After months of planning it has been announced that a new motorsport Rally series will be run in the North Island for the 2012 season. Based on the highly popular Rally Xtreme series of a few years ago, the Xtreme Rally Challenge will see some exciting and fresh innovations in this new format.
The series is being organised by a highly motivated group of competitors and administrators who are concerned that the sport of rallying has become ever more unachievable for the average competitor. With the current economic climate adding to the issue of rising costs this group has been working hard behind the scenes to come up with a solution to keep the sport rallying alive through these uncertain times.
Following many discussions to formulate and design a structure to cater for the needs of most competitors, this series looks to address the key issues of cost, and the amount of time competitors and officials have to spend away from work and families.
With this in mind the basis of the 2012 Xtreme Rally Challenge will be a five round series, where each round is a one day event, all to be run within the North Island. However tailor made packages will be introduced to assist South Island competitors.
“We have adopted a 'run what you bring' style for the series”, says Geoff Argyle who is one of the organisers. “It will be open to all cars that meet the normal safety requirements in Schedule A and any entrant can win the series outright”, he adds.
A significant aspect of the new series will be the TV package that is being put together. Each round will get a one hour TV highlights package to be screened free to air on TV3.
This TV coverage will start with the lead-in event for the series, the fantastic and very challenging Whariti Hillclimb in Woodville, Tararua.
From there the five rounds of The Xtreme Rally Challenge are: • Rally Wairarapa • Possum Borne Memorial Rally (to be confirmed as a round) • Maramarua Rally • Paihia Rally of the North • Daybreaker Rally
All rounds will be a one day event (or contested on only one day of a multi day rally) with pace notes permitted on all rounds. In order to keep the series popular for the large variety of cars and competitors in the country, the classes have been structured to accommodate this diversity.
• Xtreme Rally Challenge - Open 4WD (36mm restrictor, 1240kg min weight) • Class One - 4WD pre 2000 (no purpose built cars) • Class Two - 4WD club (Pre Evo and WRX) VR4, Legacy, Mazda 323 etc. • Class Three - 2WD open (all 2WD competitors) • Class Four - Classic (as per Otago Rally Regs) • Class Five - 2WD club (no dog gearboxes)
There will also be a non pace note category for any competitor who wishes to compete in the challenge without pace notes.
Every competitor is eligible for the title of ‘Xtreme Rally Challenge Champion’ where points will accrue based on where they finish overall in each event, and the person with the highest points tally will take the silverware.
“We believe that this class structure will assist every rally competitor, from a low budget through to the top end rally competitor,” says Argyle.
Another new innovation will be the points structure, which is designed to award high achievements. Overall points will be 1st 52 points, 2nd 47, 3rd 44, 4th 43, 5th 42 and so on right through to two points. Class points will also be determined by your overall position on the event. For example if you are in Class One and you finish 4th overall you get 43 points and the next class one competitor finishes 10th they will get 37 points (the same as overall).
The series will also adopt the World Rally Championship innovations of a power stage on each event, and allow competitors to rejoin in a similar way to SupeRally rules. This allows competitors to still compete even after missing a special stage, where for example their time for any missed stage will be the fastest class time plus 5 minutes (depending on the stage length).
The series entry fee is also structured to assist most competitors’ budget while still providing valuable exposure and promotion opportunities.
The best news coverage can be found on www.motorsportcentral.co.nz . Below is their article for Whariti's 2010 edition.
Geof Argyle's early season continues on it's winning way
Whariti Road Hillclimb - 27 & 28 February 2010
The Dannevirke Car Club organised the annual Whariti Hillclimb on Saturday and Sunday the 27th and 28th February 2010. The event, also known as the Race to the Windmills, is just over 7 km's of up-hill gravel road which starts with a more windy section through the trees and then breaks into open farmland with long straights (and a few tricky corners) to then tighten and become windy again towards the end. The views out over the surrounding countryside are spectacular and the event features both cars and bikes - the bikes running after the cars have been through. The event started at midday on Saturday and then continued all day Sunday.
29 car and 11 bike pilots lined up at the start line to contest the road. Well known drivers included Geof Argyle (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 8), Richard Mason (in his new 2009 Subaru Impreza), Sloan Cox (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 10), Tony Dixon (Subaru Impreza), Adam Bligh (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 6), Kerry Harvey (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 7), Peter Trotter (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 4) and Andrew Hawkeswood (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 7). We also must mention Keith Stewart's 6 litre Ford V8 inside a Mazda 626!! Dominick Unterberger was driving Richard Mason's older Subaru Impreza. Ian Ffitch and Jason Jepsen were the best known of the bike riders. We were disappointed to note that there were only 6 two wheel drive cars entered. This is a fantastic event and even though a steep hill like this will favour the bigger engined cars we can't but help wonder where all the two wheel drive pilots were. Along with the prior outing at Bartons Line in the Wairarapa, Whariti Road is probably the best training ground you can get to hone the skills and set the car up early in the rally season. The weather was fine and hot on Saturday but got a little windy on Sunday (which resulted in a lot of dust swirling around the track) although it stayed fine.
The first run on Saturday was almost a casual affair as the drivers tested the road and the conditions. Peter Trotter was the quickest driver on Run 1 with a time of 6.52.1 followed closely by Geof Argyle, Grant Blackberry (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 6) and Andrew Spier (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 6.5). The two wheel drive cars were led by Chris Woudenberg (Toyota Corolla) followed by Anthony Paroli (Toyota Starlet Supercharged). Runs 2 and 3 saw the drivers up the ante as Grant Blackberry, in a brilliant run, topped the scorecards with a time of 6.21.4, heading off Geof Argyle (6.22.5), Andrew Spier (6.27.3), Tony Dixon (6.28.6) and Richard Mason (6.30.1). In the two wheel drive class it was still Chris Woudenberg (6.59.4) leading the charge from Anthony Paroli (7.01.0) with Paul De Rose (Mitsubishi Mirage) leading the smaller engined two wheel drive cars. Unfortunately Run 3 saw the withdrawal of Andrew Hawkeswood who had to attend a pressing work issue. Other drivers who also looked very good on the road at this stage included Sloan Cox, Peter Trotter, Clinton Anderson (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 6.5), Peter Weir (Subaru Impreza) and Andrew Elder (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 2). In the bikes it was the super quick Ian Ffitch who led the field (and also the event overall at this stage) with an earth shattering time of 6.11.5 - some 10 seconds quicker than Grant Blackberry. The second bike was ridden by Jason Jepsen whose time of 6.18.3 was also quicker than the fastest car.
Both the drivers and riders seemed more focused as they really picked up the pace in Sundays Runs 4 and 5. The big engined cars were registering 180kph on the straights although it was the quad bikes who were scoring the big numbers - 220 kph on the first straight!! In the cars it was Geof Argyle who finally asserted himself, after playing second fiddle for most of Saturday, as he powered up the hill in a very quick 6.11.1, some 4 seconds ahead of a brilliant run from Tony Dixon (6.15.5), with Adam Bligh third (6.17.3) and Richard Mason fourth (6.19.4). But there were also problems! Along the way the event lost Peter Trotter, Clinton Anderson (who had to be towed down the hill), Ben Tannock (Mitsubishi VR4) who had been going particularly well but caught the edge of a bank about a third of the way up the hill and damaged a CV, and Anthony Paroli who had to be trucked back down the hill. Paul De Rose also withdrew his Mirage.
And so it was to the final two runs of the day. Geof Argyle finished the day in tremendous style as he broke the venue car record on the penultimate run in a time of 6.10.9 and then lowered the record again on the final run to 6.09.2 to be a deserving winner in the car section of the event. The victory in this event comes on the heals of Geof's win at Barton's Line at the beginning of February which demonstrates that he has lost none of the skills he displayed being the first New Zealander home in Rally NZ in the Nissan Pulsar all those years ago. Second placed driver was Richard Mason who was now coming to grips with his new car in a great time of 6.14.1. Daniel Feck, the well known stalwart of the Dannevirke Car Club - who was not driving this year - had a ride up the hill with Richard and described it thus "the pace and the level of control was far above the standard I have ever witnessed before". Third place went to Sloan Cox who had a quieter time at Whariti Road this year (as compared to last year) but certainly picked up the pace in Run 6 to score a time of 6.14.8. Other drivers who really performed well were the excellent Andrew Spier (6.14.9) .01 of a second behind Cox, Tony Dixon (6.15.5), Grant Blackberry (6.16.6) and Adam Bligh (6.17.3). In the two wheel drive class it was Chris Woudenberg all the way with a best time of 6.53.5 with Anthony Paroli second and an excellent final run from Victor Yuen (Toyota Corolla) to snatch third place. In the classes it was Victor Yuen who won Class A from Adam Fisher (Toyota Starlet) and Brent Miller (Toyota Corolla), Chris Woudenberg won Class B, Anthony Paroli Class C, Andrew Spier Class D and Geof Argyle Class E.
In the bikes it was Ian Ffitch all the way with a record time of 6.05.4. He not only won the bikes but was also quickest up the hill overall. Second in the bikes was Jason Jepsen, and his time of 6.09.01 was also quicker than Geof Argyle's. Third bike home was Chris Hilleard in a time of 6.14.4. In the classes it was Max Bradley who won Q1, Jason Jepsen who won Q2 (followed by Chris Hilleard and Gavin Dore) and Q3 was won by Ian Ffitch from Darcy Prendergast and Wade Taylor.
Our congratulations to all the competitors - it was a great two days of motorsport. Well done also to the Dannevirke Car Club and everyone involved in organising the event - great effort. Now, if we could only get the TV cameras there and use this event as a replacement for the late, great Ashley Forest then that would be the icing on the cake!!!
