July 30 2024
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Rally a roaring success u by Andy Bryenton
The Ventia Rally of Dargaville Tunatahi was a loud and fast celebration of motorsport when 40 teams rolled into west Kaipara last weekend, bringing excitement and an army of fans with them.
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Cars, mechanics, strategists and drivers began to congregate on a misty Saturday morning, filling the Parenga Street car park in Dargaville with the sound of burbling engine notes and excited chatter. Hundreds of racers and spectators came to the area from around the North Island to see the biggest sporting event held in Dargaville for the past decade. “The support from the Dargaville community has been outstanding,” said event chairman and rally series coordinator Marty Roestenburg. “It was the biggest event in Dargaville for a long time, and it’s great to give local businesses a boost as the whole area, council, iwi, residents, event partners and the Dargaville community have been right behind the event.”
Racers, too, expressed their favourable impression of the cool, but clear winter day that delivered roads with good grip and minimal dust. Top racer Todd Bawden summed it up with high praise. “The best roads in NZ are up here,” Bawden said. “The stages were mint, hard and fast with plenty of grip. The local support for a club rally has been fantastic. It’s been quite unbelievable the crowds watching, even right from early in the morning.” As the six special stages unfolded across 120 kilometres of Kaipara gravel, whole families turned out to see the field of high-performance rally cars at full power. Even more convened to watch the ceremonial start of the event, when mayor Craig Jepson and Te Roroa representative Snow Tane flew the official flags that
unleashed the racing drivers for stage one. At the end of a gruelling day of high-speed action that saw its share of automotive attrition, Ben Hunt and Tony Rawstorn’s Skoda Fabia Rally 2 Evo took top podium position, followed closely by Todd Bawden and Dave Neill’s Ford Focus RS MK2 and Jack Hawkeswood and Jason Farmer’s Toyota GR Yaris AP4. The enthusiasm among the drivers, even those who has been forced to bow out due to the rigours of rallying and mechanical gremlins, was palpable at the prize-giving that ended the day. Talking to those who raced and those who made the day possible, the mood was buoyant for a return of the rally to Dargaville. In the meantime, racing teams will be getting ready for the next stage of the North Island Rally Series, set to kick off in Otorohanga on August 18. ¢
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