No stress over withdrawal

FINE HELP: Sara Mason needs one more win to own co-drivers record.

Richard Mason was "not too stressed" about the incident which caused him and his co-driver, wife Sara, to withdraw from the Rally of Coromandel on Saturday.

Two minutes ahead of their nearest rivals, the Masterton couple's chances of victory literally ground to a halt when the rear suspension of their Subaru was so badly damaged the left rear wheel was barely attached.

The disaster struck during a 24km stage through forest but the reason why it occurred remains a mystery.

"We obviously struck something but what it was I'm not sure. It was obviously something embedded in the surface like a rock or a piece of old steel," Richard Mason told the Times-Age yesterday.

"At the end of the day, it's one of those things which can happen in rallying, you can't do a heck of a lot other than grin and bear it."

Helping the Masons accept their fate somewhat philosophically, of course, was the fact that no matter what the Coromandel result was, they had already wrapped up the 2014 New Zealand Rally Championship - and a history-making fifth overall - by taking the major spoils at each of the previous four rounds.

"I guess if more had been hingeing on the result, the frustrations would have run a bit deeper," Richard Mason said. "Knowing we already had the title in the bag did make it easier to take, no doubt about that."

Mason said the Subaru had been handling "wonderfully well" up until their withdrawal.

"I was really happy with the pace, everything was going pretty much to plan," he said. "We had a good lead and were going to be hard to catch but, hey, you can never be certain of anything in this game."

As it happens the Masons won't lose any championship points through their latest misfortune. Under the rules of the NZRC competitors drop their worst score in the first five rounds and their earlier results had basically guaranteed their Coromandel effort wouldn't count for anything on the points table anyway.

Under those same rules, however, the final event in the 2014 NZRC, the GoPro Daybreaker Rally of Manawatu on Saturday, September 27, is a counter and this will provide the incentive for the Masons to complete what would still be a clean sweep of sorts.

Victory would be something even more special for Sara Mason who shares the record for most wins in NZRC rounds for a co-driver, 24, with Bob Haldane.

Championship points for 2014 are: Richard Mason (Masterton) 144, Dave Holder (Tauranga) 76, Ben Hunt (Nelson) 73, Matt Summerfield (Rangiora) 57, Lance Williams (Te Aroha) 51, Graeme Featherstone (Te Aroha) 48, Phil Campbell (Tauranga) 45, Andrew Hawkeswood (Auckland) 25, Matt Jensen (Christchurch) 18, Richard Baddock (Christchurch) 18.