The first day of the 2024 Silver Fern Rally saw the cars tackle the dry and dusty roads north of Christchurch, although there was the occasional rain shower throughout the day.
The first stage had to be cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances therefore the competitors proceeded to tour through and onto stage two which was the 26-kmRam Paddock Rd stage.
Leading the charge was the 1977 Ford Escort RS of James Ford and his co-driver Neil Shanks. As Shanks notes, they saw an opportunity to gain a quick lead, having also put a lot of work into the pace notes and videos.
They proceeded to win the next 4 Special Stages before Marcus van Klink and his co-driver Toby Marsh won Stage 7 from Ford by 1.7 seconds.
The final stage was once again won by the Ford/Shanks pairing, to close out the day with a 1 minute and 12 second lead over Dean Buist and co-driver Tim McIver who are in a 1975 Escort Mk2. The RX7 of Marcus van Klink was a further 41 seconds back in third place although Nathan Quinn and co-driver David Green are hot on Klinky’s heels.
Stage 3 built a reputation for being a car breaker with no less than seven cars having some form of incident. Leading the 3-day Silver Frond rally is Keith Hamilton and co-driver Glenn Alcorn in a Subaru CG8. They are 1 minute up on Stephen Gill and Grant Moloy.
Leading the three time trials cars at the end of the first day is Dallis Yates and Alise Inger. They are driving a VW and are on 339 points. The Porsche Cayenne of Timothy James sits on 350 points while Dave Brien’s Datsun 1200 has accumulated 545 points.
The Rally of North Canterbury was included within the Silver Fern Rally as a one-day event. The overall winner for this was Michael Tall and his co-driver Matt Richards in a Mitsubishi Mirage. Second placed overall was Sean and Bella Haggarty in the Subaru Impreza while in third was Jack Stokes and his co-driver Sarah Faulkner, driving the Ford Fiesta R2.
Sunday, , Day 2 the field will tackle the central Canterbury, and Westland roads en route to Greymouth.
Main photo- the Lancia Stratos of Philip Kadoorie and Ryan Champion
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