Christchurch’s Marcus van Klink heads to the final round of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship, the Handy Rentals Rally Waitomo, in a winner takes all shootout for top two-wheel drive honours.
The season could not have had a better start for van Klink and co-driver Dave Neill, the pair taking victory in each of the first four rounds and were looking to wrap up the title with a round to spare at round five, Rally Coromandel.
However van Klink was side-lined in the week leading up to the event with a burst appendix and was forced to miss the event.
That means the pair head to the final round on equal points with rival Anthony Jones for the Motorsport NZ 2WD titles.
Form sits with van Klink, who has been the two-wheel drive pace setter all season in the Universal Plumbing Triple Rotor Mazda RX-8, while the Waitomo event was the scene of the cars first class win when it debuted in the championship in 2017.
“I think it’s fair to say that going to Coromandel the plan wasn’t to come to Waitomo in a dead heat, but it’s certainly going to make for an exciting finish to the season,” says van Klink.
“Last time Waitomo ran as part of the championship, it was a really good, enjoyable event and as an added bonus, we won last time as part of a pretty tough season. We’re going to have to be on it right from the start.”
The 2019 Handy Rentals Waitomo Rally starts from Piopio at 7:25am, with six mammoth special stages totalling 198.04km of special stages in the Waikato region, before the rally finishes at Southwell School in Hamilton from 5pm.
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