KEY POINTS:
New Zealand driver Chris West believes the wet winter weather could result in the roughest Rally of New Zealand of recent years.
The weather at the rally base in Hamilton was sunny today and fine weather is forecast for the Waikato for the three days of special stages,
which begin tomorrow morning.
But West said reconnaissance this week for the latest round of the world rally championship had shown that the roads remained affected by the recent heavy rain.
"It's probably going to be the roughest rally we've seen in some time and that's simply down to the weather," he said.
"We've had a lot of storms and a lot of water around. It's really softened up, in particular tomorrow's stages, and Sunday I think is going to be affected somewhat.
"Even though we've got sunshine out there at the moment, the stages are very soft. There's a lot of stones that are exposed already and it's unfortunately going to get worse during the weekend."
The first day's special stages are in the Pirongia and Waitomo areas. On Saturday, the focus shifts to Port Waikato and Te Akau, while on Sunday most of the action will be around Raglan.
West said the roads to be used on Saturday were in good shape, but the extra gravel that had been put down would disadvantage the earlier starters.
"Overall, for competitors running further down the field, it will be in good condition," he said.
"But I don't think you want to be running No 1 on the road come Saturday morning with these WRC cars. There's a lot more gravel out there, more than in the past."
West will driving his Mitsubishi Lancer in the second-tier production WRC class, for which he and fellow Cantabrian Hayden Paddon have wild card entries.
The first two days of special stages also double as the penultimate round of the New Zealand Rally Championship, which Paddon leads, with West second.
West said his focus was on being the highest-placed New Zealander when the racing ended on Sunday afternoon, a feat he achieved once before in 2004.
"I think at this stage we'll go for first Kiwi and with that it will bring the spoils for the rest of the weekend in term of the championship and a good result in the PWRC," he said.
Meanwhile, Australian Chris Atkinson, who is fourth in the WRC driver standings, wasn't too perturbed by the conditions he would be facing.
"Generally, it's not too bad," he said.
"It's just that, occasionally, they have had to fill the road in a little bit or put more gravel down. It's made it a bit looser than normal. There are these patches of loose gravel and it's also been spread with road works through the stages."
Atkinson agreed that starting order would be a factor, because of the loose gravel.
"But in terms of road damage, it's not too bad," he said.
"There are a few little slippages and you just have drive a little different line to last year, but it's nothing special."
- NZPA
