It must have been absolutely gut-wrenching for event chairman Peter ‘PJ’ Johnston and – in fact -to anyone directly involved in the (long awaited) return of a round of the World Rally Championship (WRC) to this country, when – thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic – the organising committee was forced to cancel this year’s Rally of New Zealand.
Though I recall some reservations from local gravel die-hards, when – in June last year – Auckland was named as the host city and event base of an all-new 2020 NZ WRC round, the overall mood was celebratory.
It had, after-all, been seven long years since New Zealand had last hosted a round of the WRC – and though I doubt that you would be able to find anyone to go on record and admit the fact, it would appear that even those competitors and fans alike who made the annual pilgrimage to Coff’s Harbour on the central New South Wales coast for the Aussie WRC round there, were getting a bit sick of the dusty, bone-dry conditions and hard scrabble forestry roads of that area’s hot house-like hinterland.
The end-of-season/year timing of the event didn’t endear it to Aussie fans let alone their Kiwi counterparts, either, and when bush fires forced the last-minute cancelation of the 2019 event, well, you could say that it was the (burning piece of) straw which finally broke the camel’s back.
In saying that you only have to look at the (frankly, appalling) way our own WRC rally winner (Hayden Paddon) was treated by his ‘works’ Hyundai team to realise that sentiment plays absolutely no role in any decision to do with the WRC.
When I say that this year’s WRC round here was cancelled, I mean exactly that. Not ‘postponed’ to a ‘later date,’ not ‘held over until next year (or even the year after). Nope. Cancelled. And if we want a shot again at getting a round of some future championship series, then, well, better get those crayons out because you will be starting with what used to be called ‘a clean sheet of paper.’
So, you can imagine how ‘PJ’ felt when it became obvious – towards the end of the first lockdown – that it was going to be impossible to run the event.
Pretty bloody gutted, is my guess.
You see, ‘PJ’ – who is perhaps better known for his role in helping a certain 5 x IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon bridge the gap (though ‘gulf’ is probably a better word) between racing here and racing on the ‘world stage’ – is first and foremost a ‘rally guy.’
And I know this because?
Because I have seen him indulging his interest and passion first-hand.
Initially it was before I even knew who he was.
It would have been in the mid to late 1990s and like literally thousands of other Auckland-based motorsport fans I had got up extraordinarily early – we’re talking 4.30am – to make sure I got to Raglan in time to park up and ‘walk-in’ the 5-6kms to my preferred viewing spot at the northern end of one of the famous stages near the western-Waikato surf town.
By the time I got to my spot it must have been – say – 8.30am, but with the first cars not due past till at least 10.30am I had a good hour-and-a-bit’s downtime to endure.
As the cars got closure of course, more and more people started turning up, most by the simple if rather foolhardy I remember thinking at the time, expedient of ‘walking up the middle of the bloody stage road!’
By now you (or rather me, because I certainly did) could hear the front-running cars from what was probably kms away though I distinctly remember the fright pretty much everyone in my little group got when the event zero car suddenly appeared running a couple of micro-seconds ahead (or so it appeared to me) of its siren.
Message well and truly received, everyone set themselves safely ‘above’ the road and waited…………….and waited.
‘Got to me here soon,’ I remember thinking to myself, as the rising and falling crescendo of the popping and crackling turbo engines was drowned out by the distinctive whump, whump, whump of what turned out to be a Bell Jet Ranger helicopter about to land in ‘our paddock.’
I remembered the Jet Ranger from earlier in the day, having watched it’s unique ‘Dragon fly-like’ form slowly getting bigger and bigger as it followed the leading cars ‘up the coast’ from down – I guess – near Kawhia, to where I was staked out, closer to Raglan.
The minute the pilot had landed – after what felt like skimming over the top of my Subaru blue-and-yellow ‘bobble’ hatted head – a bunch of visibly excited blokes piled out, ducked under the still slowly ‘whump-whumping’ rotors, before spreading themselves along the fence line in what looked like a well-practised drill.
Each – to a man – was dressed in jeans, pukka team rally jacket and hat, and, in the only concession I could see to practicality, a pair of shiny new ‘bought yesterday’ Red Band gumboots.
Each obviously had a favourite driver or marque which they shouted themselves hoarse supporting as the top seeds sped by, though I got the distinct impression that some were simply going through the motions, as I might if – for instance – someone was silly enough to invite me – say – to an Auckland Blues game at Eden Park.
As if to confirm my suspicions a guy who I felt I recognised from somewhere (TV perhaps) and who had stayed back conferring with the pilot strode purposefully towards the fence along which his friends/mates/guests were lined after the key ‘works’ cars had passed our viewing point, leaned in to get their attention over the noise and indicated the way back to the helicopter.
Still gabbling away animatedly to each other the ‘Red Band gang’ formed an orderly line, ducked back under the ‘whump, whump, whumping’ blades as they started to circulate again, and when I looked up again they were gone , the chopper heading due west to Raglan and – I’m guessing here – another chance to get up close and personal with their heroes in the Service Park.
Me? I remained ‘at my predetermined post’ until the last car had straggled through, then started the long walk back (initially in paddocks then when it was reopened, on the road itself), chatting away to my fellow fans as I went.
“Any idea who those blokes in the chopper were?” I remember asking one fellow pedestrian.
“Yeah,’ the guy said. “That’s Peter Johnston. He’s the biggest Jap importer in the North Island and those guys are his best dealers. My mate works for………..(and the conversation spiralled off into another area completely before eventually returning to the subject of ‘PJ’ and the helicopter) and he reckons he invites them every year to follow the rally in a chopper!”
“Man,” I remember thinking at the time,” I’m in the wrong game.”
Fast forward 20 or so years and -really – not much has changed.
The man known the motorsport world all over simply as ‘PJ’ is still intimately involved with rallying, this time though as the head honcho of Rally New Zealand the ‘face’ if you like, of what was New Zealand’s bid to get its premier rally event back on the WRC calendar.
The idea of ‘resurrecting’ something from the ‘train wreck’ that was and still is COVID-19 was initially fairly simple, yet under Johnston’s inspired leadership it has become something way bigger than the sum of its parts.
Initially there was the Rally of Auckland, a simple old-skool kind of gravel rally event put together on Saturday November 14 to make use of the stages to the north and west of the city ear-marked for the il-fated WRC round in Sept, and wrap up with a run on the Jack’s Ridge stage rally stalwart Andrew Hawkeswood purpose-built on his property at Whitford, in the Supercity’s verdant rural south-east of
The next day (Sunday Nov 15) the idea was to run a second, shorter ‘standalone’ Rallysprint event on a 2km section of the road, under the separate tagline, Battle of Jack’s Ridge.
With (next to) no limit on the type of vehicle eligible to enter the ‘Battle, this event has captured the imagination of competitors, fans and sponsors – Repco was quick to take the naming rights – alike and two months out the entry list looks like a ‘who’s who’ of NZ motorsport’s great and good – from Greg Murphy, Shane Van Gisbergen and Hayden Paddon to Ben Hunt, Darren Kelly, Carl Ruiterman and even Quad man Ian Ffitch.
It’s the kind of event which could indeed take on a life of its own. The type too, that would appeal to the likes of a YouTube sensation like Ken Block or Travis Pastrana.
Not this year perhaps. But next?
Watch this space!
Comments