Staring at history

WATER HAZARD: Emma Gilmour on her way to victory in her Suzuki Swift APF at the Rally of Canterbury — the first woman driver to win a round of the New Zealand Rally Championship. Gilmour, aiming to become the first woman to win the NZRC, is sitting second overall after three rounds of the 2016 champs led by David Holder (next photo) in a Mitsubishi EVO 8. They are among 48 entries for the Gisborne Rally tomorrow. Picture by Geoff Ridder

HISTORY-making driver Emma Gilmour has her eyes on another first when the New Zealand Rally Championship continues in Gisborne tomorrow. After becoming the first woman to win a New Zealand Rally Championship round — the Rally of Canterbury last month — Dunedin’s Gilmour is well in the hunt to convert that to overall glory.

She is aiming for her second win in a row in the five-round series at round 4, the six-stage, 150.4km Gisborne Rally, which starts tomorrow morning at Tiniroto. Gilmour and Australian co-driver Andrew McLoughlin are sitting second overall in their Suzuki Swift on 58 points, six behind David Holder (Mt Maunganui) and co-driver Jason Farmer (Huntly) in a Mitsubishi Evo 8.

World Rally Championship driver Hayden Paddon is on 51 points but is not contesting the rest of the series.

Gilmour is the form horse. She failed to finish the opening round, the Rally of Otago, but was second in the Rally of Whangarei, then won in Canterbury. She comes into Gisborne on the back of a sixth placing in her class in the three-day Italian Baja cross-country rally.

“It has been an amazing month, winning the Rally of Canterbury then heading away to Italy for the cross-country event,” she said. “I need to stay focused now as the NZRC is wide open with all the front-runners having dropped a round.”

NZRC rules allow competitors to count their best three totals from the first four rounds. They then carry that total into the final round — the Rally of Coromandel. Gilmour and Holder have had DNFs, meaning any mistakes from hereon in could be fatal to their title chances.

The points situation is such that 25-plus drivers have a mathematical chance, making this the closest NZRC in many years, if not ever. Adding to the excitement is that there have been different winners of each of the three rounds so far.

20-year-old Mazda only one to do all 3 roundsThe surprise package so far are Marcus van Klink (Kaiapoi) and Dave Neill (Ohoka), who are sitting fourth overall in a 20-year-old Mazda RX-7 and have all but wrapped up the historic category. It is the only car to have completed all three rounds, adding extra pressure to those ahead should they fail.

Others ready to pounce include fifth-placed Aucklander Andrew Hawkeswood, in a Mazda 2 AP4, and two drivers sitting sixth-equal — Graham Featherstone in a Mitsubishi Evo 7 and Sloan Cox in a Mitsubishi Evo 10.

Defending Rally Gisborne and NZRC series champion Ben Hunt is seventh in a Subaru WRX STi and would need plenty of variables to go his way to get back in the title race.

Cars on displayCars will be on display tonight from 5pm-7pm at the Gisborne Vehicle Testing Station and at Reads Quay tomorrow after the race from 5.45pm to 6.30pm. The service area for cars during the day is at Saleyards Road, Matawhero.

Local entry in Neil DoddsTHE only local entry in tomorrow’s Rally of Gisborne has a game plan far removed from the big guns.

“I’m just going out there to have a whole lot of fun,” says Neil Dodds, or “Dodsy” as most know him. The ECT Rescue Helicopter pilot will front up tomorrow morning in what he describes as “just a dirty old two-wheel drive turbo-charged Corolla”.

He will start 48th out of the 48-car field and is one of six entries in the 2WD class. Alongside him in the navigator’s seat will be younger brother Peter of Queenstown.

Dodds did “lots of rallying as a young fulla” around Dunedin before focusing on flying — a career that took him from Australia to the South Island to Rotorua and now Gisborne.

He “tentatively” got back into rallying about three years ago — finishing 19th at the Gisborne rally in 2013 — and has been “full-on” for the last six months. He bought a car and is in the process of building another.

It’s his first rally in the car and first since the 2013 Gisborne event so tomorrow will be a matter of getting used to his machine and refamiliarising himself with competitive driving.

And most importantly, it seems, enjoying the day . . . “I can’t wait.”