Motorsport
Ace Masterton rally driver Richard Mason has been lucky with punctures.
Not often in a career which has seen him win the New Zealand Rally Championship on four occasions, including the last two years, has he been slowed by incidents of that kind so to get two on the first day of the Rally of Otago last weekend was clearly something out of the ordinary.
And while the two minutes lost making repairs didn't stop Mason and co-driver, wife Sara, from opening their latest NZRC campaign with a second placing, it did mean they had little chance of overhauling eventual winners Hayden Paddon from Geraldine and John Kennard of Blenheim, on the second day, providing they had no mechanical hassles themselves.
In the end Paddon and Kennard had a commanding 4min 25s to spare over the Masons at the conclusion of the 807.28km event but for Richard Mason it was still a pleasing result, considering not only the punctures but also the fact that Paddon's Mitsubishi Lancer was 150kg lighter than his own Subaru.
"We'll take it ... it could have been a lot worse," Mason said yesterday. "It's nice to have good points on the board so early. Overall, we're pretty happy the way things turned out."
The first of the punctures came on stage three and at a time when the Masons were leading the field. It was caused through them clipping a kerbside rock but just what was behind the second puncture later the same day remains a mystery.
"All you can do is grin and bear it," Mason said. "Really it all comes down to driver error, whichever way you look at it I put the car in the wrong place at the wrong time. There's nobody else to blame."
Rules for this year's NZRC have been relaxed to allow teams more flexibility in how they set up their cars and Mason readily concedes a deliberate decision by him to opt for a more conservative approach aimed at maintaining reliability did not pay off.
"It's pretty clear that if we want to compete on an equal footing with the likes of Hayden [Paddon] we have to bite the bullet and make the car lighter, and that's what we will be doing. It wasn't the initial plan but, quite frankly, there's no other option."
The Rally of Whangarei in about six weeks represents the second race in this year's NZRC series and while Mason admits that part of the country hasn't exactly been a happy hunting ground for him - he failed to finish there last year - he is determined to rectify the situation.
"What's happened in the past counts for nothing. We'll be going flat out to get a decent result this time round. There will be no holding back."
Drivers in the NZRC get to drop their worst effort from the first five rounds when points are finally being tallied but points in the last round, which just happens to be the Rally of Wairarapa, must count, something clearly in the favour of the Masons who have a long history of dominance on home turf.