Sloan Cox along with sister Tarryn calling the notes have shown some impressive speed but ultimately came away with a disappointing result.
Coming into the round, 18-year old Cox held a strong 29 point lead in the junior section of the New Zealand Rally Championship and by the end of the second stage looked to be in a good position to increase his lead, sitting fourth overall and battling with the leaders.
Unfortunately a broken engine cooling fan meant the car overheated and shut down for around 30 seconds at the start of the third special stage, which dropped the Rotorua pair to sixth. However, worse was to follow on the next stage when a turbo boost pipe came loose. After stopping once to make a repair, which then failed, the pair were forced to drive around 15 kilometres with no turbo, costing them almost five minutes.
For the days final two stages, the car was restored to full power but still struggling with overheating from the broken fan. Despite this handicap, Cox went fourth fastest on stage five and ended the day with a tenth fastest. However, the damage had already been done and eleventh in group N was the best the Cox Motorsport pair could manage by the end of the day.
With the pace from day one mixed together with a car now back at full health, confidence was high and another top five stage time was a good start to the day. Disaster struck on the following stage when a combination of a late note, a hole on the inside of the corner and the car unsettling under brakes saw Cox slide off the road. Although there was hardly a scratch on the Taslo Engineering Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X, it was stuck off the road and retirement from the second day was the only option.
After being towed out, Cox was able to contest the last stage for experience, but any chance of a strong stage time disappeared with a puncture.
“The weekend didn’t go as we would have liked, but the strong stage times we set has given the whole team a lot of confidence heading to Wairarapa,” said Sloan.
The day two retirement has seen Cox’s lead in the junior championship slashed to just eleven points with one round remaining, however with rival Ben Jagger scoring no points, Cox’s closest rival is two-wheel drive competitor Stephen Barker.
– Credit: BB Media