After setting the pace in the class last year, van Klink and co-driver Dave Neill aimed to take out maximum points from the opening round in this year’s championship. The pair started out the right way, holding a lead amongst their classic competitors of more than a minute after the opening four stages, the biggest issue for the team being extreme tyre wear on the dry, hard roads.
The afternoon loop of stages saw van Klink continue to dominate in the Mico Plumbing Group B Mazda RX-7 with another four stage wins from four stages, also topping the outright two-wheel drive standings that included not only more modern cars from the New Zealand Rally Championship, but also the Asia Pacific Rally Championship.
Day two saw van Klink again set out in dominant fashion with another four stage wins across the morning’s four stages, continuing to top the two-wheel drive standings and extending his lead in the classics to more than three and a half minutes with only four more stages between himself and a full haul of NZRC points.
All looked to again be going well heading into the final stage, which had bonus points on the line as the power stage for the first time in New Zealand rallying. However half way through the power stage, the Mazda’s clutch failed. Despite the handicap, van Klink was still the fastest classic through the stage and took the three bonus points on offer to go with the points for two leg wins and the rally win to give him a perfect score of 42 points from the weekend.
“Outside of a few tyre issues and the clutch on the final stage, it was pretty much a perfect run,” said a chuffed van Klink. “After ironing out some bugs with the car last year, hopefully we can consistently achieve results like this and achieve our goal of winning the championship.”
The Klink Rallysport team now turn their attention to the next round of the NZRC, Rally Wairarapa, on April 28-29.
Press Release by BB Media
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