Motorsport: Masons win in Otago, lead championship

Husband and wife team Richard and Sara Mason led from start to finish at this weekend's Rally Otago to take the lead in the New Zealand Rally Championship.

The Otago event is the third NZRC round of the season, and the Masons took a 53 second lead over Timaru's Chris West and Chris Cobham into today's (Sun) final stages.

And the Masons came home comfortably today, with a margin of more than two minutes over West with Dunedin's Emma Gilmour and co-driver Anthony McLoughlin wrapping up the event's 17 stages third overall.

Winning both legs in Otago earned the Masons maximum points toward the five-round NZRC series, while Richard Mason now has 90 points in the overall NZRC drivers' championship, 20 ahead of Gilmour in second place.

"We've ticked another one up - the second in a row for the year," Mason said. "So we're very happy with that. We're taking home a maximum points score and cemented a good lead in the NZRC.

The victory means Mason is one shy of triple New Zealand rally champion Neil Allport's record of 22 round victories.

Sunday's six stages were won equally by Mason and West, but West's luck was again tested when he spent nearly one-and-a-half minutes stopped in the penultimate Berwick stage.

He managed to hold on to second ahead of Gilmour, while fourth overall was Christchurch's Matt Jansen and Jason Farmer.

Results from this weekend's Rally of Otago:

Richard Mason/Sara Mason, 2:37:47.2, 1; Chris West/Chris Cobham +2:13.7, 2; Emma Gilmour/Anthony McLoughlin +2:38.5, 3; Matt Jansen/Jason Farmer +6:33.8, 4; Dean Bond/Ross Moody +12:30.1, 5.

New Zealand Rally Championship drivers' championship points after round three:

Richard Mason 90, 1; Emma Gilmour 70, 2; Alex Kelsey 51, 3; Matt Jansen 48, 4; Chris West 44, 5.