Malley ready for Possum Bourne Rally

The M Rally team are looking to continue the pace they have shown as the fastest Fiesta when Patrick Malley and co-driver Malcolm Read contest the Possum Bourne Memorial Rally this weekend.

For Malley, the goal for the Hamilton-based event is to be the first Fiesta over the finish ramp. “Obviously there is a desire to get the best result possible overall, but the focus is stage wins against my fellow Fiesta drivers and beating them overall,” Says Malley.

Each of the event's eight stages holds equal importance to Malley and his Fiesta rivals, Ben Jagger and Ben Hunt. Each are contesting the Rally New Zealand Rising Stars Development Scholarship which will award the winner $50,000 towards running a four-wheel drive car in the 2010 New Zealand Rally Championship.

With the event being a memorial for New Zealand’s most successful rally driver, Possum Bourne, it makes the event more special to Malley than most events.

“Possum has, for me, and many other young drivers in New Zealand, been an idol and the measure of where a Kiwi driver can get to – driving full time and competing in a WRC car. It was a tragedy when he was lost to the sport, but it is great that this event carries his name and spirit for future drivers to look up to.” Malley commented.

The route includes roads normally seen in New Zealand’s round of the World Rally Championship, however being seeded 19th means that it is less likely Malley will encounter the huge ruts and rocks dug up by the World Rally Cars.

“The road position is actually quite beneficial. If the weather holds then the Fiestas will be in a position to surprise some of the fancied four-wheel drive drives on some stages. When it comes to handling and corner speed you have to be trying to beat a Fiesta, we just lose out in raw power.”

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