Ben Jagger saving best for home rally

A solid result from Ben Jagger at Rally Wairarapa over the weekend has moved the Whangarei driver up in the points' standings but he believes there is a lot more performance in his car which he hopes to extract before competing in the Rally of Whangarei in July.
Jagger and co-driver Ben Hawkins finished eighth in the rally behind eventual winner Richard Mason.
"We didn't have a smooth rally and we had our share of close calls over the weekend. On Sunday, we pushed the car pretty hard but just couldn't get the times out of it we were expecting,"Jagger said.
"We couldn't get in the testing time we had planned before the rally but with quite a bit of time between now and Rally Whangarei and no problems needing to be fixed on the car we won't have any problem getting that done, and we will be stronger for our home event," he said.
An upgrade to the gearbox on the SeedForce Subaru WRX Impreza between Rally NZ and Rally Wairarapa had the car off the road and unavailable for the planned testing.
A test session conducted before Rally Whangarei will consist largely of understanding and determining how to utilise the complex Subaru electronic differential network to produce the optimum performance from it.
"We will be setting up a session for us together with Richard Mason in Northland before the event, so hope to get some good pointers from him on setting up the Subaru," Jagger said.
The top 10 result from Rally Wairarapa pushes Jagger up into ninth on the championship ladder, reversing a dip in the points tally after his mechanical retirement at Rally NZ earlier this month.
Targeting a position within the top five by the end of the season, Jagger believes the overall competitiveness of the series has increased somewhat this year.
Added to that is the new points' structure which, by offering bonus points, for completing legs of the rallies punishes the teams hard if they are unable to finish.
With Rally New Zealand being a non-WRC event this year the International Rally Whangarei will be the premier highlight of the rally calendar this year.
"I can't wait for Rally Whangarei and we hope to be able to put on a good show for our friends and supporters at our home event." said Jagger.
The International Rally Whangarei will be held over the weekend of July 15-17 and will incorporate the fourth rounds of the New Zealand Rally Championship and FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship.
The three-day rally will attract drivers and teams from China, Japan, Great Britain, New Caledonia, India, Malaysia, Australia and of course New Zealand. Two entries of note come in the form of World Rally Championship competition fame, Australian Chris Atkinson and Britain's Alister McRae.