KEY POINTS:
Marcus Gronholm will be hoping New Zealand's livestock are more placid than the cow that cost him a second place in Germany.
The Finnish driver was distracted by the cow and hit a wall, spinning his Ford Focus RS WRC 07 broadside down the road. Recovering from the
crash, he was able to drive out and finished fourth overall.
His team-mate, Mikko Hirvonen, finished third, helping the Ford team extend its championship lead to 41 points with six rounds remaining in the championship.
Gronholm's indiscretion has seen his Drivers' Championship lead whittled to eight points by the winner of the German round, Sebastien Loeb.
Like most of the top drivers, Gronholm is an avid fan of New Zealand rally conditions.
Although they detest having to run first on the road and act as sweepers for their rivals, the World Rally Championship stars say the composition and style of the fast, flowing roads used by Rally NZ are among the finest in the world. The rally, based in Hamilton, will once more include stages in the Raglan area.
They will include the testing Whaanga Coast, considered a latterday equivalent of the legendary Motu stage in the Bay of Plenty.
The German cow is not the first animal to have caused problems for rally drivers.
In the 1980s, French Audi Sport driver Michele Mouton hit a mob of sheep while practising for the New Zealand round.
That incident prompted a classic headline in the Herald: Michele meets moutons (mouton being French for sheep).
Then, in the late 1990s, popular Ford driver Carlos Sainz had his rally hopes dashed by a woolly spectator at the New Zealand event, when he "jumped" his car through a straying group of three sheep while on a last-day charge through the field.
New Zealand will be the second event for the 2007-specification Ford Focus RS and both the factory team drivers are keen to stretch the car's abilities on the fast north Waikato stages.
Keeping them honest will be Citroen driver and defending world champion Loeb.
At this stage, he is running second in the championship but not finding the team's C4 quite as easy to drive as the Xsara it replaces.
Rally of NZ offers a great chance to see the finest drivers in the sport in action on roads they love.
Among the six cars entered by the three top teams are three world champions: Gronholm, Loeb and lead Subaru driver Petter Solberg.
The factory Subaru team has not been able to consistently challenge the top two teams this year because they are having a struggle with the driving characteristics of the latest version of the Impreza WRC.
Solberg was so frustrated with the car that in Finland he chose not to continue.
Now, with the hatchback version being shown throughout the world, Solberg is fuming that the car will not be available for more than a year.
The team does have another ace to play - its second driver is Australian Chris Atkinson, who was plucked from relative obscurity a couple of years ago to join the WRC and now beginning to hand the team some respectable results.
Given the frequency with which kangaroos and cars come together in his homeland, Atkinson shouldn't have any problems with stray sheep in the New Zealand rally, which starts in Hamilton on Friday.
WHO'S ON FIRST?
Drivers Championship points after Rally Germany
1. Marcus Gronholm 80
2. Sebastien Loeb 72
3. Mikko Hirvonen 63
4. Petter Solberg 29
5= Henning Solberg 28
5= Dani Sordo 28
Manufacturers Championship points after Rally Germany
1. BP-Ford 143
2. Citroen Total 102
3. Subaru 53
4. Stobart VK M-Sport Ford 50
5. OMV Kronos Citroen 35
6. Munchi's Ford 6
