Â
The white Version 9 WRX has been meticulously converted from a road car by Whangarei-based Huband, who gave it it's first rally outing at Rally Whangarei back in June, and brought it home 3rd in Class.
Â
Richard is not new to the car, having driven it at a Northland Car Club rallysprint earlier in the year.
Â
"Murray has done a great job building the car and, with Nelson happening so soon after our Aussie trip, we are very fortunate that he is prepared to let us use it, so we can return to Nelson to defend our title from last year and honour our commitment to BNT and our other Sponsors and Supporters," said Richard.
Â
Richard spent 36 hours earlier this week doing a 'lap' of the North Island - Masterton to Whangarei and return - stopping off at ScottSpeed Performance Engines in Auckland just long enough for expert engineer Dwight Scott to wield some more of his tuning magic.
Â
The revamped In-Car combination sees the brothers-in-law reunited in competition for the first time in 4 years - their last outing being the 2005 Rally of Rotorua APRC/NZRC event, when Sara had University Exams to sit. On that occasion they drove 'BYACAR' to an NZRC round victory and finished second overall to double PWRC Champion Toshi Arai and his Kiwi Co-Driver Tony Sircombe.
Â
Hamish was also alongside Richard when he recorded the first of his sixteen NZRC round wins, back at Hawkes Bay in 2002 in the Group A Evo 5 which is now in the hands of Nigel Adams.
Â
"It will be neat to have Hamish back 'on board' and, although it will be his first time there, we are all looking forward to having another crack at the fast forestry roads that are such a feature of the Nelson Rally."
Â
Â
This year the rally returns to a two day format, so crews will spend Saturday on a couple of public county roads and one forestry stage, before heading into the more traditional full-day forest terrain around Tapawera on the Sunday.
SUBSCRIBE BELOW TO READ THE FULL STORY
