Let’s face it, Ben Hunt’s Subaru WRX STi is not the prettiest or fastest looking car in the New Zealand Rally Championship. In fact it looks like a big-old-family saloon compared with the nimble AP4+ cars he’s competing with. To me it is reminiscent of the Hyundai Accent WRC car that was campaigned back in 2000 – 20003. It too looked cumbersome.
But it doesn’t matter about looks.
Hunt is fast this season, so far finishing running up to World Rally Championship driver Hayden Paddon in both Rally Otago and Rally Whangarei. He is the best of the rest and the most consistent finisher behind Paddon.
Hunt has good history since winning the Rally NZ Rising Stars Scholarship back in 2009. From there he has added the 2WD championship title, been named Junior National Rally Champion and won the top NZ Rally Championship title in 2016 in a much older Subaru WRX.
In recognition of this, Subaru New Zealand now have him as a brand ambassador and offered him the use of a brand new Subaru WRX STi NR4 for the 2016 rally season (you don’t say no to that)!
That year got off to a great start with a second place finish behind Paddon at the opening round in Otago. That was about it for the season with retirements in all the next four championship rounds. The car was in a ditch at Rally Whangarei, had overheating problems at Rally Canterbury, another off at Rally Gisbourne and electrical problems at Rally Coromandel. I fear that Hunt was maybe regretting the move to a bigger and newer model. This was also at a critical point in the development of the AP4+ cars with a number of competitors starting to develop and introduce these to the domestic series.
2017 proved to be a better year with Hunt finishing third overall and his first win in the new car at Rally Waitomo, and podiums at Rally Canterbury, Gold Rush Rally and Rally NZ.
This season the first two rounds have shown that besides Hayden Paddon, the next best are Hunt, Emma Gilmour (Suzuki Swift MAXI) and Matt Summerfield (Mitsubishi Mirage). If Paddon falters or is unable to compete due to WRC commitments (at the moment he will miss Rally Canterbury) then the title will likely go to one of these three. Ironically, Hunt, Gilmour and Summerfield are not driving an AP4+ car – but that is another story!
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