Christchurch Casino Rally Team driver Matt Jansen had a trying weekend at round four of the New Zealand Rally Championship, the Rally Wairarapa.
Day one went reasonably well for Jansen and co-driver Jason Farmer when they moved their Christchurch Casino Subaru into a four way battle for sixth place that was covered by just ten seconds after the opening two stages.
An afternoon of top ten stage times left Jansen with an eighth placing for the leg, placing third amongst the championship rookies and second of the under 25 junior drivers.
“We were reasonably happy with the results of day one, although it would have been nice to be second of the rookies,†said Jansen.
Day two started with another consistent run over the opening two stages that left Jansen sitting tenth. Unfortunately only a few corners into the day's fourth stage, Jansen slipped off the road,. The car was not damaged but was stuck off the road, meaning the end of the day of Jansen.
“We weren’t the first ones to go off there. We followed the marks and unfortunately while the others got out, we went a little bit further and it was game over,†said a philosophical Jansen.
Unfortunately the 'off' meant no points for the day, which puts Jansen behind Kieran Hall in the chase for top Rookie, now nine points behind. But Jansen can’t throw all his eggs in one basket and must now concentrate on defending his 30 point lead over Sloan Cox for the top Junior in the final NZRC round in September.
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