 Points

Class A 0 – 1300cc
First in Class, Justin Glavish 36 Points
Second in Class, Mark Bradley 31 Points
Third in Class, Tony Young 28 Points

Suspension Tech Co Drivers Winners

Overall
First Overall, Shannon Manley 239 Points
Second Overall, Andy Watkins 221 Points
Third Overall, Wendy Needham 217 Points

Class A
First in Class, Michele Brunt 36 Points
Second in Class, Geoff Batt 31 Points
Third in Class, Nikki Sim 19 Points

Class B
First in Class, Wendy Needham 38 Points
Second in Class, Murray Mannion 37 Points
Third in Class, Andy Watkins 36 Points

Class C
First in Class, Blair Howlett 44 Points
Second in Class, David Thomson 29 Points
Third in Class, Stacey Liston 22 Points

Class D
First in Class, Mike Catty 30 Points
Second in Class, Matt Priest 24 Points
Third in Class, A Watkins 12 Points

Class H
First in Class, Nikki Walker 46 Points
Second in Class, Andrew Hotter 28 Points
Third in Class, Zoe Jones 12 Points

Class E
First in Class, Shannon Manley 46 Points
Second in Class, Michael Goudie 34 Points
Third in Class, Nikki Sim 19 Points

Best Event, South Auckland Car Club
Special Sportsman Award, Kingsley Jones
Listo Driver of the Series Award, Justin Glavish

Well, eventually the 2021 CPS Northern Rallysprint series got underway last week with the Bothwell Loop Road Rallysprint, situated just south of Glenn Murry in the Northern Waikato this ex WRC road offered around 7.5 k’s of stunning, smooth and very varied gravel road. Hosted by the Pukekohe Car Club it attracted a very healthy field of 43 starters.

Once the formalities were all sorted and the recee completed the action was underway, and what a stunning outcome on the first run, with two class A cars in the top 16. Mark Bradly was the top 2wd car in his Datsun 1200, Justin Glavish also pushed his 1300 starlet into the top 16. Bradlys effort was again repeated on the second run for the top eight, coming in 8^th quickest of the whole field. Glavish had a slight off on run 2 but regained his composure to regain his pace and once sorted and went on to have a ding dong battle with Bradly for the class A honours, eventually taking the class win from Bradly.

Mike Goldsbury made a rare appearance in the series, and as always dominated the class B in his DX corolla although Don Needham gave the chase a good go in his recently acquired starlet, needless to say Needham’s  going to improve with more mileage under his belt.

Class C is looking like a very, very competitive class and one with quite a few registrations, so any mistakes or missed rounds in this class and its really going to hurt. Anyone who follows this series knows of the caliber of Charlie Evans and Grant Liston, both vastly experienced and pretty quick. But Jordan Grant and Anthony Te Rito are two young guns proving that they also have plenty of pace, then throw in Colin Gibson, Chris Ramsey and a past New Zealand national champion in stumpy Holmes and this is without doubt a very competitive class. Today it was Charlie Evans that prevailed to take the win….but only just.

Class D was taken by Dave Strong in his RWD Honda Jazz, a very interesting project that’s still going through its development, but knowing how competitive Strong is im sure, that combined with his engineering skills he will be the one to chase in this class as the season unfolds.

Glass G was taken by new comer to the series in Chris Lockyear, from Hamilton. Unfortunately with no one to challenge him at the moment he’s going to have to compare himself and his times to the open 4wd class, fingers crossed that we have a few more registrations for this class at round 2.

The 2wd classic class had quite a few registered drivers at this round, let’s hope it continues for the rest of the season. This round saw Anthony Jones dominate in his Escort BDA, but it’s good to see the return of Barry Gibbs and his MK2 to the series. Rodney Atchinson added some true classic nostalgia to this round with his Chevy Corvair powered VW Beetle, add in Craig Tickles BMW 2002, Colin Coles lancer GSR, Brian Bests Rover powered V8 and Mark Baldwins 1600 pushrod MK2 and what a great little class, let’s hope it continues.

Above: Event winner Kingsley & Waverly Jones, Photo: Jason Byrne of ” A little Bit Sideways”.

Now, last but not least, the big boys class, apologies to Emma Gilmour but I’m sure you’ll know what I mean. It Was Kingsley Jones who took the overall win in his Skoda fabia, but not before a huge battle with Ben Thomasen in his WRX, the Subaru driver actually being the quickest on the first four runs before Jones dealt the deadly blow in the top two run off, producing the fastest time of the day with a 05:23.80, beating Thomasen by just under a second. Hayden MacKenzie continued as he finished last season, very fast! He collected 3^rd overall with Emma Gilmour 4^th and Adam Bligh rounding off the top 5.

As usual a great little event run by the Pukekohe Car Club, the unusual circumstances of how the season has unfolded, due mainly to the covid situations must have added a little unwanted and anxious moments in the build up to the event, they need not have worried, the event was a cracker.

Bring on round 2, the South Auckland Car Clubs James Allan memorial Rallysprint on the 28^th March. Check out their website for more details.

Well, at last it finally looks like the 2021 CPS Northern Rallysprint Series will finally get under way this weekend, Sunday 14^th March, with the Pukekohe Car Clubs running of the Bothwell Loop Road Rallysprint.

With the postponement of the first two rounds, through matters out of the control for both the Hibiscus Coast motorsport, and the South Auckland car clubs its fingers crossed for the event to go ahead this weekend. Frustrating for the car clubs, and of course the competitors but this all adds to the excitement and anticipation for this opening round, hopefully crews will take care and not let the excitement cloud their judgement and take time to bed themselves in on this tricky piece of road, last year saw quite a few retirements through driver error, especially early on!

There’s a tricky little downhill right hander leading into a very sharp left hander on the very first downhill section, it’s caught a few out previously so beware! I’m sure it will be embedded in a few brains by now. Having said that this is a stunning piece of road.

It climbs from the start line for just under a k or so, before starting a pretty steep downhill section, through the forest section before opening out along the ridge tops for a very fast section before hitting the 90 right spectator point, followed by a very fast flowing downhill section to the finish, all in about 7.5 k’s of fantastic, smooth gravel which will no doubt test everyone. Very little touring makes the whole event very compact.

At the time of writing 39 are to be on the starting line, with quite a few notable local names missing at this stage it remains to be seen if the Pukekohe Car Club receive a few late entries, its the norm these days. However with names like Emma Gilmour, Dave Strong, Kingsley Jones, Ben Thomasen and Hayden McKenzie the battle up front will be pretty competitive, at this stage the reigning champion Graham Featherstone has not entered, neither have other locals such as Jack Hawkeswood and Dylan Turner……time will tell !

Then we have a host of very quick regulars in 2wd machinery that are more than capable of causing an upset, and who will also provide spectacular action, drivers such as Charlie Evans, Grant Liston, Stumpy Holmes, Mark Bradley and the very popular Rodney Atchinson in what has to be one of the most iconic cars in New Zealand, the Chevy powered VW Beetle. As a rally spectator you will not get a more varied field of competitors and cars, put it together with stunning country side and what better way to spend a Sunday ?

A new registration system is in place, simply turn up and you’re automatically registered, co-drivers will need to register on the day for the Suspension Tech Co-Drivers series. All the details regarding this will be explained at drivers briefing.

Next, and most importantly we wish to welcome on board the new series sponsor and a big thankyou to Chirs Woundenberg, and his Company, CPS. The series will now be known as The CPS Northern Rallysprint Series. Many of you will know of Chris has he’s been around in the rally scene for quite some time, he’s currently running a Millington powered AE86, you never know he may well make an appearance and show you how it’s done.

Another big thumbs up and thankyou to Chris Alexander, and his company Suspension Tech for his continued support with the Co-Drivers championship.

Hi Guys,

Another quick update on the 2021 Northern Rallysprint Series, just to clarify. Firstly and most importantly the series is going ahead as per normal, albeit with some changes. ABC Pipefitters will not be involved with sponsoring the series, due to the company coming into new ownership! ABC were involved for 10 seasons with the series, a great achievement and one that deserves a huge round of applaud and big, big thankyou. We wish the company all the very best in their new ownership and direction. I’m sure many of you will miss seeing their banners scattered along the stages.

As many of you know i was employed by ABC, spending just over 12 years working there, and again a time i was most appreciative of, however things change and 2020 was a year for that, as we all know! The Covid 19 pandemic changing the world, perhaps for ever as we know it! Although this had no bearing on our changes, its was simply a timing and coincidence issue ! So, we are now based in the deep south, Invercargill to be exact, and it does not take a scientist to work out its a long way from the area that this rallysprint series frequents. Originally we thought we could still manage the series from here with the aid of the computer, which to a certain extent we can but it is proving more difficult than first thought and  keeping in touch with people is again something that’s proving rather difficult. A new job, a new environment, House hunting & moving again are all having to take priorities. Hence the reason for information taking a while to get out & publish.

The website is now taking shape and info on the series dates are starting to filter through, as of yet the series calendar is not upto its full agenda, or at least lets hope it isn’t ! But there is enough info there to start planning your motorsport season.

There is some movement on a new sponsor, which hopefully can be cleared up pretty soon so an announcement can be made. Ruarangi road will not be on the 2021 calendar, but it still remains to see if the Northern Car Club are able to run a round, they do have Glenbervie forest right on their doorstep, and it has been used before, not as scary as Ruarangi but still a fantastic venue. fingers crossed the Hamilton Car Club are keen to be involved and there was also a rumor that the MBOP were keen to be involved, or at least some members were. This car club actually had the most number of registered competitors for the 2020 series, that alone tells a story! Again they have been included in the series a few years ago and have several fantastic venues available. Pinnacles loop being one! Anyway, all the above is food for thought and hopefully within the next few weeks things can be finalised.

The other matter that needs sorting out is actually acknowledging last years champions, again with moving rather abruptly, due to ” covid windows” this had to put on the backburner, it is being sorted but at this stage nothing concrete has been finalised.

Registration forms will be updated for the 2021 season, but it may well have to be done via internet & online, unless someone can volunteer to do this at the first three rounds, and also hand out any sponsorship decals that a new sponsor may supply.

So, things are happening, there is still a dedicated bunch of rallysprint enthusiasts up there in the ” Top of the north “, so from  ” The bottom of the south” all the very best for 2021, please keep calling back and also keep an eye on the facebook page as I’ll be notifying of website updates on there as well.

Well, with the series over and some changes on the horizon for the Northern Rallysprint Series it’s about time that we wrapped up the 2020 series, in what was a very strange year due to the covid pandemic.

But, before going any further we must acknowledge all the competitors, marshalls, helpers, sponsors and the car clubs that supported the 2020 series, and in particular Chris “Rambo” Ramsey and the Hamilton Car Club, who put in so much work for their round at Hoddle Road only to have Auckland go into a 2.5 Lockdown, ruling out any travel for those competitors North of the Bombay Hills. It seriously affected the entry list, making it a “Void” round for the series in 2020, and no doubt gave Rambo a few headaches for a week or so! The event did go ahead as a stand-alone rallysprint for anyone that could make the trip.

Next, congratulations to Graham Featherstone and Dave Deveonport on winning the Drivers & Co Drivers championships again, for a record winning streak of 7 straight championships for Feathers. That will take some beating and I’m sure it will be the record to beat for quite some time. Hayden Mackenzie and Michael Goudie came in 2^nd overall with Matt Jensen and Tyson Jemmet taking the 3^rd overall, all of these guys in Mistibushi Evo’s.

Top 2wd finisher was Grant Liston, who finished 6^th overall in his Honda Integra, just nudging ahead of Charlie Evans in his RX7. Liston also taking the class C victory for cars 1601 to 2000cc. Evans taking the over 2000cc class D.

Just behind Liston and Evans on the overall board was the spectacular Jay Pittams with 8^th overall, but more importantly he was the class winner for the Classic (Class G ) 4wd with his Subaru.

Class B, for upto 1600cc was a fantastic battle from round 1 between Michelle Brunt and Gareth Eady, both in Starlets. In the early rounds Scott Ogle was the man to beat, but never participated after round 2. From then on it was a ding dong battle for the next few rounds with Eady taking the maximum points at round 3, Brunt returned serve at the next round. With the Hoddle road event being declared null and void for the series it came down to the final round at Piakonui Road were Eady managed to take the maximum points and therefore the class win and championship. A thorn in the sides of both drivers was john Paul Van Der Mays who was always hard on the heels of the Starlet piolets in his Suzuki swift, keeping them honest and certainly applying plenty of pressure, resulting in 3^rd in class.

Class A, was taken by Mark Bradly in his rapid 1200 Datsun, unfortunately Mark had no competition, although Justin Glavish did take round 1 whilst Mark was absent. Now for anyone who knows anything about rallying in the top half of New Zealand you will know that Glavish is no slouch, he’s very quick and having a Glavish V’s Bradly battle for the class championship would have been a fantastic spectacle. However it was not to be with Glavish concentrating on co driving for his partner Michelle Brunt. Take nothing away from Bradlys achievements as although he was the only registered competitor completing on the rounds from RD2 to RD4 he punched well above his weight, finishing 26^th overall in a 1300cc car is pretty fair effort, and this with missing two rounds.

Don Needham took the classic class in his mk2 Escort, despite selling the car before the series was finished, doing enough on the first four rounds allowing him the luxury of not needing to compete on his home event due to accumulating enough points to make him uncatchable. Brian Best did all he could in his superb MK1 V8 Escort but had to settle for 2^nd with Garry Wainwright taking 3^rd in his RX7.

Hello everyone,

Hope your all keeping well and safe.

I guess there’s no point in waffling on too much regarding the current situation regarding the covid19 virus, strange times to say the least and I appreciate that at this point in time motorsport is not too high on everyone’s agenda.

However, it is something to look forward to once this is all over, but regarding what events are likely to happen I would not have a clue, simply no one knows!

At this stage we have a couple of options,

1. A) Sit and wait it out and try and resurrect some sort of a season once it’s over.
2. B) Call it a day and take the results from our three rounds.

Regarding option A, we still have three rounds to go, the Thames valley CC round at Paikouni Road, the South Auckland CC Maramarua forest event and the Hamilton CC event at Hoddle Road. I think it’s very unlikely that we will get all three in, but the Hoddle Road is possibly the favourite at the moment due to its date in the calendar. I don’t know how far any of the clubs are with planning, road closures, permits in, resident visits etc,etc. so we will just have to sit tight and wait!

On another plus side, we may well have another event to our calendar for 2021 with the addition of an event run by the Motorsport Bay of plenty CC. We have been down there several times in the past and its always proved to be a great event.

Over the past few seasons the number of MBOP crews attending AND registering for the series has steadily grown and I think this season we have 8 crews registered, they are becoming the strongest club in the series regarding numbers, so it’s no surprise to hear interest of running an event.

It’s early days yet, and as mentioned above with all the uncertainty surrounding not only our sport but all others as well it’s going to be hard locking anything in at this stage, but we are still trying and will continue to keep working on getting the series back up and running as soon as we can.

The main thing is, stay safe, adhere to all the rules and hopefully we will be back out skidding sometime in the near future.

Cheers for Now.

Steve Russell.

Well, Well,Well. How things can change! after three fantastic rounds we now find ourselves at the halfway point of the series, OR possibly the end! Of course the last few words are a little over the top at this stage but due to the uncertainty of the Coronavirus who really knows. At this stage motorsport NZ are not issuing any permits until at least Mid May, which has put a stop to the next few rounds of the rallysprint series. I must admit i do feel for the car clubs, especially the South Auckland Car Club who were to be the next round, and by all accounts it was going to be a ” Biggie ” with many rally crews using it for a run out prior to the national championship which was to start pretty soon, but again this championship has also has fallen victim to the uncertainty. So, at this stage were going to concentrate on the good things that’s happened with the series.

It was great to see Dylan Turner return after missing round 2. Matt Jensen and Haydn McKenzie were also out to keep applying the pressure on our champion Graham Featherstone after both beating him at round 2. National rally campaigners Kingsley Jones and Raana Horan alias team Skoda were also present, and although not registered to the series were to provide more pressure to Feathers. Jack Hawkeswood, Dave Strong and Ben Thomasen were other drivers quite capable of walking away with a victory as well, but fear not, Super cool Feathers  “showed em who was boss”. A tyre selection issue costing him dearly at round 2 was not to be repeated, and as always he showed why he’s in the master class at rallysprints. His system is quite simple, yet know one else seem’s to be able to do it with such precision or consistency, he simply gets faster and faster, as does everyone but he has the knack of knowing just how faster to go, it’s unreal!

After three rounds he,s now taken a rather decent lead of 12 points, he still led the series coming into this round but by only 1 point. Admittedly his chasers had problems, but that’s the way it goes!

A full report and photos will be in the 2nd edition of ” A little bit sideways”. Just a quick word here to all you rally fans, we,ve all heard of the pressures that business’s are facing due to the Coronavirus, this rally mag is the same and no different to any other business’s. Jason and Dee put their heart and soul into this and with no events to cover they too are now in an uncertain position. So, if you have any stories, any car build projects, any articles you feel you could contribute then please get in touch with Jason, and help support his mag.

As for the series, well we simply do not know of the outcome for 2020. We still have three rounds to go, obviously the dates are going to change but the big problem is when? as every other series will have be facing the same problems, and its hard enough trying to fit everyone into the calendar as it is. All we can say, is simply watch this space, keep fit and healthy and look after yourselves, your family’s and your mates.

The points table will be up in a couple of days, so please check out and call back. There are a couple of changes to the results that were awarded on the day, due to a miss understanding, everyone involved has been notified and have accepted the outcome.

Cheers for now.

Hello everyone,

and welcome to the first rallysprint update for 2020.

Hopefully you all had a great Christmas, and all the best for the New Year, hope you all managed to spend some time in your shed and your cars are already to go for round 1, Ruarangi Road on the 2^nd Feb.

It only seems 5 minutes ago that we had the 2019 prize giving, as usual it was a great evening and  combining with the Top Half Rally series prizegiving the numbers were good, however there was quite a few regulars missing from the rallysprint competitors due to having the evening so close to the Christmas break, something that we will be avoiding in 2020.

If you check out this year’s rounds you will see that the season is quite compact, with the only question regarding the Hamilton Car Club event. We will let you know ASAP regarding this, hopefully prior to round 1 as we know it could make a difference to people’s plans for the series. As it stands if we have either 6 or 5 rounds it will still be “drop a round” regarding points.

The only other thing at this stage is to notify you that the allocation of points for the classes has been altered, to be more in line with the overalls. Check it out on “Know the rules”. Last year we had it similar, but the points did not go down far enough, and I know that it’s just as competitive at the lower end of the tables as it is at the top. Last year we had 4pts allocated to all finishers from about 6/7^th placing, this did not really reflect on who was beating who, with the new points allocation it now reflects a truer table.

I’d also like to point out that 2020 is actually the 10^th year that ABC Pipefitters have been involved with the series, this a great achievement for a series such as ours. Since they have been onboard the series has undoubtably grown, and so a big thankyou goes out to Kevin & Robyn Flower for their support.

Well, that about brings everything up to date. The Regs & Entry for the opening round are up on the site, as are the series registration forms. You will note there is a signature needed on these forms, PLEASE fill everything in and take note of the rules for the series. Nothing has changed apart from the class allocations as mentioned above, but there have been a few “ Slips, and stretching of these rules” appearing over the last few seasons and we don’t want it to continue, nothing to serious but please adhere to the rules.