Defending champions James Ford and his co driver Neil Shanks held on to win the 2024 Silver Fern Rally, making it back to back wins. Their winning margin after 7 days, and almost 1000 kilometers of special stages was 4 minutes 21 Seconds.
Robbie and Amy Stokes finished in second place, 4 minutes 11 seconds ahead of Robert Gough and Jeremy Rogers in third. The top three positions were held by Ford Escorts.
James on his win, “It’s been a long week, we’ve had a few incidences but apart from that we’ve managed it. We have managed an engine problem since day 2. The last stage was very rough and a bit of a baptism of fire for the last stage of the rally.
“We did the same stage 2 years ago in the other direction so we knew what it was like. We had a big lead so went pretty steady”.
The 2WD Challenge was won by Chris Ramsey and Amy Hudson in the Toyota Corolla. Behind them by 9 minutes 33 seconds were Dave Strong and Rob Scott in the V6 Honda Jazz. Richard Galley and Claire Buccini in the BMW E30 just held onto third place another 5 minutes 42 seconds back.
Ben Huband and Corinne Cutler won the 4WD class from Tom Milliken and Chris Cunningham, having had a mostly trouble free rally.
The Porsche and the Lancia were repaired overnight after their heavy crashes yesterday. It was all hands on deck to repair the cars for the final day.
Tuthill Porsche Team Manager: The first job was to assess it and see what needs pulling out, then make it straight. Because it caught fire we had to redo the wiring loom too. Luckly we had the car back (at service) by mid-day so worked until about 10pm”.
The final day had the longest stage of the entire rally at a staggering 54 kilometers. This was one of three stages which took them through some of the most picturesque landscape in the country. Following the three stages and after lunchtime service the cars toured to Wanaka for the Ceremonial finish at Paddons Paddock.
Overall Results- Day 7, 2WD Historic Trophy (Top 10)
(Pos, Driver 1/Driver 2, Car, Class)
1/ James Ford Neil Shanks Ford/Escort RS C
2/ Robbie Stokes/Amy Stokes Ford/Escort C
3/ Robert Gough/Jeremy Rogers Ford/Escort C
4/ Roger Chilman/Patrick Walsh Ford/Escort C
5/ Kris Rosenberger/Nicola Bleicher, Porsche 911 D
6/ Shane Murland/Kane Seymour Ford Escort C
7/ Charlie Evans/Dayna Kiekebosch, Mazda RX7 D
8/ Bonamy Grimes/Matt Edwards Ford Escort C
9/ Allan Dippie/Paul Coghill Porsche 911 D
10/ Jeff Judd/Stephane Prevot Ford Escort C
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