Car rally action on Saturday

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 8, Issue 380, 2 April 1991, Page 1

Car rally action on Saturday

The Waimarino is once again the venue for the start of this year's Central Region Rally Series, which gets underway this Saturday 6 April. This year approximately 47 cars will race with six of New Zealand's top drivers leading the field. Ray Wilson and Joe McAndrew, driving a Mazda 323, Lewis Scott in a Mitsubishi VR4, Ross Meekings, Bruce Herbert and Brian Green in a Toyota Celica GT4 are all driving state of the art four wheel drive rally cars. The New Zealand 01300cc champion David Black is also entered, driving a ,front wheel drive Toyota Starlet , while the local crew of Alan and Graham Murdie are back in their Starlet to try to repeat their suCcess of last year, when they finished second overall in the Central Region series. Local roads The roads to be used this year are all country roads so they will provide excellent viewing. They are, in order of start times: special stage I, Owhakura Rd (start 9.37am), SS2 Oruakukura Rd (st 10.16am); SS3 Middle Rd (st 11.11am from the Horopito end); SS4 Lakes Rd Pakihi Rd (st II.55am from the Ohakune end) and Fields Track (st 2.37pm). Rally headquarters are at H.E.Webbs Toyota, Raetihi, where the lunch break starting at approximately 12 noon will be held. Scrutineering is between 6pm and 10pm on

Friday night at Ruapehu Motors, Ohakune, where all cars are given a thorough check by A grade mechanics, with particular notice taken of safety aspects. Good views For locals who wish to see these cars in action there are three very good action corners that are easy to get to. The first is on Middle Rd (from the Horopito end), where the cars start just off the main road and after 1.6km of straight road they strike a 35km/hour right hand down hill corner. The top cars have a reputed speed of 270km/h and those in the know say they expect them to get up to 200km/hr, so to see them slowing down to negotiate that corner should be exciting. Another corner on that stretch of road is 4km in from the start. After 1km of straight road they come to a 90° corner, which last year claimed seven cars. Another good spot should be at the Raetihi end of Lakes Road. The finish line of the stage is just over the bridge and a few cars are expected to have trouble negotiating the final right hand corner and then tight left over the narrow bridge. Organisers ask people who go to watch the stages not to take animals, to keep well away from the outside of corners and to please respect farmers' property, i.e., fences and gates, and to make sure cars are parked well off the road. Finally, spectators are asked to obey the marshals' directions.