Racer to fulfil childhood dream

FORD MOTION: Barry Gibbs will be putting his beloved Ford Escort through its paces as the only Far North driver in the Rally of the North this Sunday. PICTURE/SUPPLIED

Any neutral motorheads from these parts wondering who to support when the Rally of the North blasts by their gaff on Saturday need look no further than Barry Gibbs.

As the only Far North racer in this year's event, the 30-year-old marine technician from Opua said he was looking forward to putting his beloved Ford Escort through its paces with cousin Chris Gibbs riding shotgun.

"Exciting? Absolutely! It was a pretty late decision to do it," Gibbs admitted, noting he will be competing in Class C (1800cc and over, two-wheel drive). He was particularly looking forward to seeing how his Escort performs, having bought it 12 years ago as an 1100 base model when he was 18.

"It was promptly repowered with the 1600 powerplant, suspension work, wheels and a paint job which quickly transformed it into a pretty nice, street-going headturner.

"A couple of years later it was further upgraded to a 2-litre Cortina base motor but disappointed with the performance, I later made the regrettable decision to sell it on to a young hoon from Kaitaia who proceeded to mechanically destroy it.

"Once I'd heard of this news I rushed up to Kaitaia with the trailer and bought the car back," he said, adding the decision was made at this point to proceed to build it into the race car it is today, a transformation which became quite the "immense" project.

"Although sticking with the Cortina base motor, otherwise referred to as the 'Pinto' engine, it was highly modified to achieve much greater performance.

"It is here where the car differs as most of the rally Mark 2 Escorts these days run a much more powerful BDA motor or the much more modern Duratec and Zetec Ford engines."

Looking ahead to this weekend's event, Barry said his main goal was to complete all eight stages rather than try and break any records.

"I have had some success in the local rally sprint and hill climbs run by the Northland Car Club, who do an awesome job providing such events, but have yet to fulfil the childhood dream of competing in a rally.

"It's a dream I've had since being introduced to rallying at a very young age by my lovely rally-nut mother.

"The most satisfying feeling is getting the enjoyment and success out of a car I built myself. And there's nothing like the feeling of being in control of being out of control!"

STAGE BY STAGE

The 2015 Tanoa Paihia Hotel Rally of the North on Saturday, September 12, gets under way when the 42 cars entered leave the start line at the Williams Street carpark in Paihia at 7am and head north, where the ensuing eight stages are as follows, with all comments from spokesperson Blair Bartels.

Stage 1: 15km running along Pangaere Road in the Waipapa vicinity, starting at 7.40am (with drivers taking off at one-minute intervals) and finishing back near to SH10 a short distance south of Kaeo.

Stage 2: 44km, the longest stage takes place in the vicinity of the Kenana township vicinity (near Kaeo) from 8.30am, starting from Waihapa and running west from Kahoe.

Stage 3: 28km in the Mangonui area from 10am, driving along Peria Valley Road and blasting through or close by to Honeymoon Valley and Fairburn and finishing 5km shy of Kaingaroa.

Stage 4: 12km along Church Road in Kaitaia from 10.50am.

After Church Road, the racers will enjoy a lunch break/ extended pitstop at the Kaitaia A&P Showgrounds before tackling the second half of the rally.

Stage 5: 20km along Diggers Valley Road from 12.15pm and finishing on Awaroa Road.

Stage 6: 20km running from Broadwood to Kohukohu from 1.25pm Bartels noting this was a particularly "challenging bit of road, very tight and demanding" thus many drivers are looking forward to taking it on).

Stage 7: 17.5km in the Waihau Valley township/ Puketi Road region (and featuring a "big jump in the middle great place to go and watch!") from 2.55pm to finish 5km shy of Waipapa.

Stage 8: 22km from 3.50pm, runs along the Oramahoe Road/ McIntyre Road vicinity. After completing stage 8, drivers return to the finish line in the Williams Street carpark in Paihia, estimated time 4.25pm onwards.