Winton driver Steve Gill lines up in the Barry Robinson Memorial Wyndham Rally in his Ford Escort FJ20 this Saturday amid a season where he is mounting an impressive challenge in the New Zealand Rally Championship (NZRC).
Gill is currently placed eighth overall in the NZRC driver’s championship and fourth overall in the 2wd class. His co-driver Grant Molloy is sixth in the overall points in NZRC and fourth in the class.
While the Wyndham event is not part of the NZRC, Gill still has his reasons for competing at the event.
“It is part of the Mainland Rally Championship and we are looking for good series points there,” says Gill who is sixth overall in that championship while leading his class. Molloy leads the class in co-driving standings and is seventh overall.
“Also, it is a local rally and entering helps car numbers and it is good to support the local boys. We are sponsoring our class too, the Gill Repairs Class G 1700cc & over Classic class, so we are doing our bit.”
“The NZRC is a bucket list thing. We’re not getting any younger so I wanted to tick the box while I can. We have had a good start and we want to keep the momentum going. It is expensive to do but there is a good bunch of competitors to do it with at the moment. Deane Buist is hard to catch though.”
“The object is to get through Wyndham unscathed before the upcoming North Island NZRC rounds. We will take it rally by rally.”
Steve has been involved for many years. Initially he enjoyed competing in rallies and sprints in Datsun 1200’s. He did two Rally Of Southland’s and lots of sprints, a discipline he recommends to young guys.
After those initial rally experiences Gill knuckled down with work. “I still did a bit of co-driving and got into the mechanical side of the sport. Over the years I worked for the likes of Todd Bawden and Marty Roestenburg when they came south and also in NZ Rally Championship events and Rally New Zealand.”
Through a mate, Lindsay Hegan, he got involved with Race Torque Engineering who prepared and ran the highly successful Team MRF cars in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship. Several other Southlanders did the same as Gill, travelling back and forth to service for the team at rounds of the championship.
“I did all the rounds over the years, I never did them all in one season but over a period I travelled to most – Japan, China etc. I learnt a lot, it was a great crew, well drilled. They would practice gearbox and diff changes, learning not to panic and keep their heads. Then I contracted pneumonia and needed an operation. That stopped me and I never went back to it.”
Initially only doing rallies close to home upon his return, he has over the past few years done several events around the South Island including finishing second in the 2wd class in the 2024 NZ Silver Frond Rally.
The Barry Robinson Memorial Wyndham Rally will be centred on the township of Wyndham, 45 kilometres east of Invercargill and 25km south of Gore. It will start at the MLT Three Rivers Hotel in Redan Street, Wyndham at 9.00am on Saturday 2 August from where competitors will tackle six Special Stages before the event ends back at the MLT Three Rivers Hotel in Wyndham with the first car due at 3.30pm.
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