Rotorua’s Sloan Cox is confident heading into this weekend’s Rally New Zealand after a strong test since the previous round in Dunedin.
Cox, along with co-driving sister Tarryn, made a strong start to the New Zealand Rally Championship at Rally Otago, ending the opening day sixth in the highly competitive field, behind four national champions.
Unfortunately a small mistake on day two was heavily punished and broken suspension forced retirement. With the revised points system, the Cox pair slipped to 12th in the points.
Since the southern-most round of the championship, the Cox Motorsport team have conducted testing and changed the set-up of the Taslo Engineering Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X to suit the tighter roads in the Franklin and Waikato areas, including the infamous Whangaa Coast stage.
“Testing went really well for us, the car is feeling a lot better which gives me confidence for Rally New Zealand, now bring on the event,” said Cox.
The 19-year olds confidence has been reflected by the organisers, who have seeded Cox seventh for the event, the highest seed for the current junior rally champion in a national championship rally.
Rally New Zealand gets underway with a ceremonial start outside Westfield Manukau on Friday evening. The special stages get underway the following day with the rally based out of Hampton Downs motor racing circuit including two super special stages making a total of eight stages for the day. The following day, crews will tackle a further five special stages around the Raglan area before returning to Hampton Downs for a final pass of the super special stage and the ceremonial finish.
Press Release by BB Media
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