Marcus van Klink heads to the opening round of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship, Rally Otago, looking for the ideal way to send off a faithful servant.
After winning four New Zealand Historic Rally Championships in five years, van Klink has embarked on a new challenge and will chase the Open Two-Wheel drive class in 2017 in a recently built Mazda RX-8 powered by a 20B triple rotor engine.
Before he introduces the new car however, he will take one last crack at the biggest classic rally in the Southern Hemisphere, the Otago Classic Rally, teaming up with Dave Neill in the Buteline Mazda RX-7 that has taken them to so much success, including an outright win at the classic in 2012.
There will be stiff competition from both local drivers and international for the Dunedin-based event, including former WRC star Markko Martin who returns after taking victory in 2016. Last year van Klink was runner up to Martin, and the forecast damp conditions should ensure the handicap of dust that was an issue last year won’t come back to bite this year.
“It’s going to be great to run the new RX-8 this season, but I had to have another crack at the Otago Classic, it’s just such an iconic event and one I’d love to win again,” says van Klink. “It’ll be great to compete against Markko again, he’s obviously bloody quick and will be hard to beat, but he’s also a great character so we’ll have some fun for sure.”
The Stadium Cars Otago Classic Rally gets underway with a ceremonial start in Dunedin’s Octagon on Friday from 5pm. Teams will then cover 14 special stages covering 280km of special stages across two days, prior to returning to Dunedin and the Historic Railway Station from 4:50pm.
Image: Geoff Ridder
- BB Media
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