Motor rally: Bay champ seeking tough nut to crack code

Driver Nathan Tough, of Hastings, and co-driver Andrew Smith, of Auckland, win the B-class crown of the Far North Rally in Piha in Tough's Honda CR-X on Saturday, June 17. Photo/Mal Mcleod

Can you scribble shorthand notes furiously, chew them and then spit them out like a trooper - as if not just your life but the lives of others depend on it?

Does this - MC1 100 KL2 100 KR2 200 SQL 100 KR4 - make any sense to you at all?

Have you been told quite often to shut up and not be a back-seat driver?

Oh, do you pack a cast-iron stomach?

If you answered no to any of the above then 2017 Rally of Hawke's Bay champion driver Nathan Tough isn't remotely interested in what's happening in your life.

Tough is desperately seeking a co-driver adept in the peerless art of pacenotes in the giddy gravel routes of motor rallying.

The 40-year-old from Hastings returned from the Far North Rally two Saturdays ago after claiming the honours in B-class racing.

With regular co-driver Greg Browne, of Feilding, not blessed with some of the key prerequisites mentioned above, Tough put his feelers out through social media to find Andrew Smith, of Auckland, for the gravel-based rally in Piha.

A champion then?

"Yes but he was actually a little surprised by the speed. I don't think he was expecting that kind of speed in that type of car," says the warehouse manager at Tomoana Warehousing Limited whose 1800cc Honda CR-X packs a grunt of 180 horsepower at the wheels and 210hp at the flywheel.

The rally in Piha covered 180km of eight special stages of the 1400cc to 1850cc metal beasts in the B-class muster of more than 10 tucked in between the touring public-road stages that allow competitors to travel between timed, closed racing stages.

Tough was placed 35th overall in the starting grid of the Far North Rally. The driver, who comfortably wears the label of "giant killer", suspects that was probably because organisers perceived him as an unknown quantity in his maiden entry in the rally.

When the dust settled the Bay composite pairing finished 14th overall.

"I would have liked to have finished a little bit faster. We were only just beaten by Neil Allport who is an ex-New Zealand Rally champion from years gone by," he says, revealing the Aucklander knows that part of the country like the back of his hand.

"To be close-ish to him was good but, obviously, I wanted to go a bit further and faster than what I did."

The father of two says it was a relatively good day in Piha for racing, apart from the odd shower or two along the route.

"The biggest thing for us was going up there with no one knowing me and the speed so I think we surprised a few people in the way we finished."

A jovial Tough says he didn't have to make allowances for his co-driver's shot nerves because it wouldn't have mattered as "I was always going to go as hard as I could".

"If he was going to lose his pacenotes I was just going to drive blind."

However, Tough says that didn't stop his delighted co-driver from writing his own "giant-killing" article on their Facebook page, ToughCrx, that fans are welcome to peruse.

The former Hastings Boys High School pupil says it's the Rally of Coromandel next for him late in August and then the Rally of Waitomo in mid-October. Both the rallies are part of the annual New Zealand Championship series.

"By doing that I can judge my speed against the New Zealand Rally guys and then with the aim to go to the full championship next year."

In 18 years of competing he has clocked up about 11 rallies but hopes to do the front-wheel-drive category two of the national class of the full NZ Rally Championship in January next year.

Tough, who has been doing the New Zealand Hillclimb Championship for four years, says he welcomes the interlude until the next rally.

"It gives me time to financially recover," says the 2014 two-wheel-drive hillclimb championship winner with a chuckle.

His sponsors are Tomoana Warehousing, Mag and Tyre Warehouse (Hastings), GT Oils (Total, Feilding) and Rose City Cars (Palmerston North).

Tough, whose flirtation with motor racing began in the Mark II Ford Escort of Tony Baird when they were HBHS pupils, has opened dialogue with navigator Michael Goudie who clinched the Rally of Targa with fellow Orewa driver Leigh Hopper in Hastings in May.

The catch is pacenotes isn't his forte either.

"I have to find someone with experience but that proves to be quite hard because in the NZ Championship round they all have drivers they like to sit with so I have to find someone who's available and willing to learn," he says, scratching Browne. But he hasn't ruled out enticing someone from the Bay.

"I've also got to be a listener which isn't a forte of mine, either."

Oh, by the way, the cryptic notes above translate to - from main control 1, 100m straight to a kink left, severity 2; 100m, kink right severity 2; 200m, square left [90 degrees]; 100m, kink right severity 4).