An extremely competitive field will line up for the Eastern Southland Car Club’s Rosebank Lodge Catlins Rallysprint this Saturday. The event is being held in place of the Catlins Coast Rally which is taking a break this year after a successful twentieth edition of the rally last year.
Two cars that are being shared by two different drivers head the running order with Open 2-wheel-drive class National Champion Ari Pettigrew of Rangiora first away in David Kirk’s Ford Fiesta Pronto 4-wheel-drive car in which Kirk of Gore will also contest the event. The second car will be Raimon Wilkinson of Invercargill in his Toyota Trueno, which will also be driven by his son Ryan.
Next up is four-time Catlins Coast Rally winner Andrew Graves of Gore in his Mitsubishi EVO 3 followed by Balclutha driver Dean Bond in his EVO 6, himself a three-time Catlins rally winner.
Dunedin domiciled Aussie, John Spencer, is next in an EVO 7 followed by Mark McMillan of Invercargill (Subaru Legacy). McMillan finished second in last year’s Rankleburn Rally after a lengthy absence from the sport. Jeremy McIlwrick of Winton in an EVO 4, and Neville Krammer of Wallacetown in a Subaru Legacy H6 are next ahead of Barry Mills of Balclutha in his Hillman Avenger.
Richie Chadwick of Dunedin in a Corolla GT is next up.
Pettigrew, Graves, Bond, Spencer, McMillan, McIlwrick and Krammer all contest Class D for 4-wheel-drive vehicles while Mills and Brendon Mitchell of Winton (Datsun 1600) plus Craig Barclay of Balclutha (Ford Escort MK2) are the major players in Class C. Mitchell was the Class C winner at the club’s recent Mt Misery Hillclimb.
The Class B honours will be hard fought with the Wilkinson’s, Chadwick, Jake Thomas of Mosgiel (Toyota Levin), Gore’s Craig Cormack (Toyota Corolla), Sean Sands of Springston (Ford Escort MK2), and Ian Warren of Dunedin (Nissan Pulsar VZR) among the potential frontrunners. Hamish Roche of Dunedin has Class A all to himself at the moment in his Suzuki Swift GTi.
The youngest competitor in the event will be 15-year-old Isabella Magee of Dunedin in her Honda CRX. Isabella does not yet have a drivers’ licence but has been doing sprints with her father Gary sitting alongside her and getting faster with every event.
The event will utilise some of the great roads previously used for the Catlins Coast Rally, forming a loop of around 8.5 km. Competitors will fight it out over three runs in each direction, with the fastest time in each direction added together to determine the result. The pit area for the event will be on Puerua Church Road, off Romahapa Road.
The Rosebank Lodge Catlins Rallysprint is supported by the Clutha Licensing Trust and the Clutha District Council while the club appreciates the support of landowners in the area.
The action commences at 11.00am and the best spectator viewing is off Waitepeka School Road and adjacent to the Green Park Camp.
Prizegiving will take place at the Rosebank Lodge in Balclutha after the event.
The South Otago Car Club will run their Catlins Inn Rallysprint the following day, Sunday 15th August, to give the rally community a weekend of deep south fun.
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