Rallying in New Zealand is in a healthy state and a recent New Zealand Rally Championship survey of over 80 drivers, co-drivers and team officials confirmed that organisers are getting a lot of things right.
Here’s some of the their findings:
– Favourite rally of the season went to Rally Otago with 46% of the vote
– the second choice, International Rally of Whangarei, got 15% of the vote
– 32% nominated the Mazda RX8 of Marcus van Klink as the best sounding car in the field
– Best looking car of 2018 went to Dylan Turner’s Audi AP4
– Paddon’s Hyundai New Zealand i20 AP4+ was voted the most competitive car in the championship with 40% saying the car is a standout as well as the driver (no surprise there)
– Nearly 80% of respondents stated they were happy with six being the right number of events for the championship
– Most were happy with the North/South Island split on events. While not currently on the NZRC calendar, Rally Wairarapa received reasonable support to be added to the season.
– Nelson’s Ben Hunt (pictured) was voted best driver in the championship outside of WRC star Hayden Paddon.
– Junior WRC driver and 2016 national champion David Holder and last year’s championship runner-up Matt Summerfield were the second most popular choices
– Gull Rally Challenge championship leader Grant Blackberry and the recently retired/inactive Darren Galbraith were voted the most under-rated drivers in the sport.
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