Motorsport: Herbert snares third win

Palmerston North driver Bruce Herbert snared his third successive Parker Enzed International Rally of Rotorua title with an all-the-way win in the race which finished today.

Herbert entered the final day of the rally, which for the first time doubled as a round of the FIA Asia Pacific Championships, with a 1:54.6 lead.

While he extended it by 14 seconds at one stage, he finally finished with a substantial 1:57.7 victory.

"We were confident today," Herbert said.

"This is the first place I've won three in a row and that's pretty special."

A slight off on the 12th stage today left Herbert with minor damage but luck was on his side during this event and he was able to take a very comfortable win.

The demise of Possum Bourne yesterday after his untested Subaru Impreza suffered teething problems left the way clear for Herbert and although Auckland's Andrew Hawkeswood charged hard, the gap was too big to close.

Herbert, after being unable to claim points in the opening two rounds of the New Zealand Championships, picked up the maximum 47 in Rotorua but is still 37 points behind series leader Lewis Scott (Wellington) in fifth place with two rounds remaining.

Ironically, Herbert has now also taken the lead in the Asia Pacific race, with 19 points, one ahead of New Caledonian Jean Louis Leyraud.

However, Herbert said he would not compete in the remaining three rounds of the Asia Pacific due to work commitments and finance.

His next goal is to be the leading Kiwi in the WRC Rally of New Zealand later this year.

Herbert won two of the day's six stages with Hawkeswood claiming the other four but it was his initial performances through the infamous Motu stages on Friday which provided crucial to his title defence.

The race for second saw Hawkeswood hold off Palmerston North's Geof Argyle by almost 1:20.

In one of the bigger crashes of the final day, Whangaparoa's Todd Bawden hit a bank on stage 13 and his co-driver Raymond Bennett sustained concussion and was taken to hospital for observation once the car had arrived back at the service in Rotorua.

Meanwhile, Kerikeri-based Reece Jones left his charge for the Group N title until the final stage before pulling out a blinder to head home Malaysian Karmajit Singh by just 2.8 seconds to claim the title.

The Malaysian had led the Group N chase since the first stage of the rally but faltered towards the end allowing the opening for Jones to capitalise on.

- DAILY POST (ROTORUA)