"Two in a row," yelled members of Stewart Taylor's support crew as he completed the Hawke's Bay Rally last night.
They knew Taylor, 38, a managing director of one of the rally's major sponsors Tomoana Warehousing, and his co-driver Warwick Searle, had done enough to retain their open class title.
"We've got it by close to a minute," Hawke's Bay's Taylor, who was competing in the event for the ninth time, said after checking with officials.
He won eight of the nine stages and finished second to Sloan Cox of Rotorua in the first stage. Cox withdrew with engine trouble after the first stage.
Taylor had a 15-second lead after stage two and added another 10 seconds to the lead on stage three.
"The first service break was after that stage and we took stock of the situation. With a reasonable lead we changed the game plan and decided we didn't need to be too aggressive or too risky.
"We just kept the car in the middle of the road and had no dramas. Each of the remaining stages were won by between five and 10 seconds," Taylor said.
What made Taylor and Searle's victory over Robbie Leicester and Malcolm Peden of Palmerston North more significant was the fact it was their first outing in Taylor's Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10 since last year's rally.
"Warwick was overseas and I only did two rallies in his absence with different co-drivers. Obviously the home advantage helped today ... I've done most of these roads many times," Taylor said. "I'm getting plenty of encouragement from fellow drivers to tackle the Palmerston North rally in four weeks' time so they can have another crack at beating me ... I don't chase championships ... I just pick events which are fun to do," Taylor said.
