Christchurch’s Marcus van Klink has recorded his fourth win on the trot after another strong performance at the Stadium Finance South Canterbury Rally, the fourth round of the New Zealand Rally Championship.
Seeded 13th for the event, van Klink and cars around him were forced to start the opening stage through the Waimate forest prior to sunrise while some of his rivals further back had the benefit of sunlight. Despite this, he came through the stage third fastest of the two-wheel drive cars.
By the time the second stage begun, the sun was up and van Klink showed his hand with a stage win and by the time he and co-driver Dave Neill got to the service park after stage four, they held a two-wheel drive lead of almost 30 seconds.
Stage six was the power stage, offering bonus points. Not only did van Klink set a time almost 18 seconds faster than any of the two-wheel drive cars to earn five bonus points, but a time that also moved him into the top ten overall.
The final loop of four stages saw the Universal Plumbing Triple Rotor Mazda RX-8 shoot further up the leader board, the highlight stage time being stage nine with a sixth fastest overall stage time.
By the time van Klink had put on a show for the crowd at Levels raceway that made up the final stage, he had a two-wheel drive lead of more than two minutes as well as seventh overall. As an added bonus, van Klink had the top speed of the whole field on seven of the twelve stages.
“That was an awesome event, I don’t go well in the dark but once we got that out of the way everything went to plan,” said van Klink. “The car is just exceptional, the team’s doing a great job and the results are showing it.”
The Klink Rallysport team now head into the winter break not only leading the two-wheel drive championship, but also sitting fourth in the overall standings, before the Dayle ITM Goldrush Rally Coromandel on August 16.
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