Kaiapoi’s Marcus van Klink has come away from the fourth round of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship, Rally Gisborne, having secured his fourth New Zealand Historic Rally Championship, despite his event really ending before it began.
Heading to the event, van Klink had scored all but three possible points in the historic championship and with his closest rival not starting, didn’t even need to cross the start ramp to take out the title.
There was plenty of motivation to fight though, with superb consistency and results also seeing van Klink sitting third in the NZRC overall standings despite the Chesters Plumbing Supplies Mazda RX-7 being more than 30 years old and only two-wheel drive.
Things would not go to plan though for van Klink and co-driver Dave Neill, the pair coming getting stuck on top of a fence only one and a half kilometres into the first stage.
Although the pair were able to extract the car eventually and continue for the remainder of the day, they would exceed their maximum lateness and not counted for results for the remainder of the day.
“I’m pretty sure we must have been the fastest car over the first one and a half k’s of stage one, but unfortunately we just got caught out and where we ended up we got stuck. The rest of the day was pretty good, but it didn’t count for much,” said van Klink. “But it’s pretty cool to take a fourth Historic title and we’ll have a good crack at Coromandel, we’re only nine points away from second in the overall Gold Star championship!”
The Klink Rallysport team now turn their attention to the final round of the NZRC, Mahindra Goldrush Rally Coromandel, on August 20.
Photo: Geoff Ridder
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