Mason thrilled with Rally of NZ success

Ace Masterton driver Richard Mason had a simple recipe for success in the 2006 Rally of New Zealand raced over rugged Waikato terrain last week.
Mason caught everybody by surprise, including himself, when placed second in the production world championship class and tenth overall .
That despite his Subaru Impreza at five years old being positively aged by rallying standards and his budget being substantially lower than most of his rivals.
Mason said there was nothing special about the tactical approach employed by himself in concert with his co-driver and fiancee Sara Randall.
What it entailed was "thrashing the guts" out of his car and hoping that everything stayed in one piece.
"We knew there was no point in holding anything back, we had no alternative but to go for broke," he said. "You don't get many chances to race in company like this so it was basically a case of all or nothing."
Mason, the current national rally champion, was "thrilled to bits" with the way his Subaru handled.
In fact, the only hassle of the whole rally came on Sunday when a wheel came in contact with a loose rock and punctured.
The wheel change cost Mason some three minutes and a "hell of a lot of frustration".
"It's something which is always likely to happen but that doesn't make it any less annoying", he said "All you can do is say a few choice words and get on with it.".
Interestingly enough Mason's second placing brought Subaru a narrow victory over their arch rivals Mitsubishi in the world manufacturers' championship for the production class.
Subaru played no part in sponsoring Mason's campaign on this occasion but he hopes his performance has been noted by them and other major manufacturers with an eye to the future.
"Obviously we would like to compete internationally on a much more regular basis but it all comes down to money," he said. "Right now we don't have a lot of that and we simply have to make do with what we've got. But hopefully this sort of result makes a few people in high places sit up and take notice of just how competitive we can be."
Mason said his Rally of New Zealand campaign would have cost in the region of $40,000 to $50,000, which was just a drop in the ocean when compared to other drivers competing in the same class whose campaigns took them all over the world and would cost in the vicinity of $1 million
"We are very low budget??..we don't even rate in that respect," he said. "We're always looking around for sponsors but they can be hard to find."
Mason and Randall will, however, get another opportunity to show their wares on the international stage when they compete for the GT Tires team in the Asia Pacific rally in China this coming weekend.
Buoyed by their latest success they are optimistic of another strong showing although Lady Luck has not always been on Mason's side in previous visits there.
"Rallying is a sport where a lot can go wrong so it's difficult to predict what will happen from one rally to the next but if things go well we should be right up there," he said.