Derek Ayson and Deane Buist battled tooth-and-nail for Otago Classic Rally honours over the course of the weekend, with Buist finally emerging victorious after some see-saw action on Sunday morning.
A three-time winner of the classic event, Ayson dominated Saturday’s action, winning six of the seven stages in his Nissan-powered Ford Escort MkII. However Buist, driving a Volkswagen Golf GTI, made Ayson work hard all day, winning the day’s longest stage, and ending the opening leg just 21.8 secs behind his rival.
Living up to predictions that Sunday’s opening forestry stages would suit his car better than Saturday’s more open public road tests, Buist snatched the lead at the start of leg two. A solid win on the demanding 39km opening stage propelled him into the classic rally lead by just 0.1 sec, and a further victory on the next stage down Waipori Gorge saw him extend the lead to 6.5 secs.
However, the Canterbury driver then clipped a bank and damaged his steering on the very next stage, allowing Ayson back ahead. Two stages later it was Ayson’s turn to strike trouble; the South Otago driver punctured, losing over four and half minutes, and with it any chance of a fourth classic rally win.
Buist duly romped to classic victory and outright seventh overall (and first two-wheel-drive finisher), adding to an Otago victory tally that also included a classic win in 2007, and outright victory way back in 1992.
Ayson, meantime, had to settle for third place in the classics behind fellow Escort driver Jeff Judd (Christchurch) whose only major problem over the weekend was the loss of power steering on Saturday’s opening stages.
Fellow Cantabrian John Silcock (Mazda RX-7) and Cambridge driver Anthony Jones (Escort) completed the classic rally top-five, ahead of Balclutha’s Craig Barclay (Escort), who was the first Otago-based classic driver home.
Amongst the fancied seeds who didn’t make it to the end, Graham Ferguson (Greymouth, Ford Escort) was sidelined by gearbox problems on the Sunday after running strongly inside the top-five.
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