Photo Credit – KB Action Images
The 2024 edition of Canterbury Rally took place on Sunday 2nd June on King’s Birthday weekend
The rally was run in the Ashley and Okuku Forests plus the final stage at Ruapuna circuit of approximately 140 kms of special stages and 137kms of touring.
Results
Winner
Congratulations to Michael Tall and Matt Richards for taking the Mitsubishi Mirage to the a popular win overall rally win, and Maiden rally win for them!
Sean Haggarty claimed 2nd place overall with Bella Haggarty – Rally Co-driver despite enjoying the last stage so much that he decided he had time for an extra lap of Euromarque Motorsport Park . Luckily he did have enough of a buffer to hang on to second overall by 17 seconds.
Ari Pettigrew with Jack Norris rounds out the overall podium with 3rd but 1st 2WD home in the giant killing BMW
Class A
Bucking the Trend of a rally of attrition where over a 3rd of the field failed to finish, the entire Class A field made it to the finish! Chris Herdman is back to his winning ways and topped the podium pushing last years winner Mike Matheson back to second place only 32 seconds ahead after over 2 hours of rallying of Josh Silcock in 3rd
Class B
Richie Chadwick had his wolf in sheep’s clothing Toyota Corolla flying at this years forest rally and was up to 4th overall after SS4. After stalling in SS7 after a ford and losing time trying to get restarted however managed to hold on to 1st in class and a impressive 7th overall! Lukas Ramsay was only 43 seconds back in the Ford focus. Stokes MotorSport’s Jack Stokes took the final spot on the podium follow another solid finish in a series of rally’s this year despite a puncture that slowed them down
Class C
Ari Pettigrew had a great run through the forest to not only come 1st in Class C 2WD but 3rd overall in his first run back in the BMW in a while for a comfortable lead of 3 minutes over the Front wheel drive Rally4 Fiesta of Bryn Jones for 2nd in class and a 5th overall. Groove (Robert McCallum) rounds out the podium for 3rd in class and 8th overall keeping them all in the top 10
Class D
The open 4WD class was a battle of attrition with 5 of the 9 entering retiring before the end of SS2 and Robbie retiring later in the day on SS6 leaving only 3 to finish the rally
Michael Tall took a popular win overall and in class after a stunning drive with Sean Haggis Haggarty matching Michaels times pretty much for the second half of the day before taking a extra victory lap of the track but still holding on to 2nd place in class and overall. John Ward proving that you never give up in rallying and outlasted the rest of the field and gained a 3rd place in class
Class E
Another Battle of attrition with Nigel Ede only having to finish after his competition was out before the first service but managed to bring the Camel/Clarion liveried Subaru Legacy home first in class
Class F & G
Class F yet again proves to finish first, first you must finish with no finishers in the class for the day
Class G had better finishing rate with Klink Rally Sport RX7 stepping up for duty’s for the twisty forest stages, however did manage to overcome tagging a bank in the second loop to come 4th overall and first in class edging out Ally Mackay Mk1 Escort by just 32 seconds. David Owen rounded out the Podium in his Mk2 Escort
Class H
Amy Keighley continues her impressive form this year with a first in Class and just outside the top 10 with an 11th overall. Tom Milliken came 2nd in class beating out Amy’s Brother Josh Keighley who joined older sister on the podium in 3rd
With the 2024 edition of the Silver Fern Rally utilizing the public roads later in the year we have an all forest stage edition for Lonestar Rally of Canterbury 2024
Starting from Joes Garage in Rangiora SS1 and SS2 form the first loop before heading to the first of 3 services at the single service park making it a easy setup for the service crews this year, the service park will be just below the Okuku Forsest at Protranz Limeworks Quarry Whiterock.
SS1 is the Mt Grey road Uphill to wake everyone up ranked the 16th best Stage in NZ by the NZRC a few years ago and we get to run it in both directions this year.
After service 2 loops through the Okuku forest with SS3 and SS4 then a service and a second run though in the same direction giving drivers a second chance to sort the stage out
After another service the final forest stage loop with a SS7 a repeat of SS2 in reverse and the final stage, SS8, a run on Mt Grey Downhill.
Then as become very popular with rally’s of late a final tarmac Spectator friendly stage with several laps of Ruapuna before heading into town at Lonestar Manchester street for the Finish at approx 5pm