Current Rookie and Junior New Zealand Rally Champion, Matt Jansen, is very keen to get back up north to let his MITECH Subaru loose on some of the best rally roads in the world, when the International Rally of Whangarei gets underway this weekend.
Not only is the 22 year old looking forward to getting away from the freezing temperatures in Christchurch this week to the warmer climate of the winterless north, but he is also very interested to see how the MITECH Subaru performs, now his PMTMotorsport Team have reverted to their pre-Otago setup – and that they will be back on their more familiar DUNLOP tyres for this round of the New Zealand Rally Championship [NZRC].
“We found that we spent too much time at Rally NZ trying to get the best setup to suit the WRC’s mandatory tyres, rather than just getting on and driving the car,” said Matt, “but now we are back on the Dunlops, we can get back to concentrating on just ‘Doing the Business’.”
The other thing Matt and his Huntly-based Co-driver, Jason Farmer, have already enjoyed during the recce they completed yesterday, was running on roads they had good pace notes for after last year’s debut up north.
“This meant that, for the most part, the recce was spent checking our 2009 notes, rather than having to write them from scratch. This way we were able to focus fully on using the two passes for a comprehensive check and update, so we are feeling confident that we are fully prepared come the start on Saturday morning.
“We had heard it had been pretty wet this week, but found the roads to be in very good condition.
“The new Girls High School stage [Stages 2 and 6] has a particularly ‘soft’ section part way through, that could be tricky and a serious trap for the unwary, so we will be particularly careful through there and make the most of our mid-field starting position for the rest of these fantastic back country roads.”
The International Rally of Whangarei runs from 2 to 4 July with pre-event promotional activities like the popular driver autograph signing session and the official start ceremony taking place in Whangarei’s Cameron Street Mall from 3:30 pm on Friday. The rally action runs Saturday and Sunday with stages south and west of Whangarei as well as the very popular spectator stage right in town at Pohe Island. The official rally map is available from the event website, www.rallywhangarei.co.nz, or free from the rally headquarters at the Quayside Town Basin. The event concludes with Sunday’s official ceremonial finish from 3.30pm at the Quayside Town Basin.
– Credit: www.chrissport.co.nz