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Sweet and sour for Rising Stars at Nelson

Barket set the pace in Group N
Rally New Zealand’s two Rising Stars – Whangarei’s Ben Jagger and Kerikeri’s Stephen Barker – came away from Rally Nelson with completely contrasting results.

While this year’s Rising Stars Development Award winner Ben Jagger had a weekend he would rather forget, the 2010 Scholarship recipient, Stephen Barker, achieved everything he set out to do in Nelson, the fourth round of the Vantage New Zealand Rally Championship.

Barker, aged 21, set the pace in the Group N (production) two-wheel-drive category as he piloted the Rising Stars-backed Ford Fiesta to a very credible 13th place overall, and extended his lead in the NZRC 2WD class.

In contrast, mechanical issues and regrettable errors meant Jagger had to retire on both days of the two-day forestry road event, and now the 20-year-old and his team are faced with a lot of work to get their Subaru ready for the season’s final round, Rally Wairarapa, in just three weeks time.

Barker started day one very strongly against main rival, last year’s Rising Stars Scholarship winner Ben Hunt, who was on home turf in Nelson. Barker set the pace in the 2WD category to win five of the six special stages to end the day with a winning margin of 33.7 seconds over Hunt.

Ganassi drivers on the pace in Sonoma

Second place for Dixon keeps him in the hunt

Target Chip Ganassi Racing (TCGR) had another strong finish at the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma last weekend, claiming their fourth double-podium finish of the 2010 season. Scott Dixon finished second and Dario Franchitti finished in the third position after the 75-lap event.

Dixon lined-up sixth on the grid and passed his way into the top-three by just lap 24. He ran in the top three throughout the remainder of the race, challenging eventual winner Will Power for the lead in the closing laps.

Franchitti started in the third position and ran in the top three throughout the race. He quickly made his way up to second on lap 18, and on lap 61 let his Target teammate take up with fight with Power. He would ultimately finish third, joining Dixon on the podium.

With the podium finishes, Franchitti remains second in the championship with 455 points - just 59 points behind leader Power. Dixon remains third in the championship with 419 points -- 95 points out of the top spot.

"The unfortunate part is that we really only get one set of stickers for the race with the red tyres," said Dixon. "They were night and day quicker so we had to take used at the end. It's a big day for Team Target. Second and third is a great result. We really needed to be ahead of the 12 car, and I pushed it as hard as I could at the end. I just couldn't even get close enough to have a look. He was definitely hooked up and saving his tires earlier in the day. It's still a good result. We're happy to come from sixth all the way to second."

Stanaway extends lead despite DNF

Stanaway - another podium visit...

Kiwi Richie Stanaway (18) driving for the Ma-Con Motorsport Team in the German Formula ADAC Masters championship, experienced his first DNF in the seven round (21 races) championship at the Lausiz Eurospeedway on the weekend when his car suffered an electrical failure while he was dicing for the lead in the third of the three races.

However, as he had won the previous two races, the DNF has not threatened his substantial overall championship lead, which has two rounds (six races) to go. Stanaway had been significantly fastest in all three practice sessions, but qualifying was held in pouring rain which brought out numerous yellow and red flags and Stanaway was able to get in just one clear lap which put him in second place on the grid.

By the time of the first race, the track was beginning to dry, and as it did so, Stanaway quickly moved into the lead after dropping back to third after the start, passing his team-mate, William Vermont, after a good dice and took the win by over six seconds, extending his championship points lead by 8 points.

Stanaway started from pole position for the second race, opening a good lead until a crash brought out the safety car for five laps. Once the race was re-started, Stanaway pulled away and won by a comfortable 10 seconds to take his ninth win out of 14 races, his team-mate Vermont finishing second on the track after a race-long battle with Patrick Schranner. However, Vermont later received a penalty for setting a personal best sector time under the yellow flag which dropped him back to ninth, putting Schranner up to second.

Taylor takes Rally Gisborne victory

Stewart Taylor and Warwick Searle won a close Rally Gisborne
Havelock North’s Stewart Taylor and his Gisborne-based co-driver Warwick Searle took victory in this weekend’s Rally Gisborne, holding off a strong challenge from Wellington driver Adam Bligh.

Despite recent downpours, Rally Gisborne competitors experienced overcast but dry conditions on the one-day rally which ran on Saturday 7 August.

Taylor, driving a state-of-the-art Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X, was generally considered the favourite to take victory in the lead-up to the event. However the 35-year-old didn’t set the pace in the early stages – that honour was taken by 27-year-old Bligh who made a storming start in his older Mitsubishi Evo VI. Bligh won the first two stages, but slowed with a faulty fuel pump in the third special stage, allowing Taylor to take a 13.5 second lead after the opening trio of stages.

With the 52-strong field repeating the three stages during the afternoon, Taylor no longer had the disadvantage of sweeping loose gravel from the roads. Bligh scored another stage win but overall was unable to match Taylor’s pace and dropped back a further 3.4 seconds over the afternoon. Taylor’s final margin over Bligh was 16.9 seconds.

“We had to work really hard to win today,” said Taylor. “The first stage was very narrow and unforgiving plus I was a bit rusty. Stage two was a little bit better but stage three was when I really got my mojo back. The tyre wear was far worse than what I thought it would be and going into the last stage we had some badly-worn tyres on, so Warwick and I were quite relieved to take the win.”