Patrick Malley is looking to continue his impressive speed from the recent Rally Nelson which saw him take third outright when he contests the Rally of the North on October 10.
After running the NZ Truth Ford Fiesta all season, Malley jumped into the Citizen Watches-backed Mitsubishi Evo 9 for the final round of the New Zealand Rally Championship and immediately was on the pace, winning the opening stage and continuing on to finish third.
Malley will be aiming for outright victory, but to do so, he and co-driver Malcolm Read will have to overcome some serious competition including various stars past and present of the New Zealand Rally Championship. Amongst those is Glenn Smith, who was battling hard with Malley in Nelson until Smith rolled out. Another driver Malley is looking forward to battling with is Stephen Barker, a fellow young driver aiming for the top.
“It will be great to battle with the likes of Smith and Barker. Also with the likes of Dean Sumner and Dylan Turner (former National championship competitors) competing it will be just like old times. If I can measure my speed against these other drivers then we will have an even better gauge of our speed after Nelson,†says the 25 year old.
This will be the second time that Malley has contested the event that is considered to have some of the best roads in New Zealand. Last time in his first drive of the NZ Truth Fiesta, Malley finished 13th overall despite being down on power.
Although a victory would be a fantastic result, Malley says that the main focus is putting more miles under the belt and working on the setup for 2010.
Joining M Rally team’s group of loyal supporters for the event will be Tanoa Paihia hotels, one of the leading accommodation providers in the Bay of Islands.
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