Motorsport: Home win fuels Campbell's ambition

Tauranga's Phil Campbell (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9) drove to a 42-second victory in Sunday's Tauranga Clubmans Rally. Photo / Greg Henderson

Tauranga driver Phil Campbell hopes the momentum gained from a convincing win in his home rally on Sunday will lead to success at national championship level in the remainder of the 2014 season.

Campbell drove his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9 to victory in the Tauranga Clubman's Rally on roads near Pyes Pa on Sunday.

It was his first outright rally win after a run of class successes in front-wheel-drive cars.

Campbell set five fastest times and finished 42 seconds clear of Rotorua's Sloan Cox (Lancer Evo 10) in the seven-stage event.

It's not only a winning drive from which Campbell can gain confidence. There's also confirmation that a rear differential problem that had afflicted the handling of the Lancer in recent events has been overcome.

"The car has been really good since we changed the rear diff at Wairarapa," said Campbell.

"Hopefully Coromandel [the next NZ Championship event in late-August] will be good as well. The aim is to get on the podium before the end of the year."

In keeping with the novice focus of the Tauranga event, Campbell took the chance to provide his sponsor Lars Thiel-Lardon from The Roofing Store with some first-hand experience in the navigator's seat.

"It's great to be able to get our sponsor into the car and really show them what we do," said Campbell.

The rally winner had only one moment of concern during the event.

"Sloan had spun and stalled on stage six which lost him a bit of time. I arrived into a big cloud of dust he'd left behind and overshot the corner. But it was safer to overshoot than it was to turn in where you couldn't see anything," said Campbell.

Cox finished second - in his first run in a car rebuilt after a big early season roll-over - and Palmerston North's Brian Green (Lancer Evo 10) was third.

Novice honours went to Tauranga's Mitch James who teamed with Campbell's regular co-driver Venita Fabbro and drove his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 5 to fourth place.

James edged ahead of the Toyota Corolla of Rotorua's Ian Wood despite some suspension worries.

"A couple of bolts had come loose in the rear suspension and the car had started to float around a bit. I took it a little easier to make sure we got through," said James.

It was the first rally start for James, 23, in the Lancer after driving a Toyota Starlet at the 2012 Gisborne Rally and last year's Tauranga Clubman's event.

The next best novice driver was Auckland's Tom Hulbert, who improved from 27th seeding to finish 13th in his Honda Civic.

Tauranga Clubmans Rally: 1 Phil Campbell/Lars Thiel-Lardon (Tauranga) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9, 46min 06secs; 2 Sloan and Steve Cox (Rotorua) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo10, 46m 48s; 3 Brian Green/Fleur Pedersen (Palm Nth) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo10, 48m 29s; 4 Mitch James/Venita Fabbro (Tauranga) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo5, 48m 40s; 5 Ian Wood/Heather Wise (Rotorua) Toyota Corolla Turbo, 48m 49s.