"The NZRC in 2021 is now our main goal, keeping in mind everything else that is happening in the world."Marston says he isn’t concerned about his fifth placing last time out at Catlins Coast Rally. He says his lack of experience on the roads and the "blind" rally format required a measured approach. "I had only done Catlins once before and that was about 15 years ago in a Starlet. "Taking everything into account and going into event with a low risk strategy, I was very happy with our pace. "We treated the rally as a Mainland series point scoring opportunity. I didn’t want to go out and risk binning it on those fast roads."
Josh Marston (left) and co-driver Andrew Graves will miss November's Rally of Auckland. Photo: Geoff Ridder
Like all other Kiwi drivers, Marston’s last opportunity to recce rally stages and compete on notes was the NZRC finale at Waitomo, 11 months ago."That seems such a long time ago. I’m really looking forward to getting back on notes again and I think we’ll have to be aware that we might have some rusty moments during recce," Marston said. The South Canterbury event on September 26 starts from Timaru at 9.30am and has eight special stages split by two visits to the Fairlie service park. The route contains 130km of competitive driving and 173km of touring, with the finish back in Timaru at 4.35pm. Marston and co-driver Andrew Graves are seeded number two behind the Mitsubishi Mirage AP4 of Matt and Nicole Summerfield. There will be added competition for the Canterbury pair from Auckland’s Jack Hawkeswood (Mazda2 AP4) who makes the trip South looking to continue a winning run in northern region rallysprint events during 2020.
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