Marcus van Klink heads to his home rally keen to avenge last year’s result at the Lone Star Rally Canterbury, round three of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship, this weekend.
Both van Klink and co-driver Dave Neill have made a dream start to the NZRC, opening up a solid lead in the Historic challenge after two rounds and are looking for another top score at Canterbury.
Last year, the event did not go well for the plumber when a patch of ice on a downhill corner on one of the night stages in the forest caught him out and saw him stuck off the road, only to be collected by another vehicle. Despite returning the following day and setting some impressive stage times, it was van Klink’s worst result of the season.
Whereas last year saw a lot of public road stages, this year Rally Canterbury uses ten all forestry stages between Ashley and Okuku forests, with the opening two stages held under the cover of darkness on Saturday night and the remainder on Sunday.
Since the previous round at Otago, the Chesters Plumbing Supplies Mazda RX-7 Group B Replica has received a birthday, having completed the prestigious classic rally missing several teeth from the differential.
“When we pulled it apart, we were really lucky to make the finish at Otago, so hopefully we can have more good luck at Canterbury,” says van Klink. “For our home rally, it hasn’t really been overly kind to us as an NZRC round, so it’s time to turn that around.”
The Lone Star Canterbury Rally gets underway with a ceremonial start at Lone Star Manchester St in Christchurch from 5pm on Saturday with two night stages to be completed before overnight parc ferme in Rangiora. Sunday sees a further eight special stages before returning to Lonestar for the finish at 4.45pm.
SUBSCRIBE BELOW TO READ THE FULL STORY
