Tauranga’s Phil Campbell is looking forward to getting underway at the opening round of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship, powered by Brother, this weekend.
Campbell will head for the Brother International Rally of Whangarei this weekend looking to capitalise on the improvements of last year and make a strong start to his attack on the Group N two-wheel drive championship. With that in mind, Campbell has stuck with the same Letts Buildings Ford Fiesta last year and will also again have Venita Fabbro sitting in the co-driver’s seat.
Rally Whangarei also doubles as the opening round of the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, so the battle for top two-wheel drive will include New Caledonian veteran Jean-Louis Leyraud in an R3T-spec Citroen and former APRC and Production World Rally Champion Karamjit Singh in a Proton Satria.
“I can’t wait to get underway at Whangarei, it’s a great event on awesome, fast roads,” says Campbell. “We learnt a lot last year and got quicker at every round, then did the national hillclimb champs over summer and that felt good, so hopefully we will be on the case right from the opening stage.”
This year’s Rally Whangarei gets underway with a ceremonial start on Friday March 30, with the action getting underway the following day. Eight special stages will make up day one with a total of 160km of special stages south of Whangarei. Day two sees a further 123km of special stages before the ceremonial finish, including the final stage of the rally which will be a power stage for NZRC competitors with bonus points on offer.
Press Release by BB Media