The rally’s route

Press, 24 June 1983, Page 17

The rally’s route

Walter Rohrl will lead away the field of 62 when he leaves the starting ramp in the Auckland Domain at 11 a.m. tomorrow. The drivers face three stages south of Auckland before tackling the popular Mystery Creek rallycross circuit near Hamilton. Then they have four more special stages, most in the dark, until the first car reaches the end of division one at Rotorua about 11 p.m. on Saturday. The first car leaves on division two at 7 a.m. on Sunday and the stage takes the drivers to the east coast

for 12 more stages. Crews will take a break at Gisborne from about 7.40 p.m. after the seventh of these stages, then drive through the night, eventually arriving back at Rotorua, rather bleary-eyed, about 7.50 a.m. on Monday for some welldeserved sleep. The final division starts in Rotorua at 5.30 p.m. on Monday and involves mainly night-time special stages. The route loops down through Taupo and then over to the west coast and then back up to Auckland through Pirongia and Hamilton. The last special

stage starts in the Maramarua Forest just before midday on Tuesday, and the surviving cars then tour to the finish in Aotea Square, Auckland. Division one contains 151 km of special stages in its total of 553 km, the second division has 500 km of specials in 1137 km, and the third division has 445 km of specials in a total of 938 km. That gives a grand total of 1096 km of high-speed special stages in the rally total of 2628 km, all to be driven in four days — a truly gruelling prospect.