The 2024 Silver Fern Rally gets underway next week in the South Island. Roads are set to come alive with the biennial event kicking off from Riccarton Raceway in Christchurch on Saturday 23 November and ending on 29 November 2024 in Wanaka.
Over the following seven days, 53 cars and support crews travel around 3,000 kms through the South Island including over 1,000 kms of timed Special Stages.
Following scrutineering and documentation on Friday 22 November, the opening Day 1 will see the cars competing in the Canterbury region and returning to Christchurch for the night where they will be on display in Parc Ferme, Cashel Street from late afternoon.
The second day they will tackle numerous race stages enroute to Greymouth on the West Coast, where they will spend the night.
Day 3 will take the cars down to south Canterbury with eight Special Stages around the Timaru region.
Day 4 will again comprise another eight Special Stages just out of town and back to Timaru for another night.
Day 5 sees the field tackle classic rally roads including Meyers Pass, Elephant Hill, and Dansey’s Pass Rd before the cars go on display in central Dunedin for the night.
The field on the sixth day will race on some of the best Catlins Coast roads with a lunch break at Balclutha Showgrounds.
On the final day, starting again from Dunedin, the field covers six stages to finish at Highlands Park Raceway with a one-off track extravaganza with the event concluding in Wanaka on 29 November.
A feature of this biennial event is that of the 53 entrants, over 50% are coming to New Zealand from places including Spain, United Kingdom, Australia, Thailand and USA.
Well-known local rally drivers include Christchurch’s Marcus van Klink in his Mazda RX7, Invercargill’s Scott O’Donnell driving a classic 1974 RX3 and Nathan Quinn with his 1970 RX2. Highlands Motorsport Park owner Tony Quinn has entered and Hayden Paddon’s father, Chris is bringing out his classic Toyota for this marathon rally event. They will all want to better James Ford (main photo) from the UK who won the 2022 event in his 1977 Escort RS and is returning again this year.
Benefitting the local communities the event support crews number in the hundreds while also donating to local clubs and groups to help close and monitor the closed road race stages. Charity ‘Race for Life’ will again be partnering the event raising funds from the participants for cancer patients and their families.
Spectators are welcome to view these classic and modern rally cars on display at Parc Ferme events in your town centres over the week of the event.
For further details including the rally route, participants and itinerary, go to: Silverfernrally.co.nz.
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