Motorsport: Intriguing battle set for Rally Waitomo

Andrew Hawkeswood leads the NZRC heading into this weekend's Rally Waitomo. Photo / Geoff Ridder

An intense championship battle, unfamiliar roads and the New Zealand debut of the Ford Fiesta R5 should make this weekend's Rally Waitomo an intriguing battle.

The penultimate round of the New Zealand Rally Championship sees competitors battle 207 kilometres over six high-speed special stages in the King Country and Waitomo districts on Saturday.

Veteran driver, and the man largely responsible for the AP4 explosion, Andrew Hawkeswood holds a narrow championship lead. The Mazda driver admits the idea of winning a maiden NZRC title is at the front of his thoughts.

"It is definitely weighing on my shoulders," Hawkeswood told The Herald. "We will definitely drive flat-out but we will just concentrate on the guys around us in the championship.

"I'll do my own race - that works for me - if you try to button off that is when mistakes happen I find."

Hawkeswood has a seven-point lead over Canterbury's Matt Summerfield while 2015 champion Ben Hunt is a further 11 points adrift.

While those in championship contention will need to think about the long game other drivers, in fast cars, can go all-out for the win.

There will be interest in defending NZRC champion David Holder's performance, sitting in for absent former Supercars driver Greg Murphy in the Holden Barina.

Rotorua's Sloan Cox has demonstrated his outright speed this season but little problems have curtailed his championship chances.

With no thoughts of championship glory Cox can push to the limits to try and secure a rally win.

"It does help in that respect," Cox said. "If you are in the championship battle you are always thinking about what you need to do to get good points and not risk anything. It does help when you are not thinking about the big picture.

"Andrew Hawkeswood, who is leading the championship, is going to want to get good points and not risk anything.

"It is going to be interesting for us. We know we have the speed - the car is awesome - we just have to put together a good rally."

There will also be significant interest in the performance of youngster Max Bayley in Neil Allport's R5 Ford Fiesta. Allport has purchased the ex-M-Sport car from Europe and it will make its NZRC debut this weekend.

"It has been a long time coming," Bayley said. "Obviously the car coming into the country on a boat from Norway and it has been a few months in the planning.

"I have had about 130km of seat-time before the rally, which is good. It has given me a bit of confidence.

"I will go into the rally wanting to have some fun and have a skid in a cool car."

Given the R5s have had extensive testing and development in Europe the expectation is that the car will be fast straight away but Bayley insists it will take time for him to get used to the car.

"I haven't got too much experience in other four-wheel drive cars before this," he said. "It goes where I point it and it has lots of grunt.

"I haven't really got high expectations. I haven't done a rally in 18 months and obviously not in a four-wheel drive car."

The rally begins on Friday night with a ceremonial opening in Hamilton before the action begins out of Piopio the next morning.