It’s advantage to Ben Hunt who will tackle the Stadium Finance South Canterbury Rally on Saturday as first on the road and top seed for the third round of the 2023 Brian Green Properties Group New Zealand Rally Championship. With the absence of current points leader Hayden Paddon, who is this weekend competing at the FIA European Rally Championship round in Latvia, the opportunity lies ahead for Hunt to jump in front and for other rivals to close the gap in the fight for the 2023 title.
Paddon has a 21-point margin over Hunt (Skoda Fabia Rally2) with Raana Horan (Skoda Fabia Rally2) a further 13-points adrift. Also in the mix is fourth placed Josh Marston (Holden Barina AP4) and Ari Pettigrew (Holden Barina AP4).
There are a maximum 30-points available for the round with 25 for the win and five more for winning the Power-Stage.
In the fight for 2WD honours, Jackson Clendon has a 13-point lead over Dylan Thomson. Clendon won the opening round at Rally Otago while Thomson fought back and won the battle at Rally Whangarei.
The event will see competition over ten Special Stages totalling 152.95km with 78-cars entered.
The event gets underway from the Timaru International Raceway, Levels, at 8am Saturday 17 June 2023, with the field returning for the final Special Stage 10 around the circuit at 3:15pm.
Overall Points 2023 NZ Rally Championship (Top 10)
1/ Hayden Paddon 88
2/ Ben Hunt 67
3/ Raana Horan 54
4/ Josh Marston 40
5/ Ari Pettigrew 33
6/ Jackson Clendon 31
7/ Dylan Thomson 25
8= Eugene Creugnet 23
8= Bryn Jones 23
10/ Stewart Reid 22
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