20 May – Rakaia Zig Zag Rd Gravel Sprint

Our second gravel sprint for 2018 used one of our favourite twisty roads, the Rakaia Zig Zag Rd. It was a windy, dusty day difficult for the volunteers and camera man Kevin Corin!

Congratulations to Mike Tall for taking out the honours 1st overall in his Mirage, leaving Josh Marston (Barina) in second place and David Quantock (Evo 8) third. Deane Buist driving Andy Martin’s RX3 showed changes to the Mazda’s setup were spot on by taking out 1st 2WD and Class 3 1601+cc with Phil Walker in another rotisserie (RX7) in 2nd and Jeff Judd (Escort) in third.

Nick Marston (Sprinter) showed his continued development of pace winning what seems to be a Toyota only class, Class 2 1301-1600cc with Ryan Berry (Levin) 2nd and Kevin Knowles (Corolla) 3rd. The battle in Class 1 0-1300cc was anything but certain with a three-way battle of the Starlet’s between Chris Herdman, Graham Wilson and Peter Murch. Before the last run Chris looked set to keep his wiser competition at bay but Graham sneaked in by 0.2 seconds to take the class win!

This is one of our favourite twisty and steep gravel sprints with a fast finish all in 2.5km of great Canterbury gravel. Situated by the Rakaia gorge this road is always fun and has some cool banked corners.