Roman Kresta's participation in Rally New Zealand finished in the blink of an eye at Paparoa, north of Auckland, yesterday.
The 28-year-old Czech was testing his Ford Focus at the shakedown on Wearmouth Rd when he was blinded by the sun on his third run and hit a bank, sending
the Focus into a series of rolls.
Kresta and his co-driver, Jan Mozny, were unhurt but the car was severely damaged and the team decided it could not be repaired in time for the start of the rally.
"We were doing 130km/h in sixth gear over the crest of a hill," Kresta said later.
"My eyes switched on and off in the sun. We hit two banks and rolled, I don't know how many times. Big mistake."
Kresta is in his first season with the Ford team and had not competed in the New Zealand round before. He will return home immediately.
The 5.21km shakedown also produced problems and surprising success for the Mitsubishi team. Their No 1 driver, Finn Harri Rovanpera, damaged his Lancer on his second run.
"I cut a tight corner a little too much and we hit a post," Rovanpera said.
"The suspension upright took most of the impact. It was a small problem but it meant we had much less time to make some decisions about the damper set-up."
But the team was thrilled when rookie Gigi Galli topped the times for the shakedown, despite having competed here only briefly once before in a group N car.
The Italian's table-topping fifth run of 2m 50.9s was backed up by his fourth of 2m 52.5s, which was bettered only by championship leader Petter Solberg's 2m 52.2s.
Peugeot's Marcus Gronholm managed a 2m 52.7s.
Solberg's Subaru will lead the field away at 9.30am today for the first stage at Parahi at 9.53am.
There will be seven other stages before the cars spend the night at Paparoa. They will complete six more stages in the area tomorrow before returning for two passes of the Manukau Superstage in the evening.
