Another class win at the VINZ Goldrush Rally Coromandel allowed Kaiapoi’s Marcus van Klink to claim a second championship win in the classic class of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship driven by VINZ.
Driving the Chesters Plumbing Group B Mazda RX-7, van Klink headed to the penultimate round of the NZRC requiring just a finish to secure the title, but was unsure on what to expect from the new event.
The day offered up a few problems for van Klink and co-driver Dave Neill, first suffering from a puncture before a fuel pump problem left the pair crossing their fingers to make it to the finish line, but in the end they were able to cross the line and take the title with a round to spare.
The championship rounded out a successful NZRC campaign to date for the pair with a faultless run to victory at the opening round in Whangarei after winning every stage. A similar result was on the cards at round two, Rally Otago, until van Klink slipped off the road and lost some ten minutes. Despite the problem, he went on to win the event again.
On home soil at Rally Canterbury, van Klink would suffer the only major problem of the season. The opening two stages run at night offered up icy conditions and the Mazda slipped off the road and into a tree. Although able to re-join the event the following day, he was only able to score points on the power stage, which he won.
Rally Wairarapa saw van Klink keen to regain the Malcolm Stewart Classic trophy as well as take maximum NZRC points and despite a misfire throughout the second half of the event, would take another maximum points haul and regain the Malcolm Stewart Classic trophy.
On top of the results in the RX-7, van Klink also debuted a new car, the Citroen C2 Super 1600, at the Taranaki Tarmac rally. The event went well, securing second in class despite torrential rain.
“All in all it has been a pretty good season, we’ve had a few issues along the way but the boys have done a great job to keep us going so a big thanks to them,” said van Klink. “We’ve got a couple of events left this year and we are going to try a few new things with the RX-7 as it sounds like we will have some fairly stiff competition for the classic class next year.”
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