Christchurch’s Dylan Thomson has secured third place in the 2019 Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship despite a gut-wrenching mechanical failure at the Handy Rentals Hamilton Waitomo Rally.
Moving into a four-wheel drive car for the 2019 season after teaming up with Specialised Auto Services, Thomson’s season prior to the event was a model of consistency with five solid finishes from five rounds heading to the season finale.
Unfortunately for Thomson and co-driver Amy Hudson, that run would come to an end with their Waitomo Rally almost over before it began. A failure within the centre differential of the car saw a hole in the side of the gearbox that allowed all of the oil to escape. Unfortunately by stage end, terminal damage had been done and at the first service only a kilometre from the end of stage one, their rally was over.
It left a nervous wait for the pair, who sat third in their respective driver and co-driver championship standings. In the end, Thomson would secure third in the drivers championship by five points, while Hudson would unfortunately slip to fourth in the co-driver standings.
“It’s a gut-wrenching way to finish the season, in hindsight there were a few warning signs, but nothing too obvious. We’ll have to get it home, pull it apart and see how bad the gearbox is, then probably try and save a few extra pennies to fix it up,” said Thomson.
but when we look at what we have achieved over the season we are both pretty stoked. We’d always said this season was all about learning the four-wheel drive car so to think we are third and fourth in the championship is phenomenal,” he adds.
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