Kaiapoi’s Marcus van Klink is aiming to continue his strong start to the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship at the second round, Rally Whangarei, this weekend.
The opening round, held three weeks earlier in Dunedin, saw van Klink take victory in the Historic class driving the Chesters Plumbing Supplies Mazda RX-7 and heads to what he considers his favourite event on the calendar confident that he can repeat the success.
As well as championship points, the historic cars will compete for the Motogard trophy, which was awarded to the winner of Rally New Zealand between 1978 and 1982. History backs van Klink and co-driver Dave Neill in the chase of the Motogard Trophy as they chase their third consecutive class win on the event.
Since the Otago event, the team have been hard at work curing a misfire that was traced to an engine down on compression, but will firing on both rotors for Whangarei.
“The car will be good to go again after Otago and I can’t wait to get on the stages up at Whangarei, they would be my favourite all year,” says van Klink. “A couple of the cars from Otago aren’t coming up, but we’ll still need to be on our toes. It’s a long event.”
This year’s Rally Whangarei starts with a ceremonial start and two passes of the Pohe Island Super Special Stage from 6pm. The high speed special stages get underway the following day with 154km of special stages, with a further 120km of special stages on Sunday before the finish at Quayside town basin from 3pm,
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