Motorsport: Campbell hot on star's tail

Phil Campbell and Venita Fabbro, of Tauranga, on their way to second place in the Rally of Otago. Photo / Geoff Ridder

Tauranga's Phil Campbell has played the main supporting role in one of New Zealand rallying's most extraordinary results.

Campbell and co-driver Venita Fabbro raced their Roofing Store Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9 to second in the Rally of Otago at the weekend, securing a valuable haul of points that lifted them to second position in the New Zealand Rally Championship.

But Campbell was denied outright victory at the two-day Otago event by world championship driver Hayden Paddon. Paddon produced a storming finish to move 2.6secs ahead of Campbell in the final stage.

Remarkably, Paddon was in a mid-1970s Ford Escort RS that lacks modern rally machinery's turbocharged torque and four-wheel-drive traction.

Campbell said: "We had a nice and consistent run and drove the car down the middle of the road. We knew all about the battle with Hayden but we weren't too worried about it.

"We were looking at the big picture and making sure we got as many points as we could."

Paddon entered the Otagoevent during a break inhis WRC programme with Hyundai.

He also entered the NZRC Historic category and, in doing so, achieved a historic result - the first victory at a national rally championship event by a two-wheel-drive car since 1987.

Campbell completed Saturday's nine stages holding a 16.4secs lead over Paddon. The margin see-sawed on Sunday until Paddon closed down a 17.1sec deficit with two stages left to go in front.

Campbell now lies second in the New Zealand Championship. Nelson's Ben Hunt (Subaru Impreza) finished fifth at Otago but retains the series lead with 66 points, from Campbell with 59 and Rangiora's Matt Summerfield (Subaru) on 43.

The Tauranga crew of Andy Martin and Matt Hayward (Mazda RX3) finished seventh in the classic rally and are now second in the NZ Rally Championship Historic category.