Top Kiwi, Jeff Judd from Christchurch and co-driver, Stephane Prevot from Belgium, (Mk2 Ford Escort RS1800) – literally – lost their impressive early event lead in this year’s NZ Silver Fern Rally in the blink of an eye yesterday (Wednesday, Nov 23) morning.
The event is now visiting UK driver James Ford and his co-driver Neil Shanks from Scotland’s to win or lose; all because of an incident 7.5km into the 24.28km Falla Burn Rd stage (west of Milton) which saw the Judd/Prevot Ford Escort slip off the road and become stuck fast where it landed.
Had they been able to simply drive away from the incident site the pair would no doubt still be chuckling about it along ‘dodging a(nother) bullet ‘lines.’
This time, however, it was no joke, Judd & Prevot not only losing their hard-won 1min 32ec time buffer over the rest of the field, but also the overall lead of the event itself.
It had all been going so well, too, the pair quick to establish an early event lead of just over a minute after an eventful opening day of competition in North Canterbury on Sunday.
Though fellow Kiwi rally veteran Shane Murland (Mk 2 Ford Escort RS1800) and his co-driver, Cole Seymour won more of the day’s special stages (3 to Judd & Prevot’s 2) it was mix of speed and consistency which eventually saw the day win go to Judd & Prevot.
In second place came James Ford, and his co-driver Neil Shanks, while in third place was Ally MacKay and his co-driver Michael Hendry (Scotland) in MacKay’s Mk1 Ford Escort.
Ford and Shanks took 7.5 seconds out of that lead with a narrow leg win on the second day of competition (from
Christchurch to Oamaru) on Monday, only for Judd and Provet to ‘return the favour but with added interest ‘the very next day.
New Zealand’s original Silver Fern Rally was held in 1969. Since 2006 a week-long, historic-focused, revival event has been held every two years, with the event acquired by the Auckland-based Ultimate Rally Group, which also runs the annual Targa New Zealand tarmac events, in 2015.
All-up this year’s NZ Silver Fern Rally has attracted 24 entries, 17 in the Historic Trophy section and seven in the Rally Challenge one for newer vehicles.
Results
Historic After Day 4 of 7
1/ James Ford/Neil Shanks (Ford Escort RS1800) 5:12:04.5
2/ Jeff Judd/Stephane Prevot (Ford Escort RS1800) 5:20:16.5 +8:12.0 +8:12.0
3/ Ally MacKay/Michael Hendry (Ford Escort Mk1) 5:26:40.0 +14:35.5 +6:23.5
4 Simon Tysoe/Rocky Hudson (Ford Escort RS1800) 5:27:16.8 +15:12.3 +0:36.8
5/ Brandon James/Dale Furniss (Ford Escort RS1800) 5:32:00.2 +19:55.7 +4:43.4
6/ Allan Dippie/Paul Coghill(Porsche 911) 5:33:43.7 +21:39.2 +1:43.5
7/ Brian Green/Fleur Pedersen (Ford Escort RS1800) 5:44:15.7 +32:11.2 +10:32.0
8/ Tony Jardine/Warwick Martin (Toyota Corolla AE86) 5:48:52.3 +36:47.8 +4:36.6
9/ Steve Cox/Laurie Brenssell (Toyota Starlet) 5:50:56.8 +38:52.3 +2:04.5
10/ Keith Callinan/Ross Moody (Ford Escort RS1800) 5:54:14.1 +42:09.6
Challenge Cup
1/ K.Celeste/A.Oakley (Toyota Levin) 5:28:07.8
2/ E.Mulligan/D.Travis (BMW E30) 5:55:12.5
3/ B.Tsylor/C.Ramsey (Toyota FT86)6:11:21.6
4/ A.Lowe/T.Good (Toyota Levin) 6:38:09.3
5/ D.Strong/R.Scott (Honda Jazz RS)
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