Grant Blackberry heads to the New Zealand Rally Championship finale hoping to become the first repeat winner of the Rally Challenge class.
The Hawke’s Bay local holds a seven-point lead over Thomas Paul in the battle for the overall Rally Challenge class and the Rally Challenge 4WD title.
A solid finish at Rally Bay of Plenty next weekend should secure him the title, backing up the championship he won back in 2018.
“Pretty confident we can do it, but it won’t be easy – rallying never is,” said a circumspect Blackberry.
“Thomas Paul has shown this year he is a super quick driver, and the Subaru H6’s are good, well-sorted cars, so we will need to press on hard to keep Thomas behind us.
“He was right on us at Canterbury in the early stages.
“We would be really stoked to win it for a second time; we’ve never had the budget to do rally championships year after year, so when we do the championship, like we have this year (eight years after the last time we won it), we need to make it count and try hard to win it.”
The route for this year’s rally has changed from those used in the last couple of national championship visits.
Blackberry contested the non-championship round back in the COVID-affected 2020 season and has some experience on select stages.
“I did rally BOP back in 2020, so I’m familiar with some of the roads, which will definitely help. They are nice stages, so I’m looking forward to them.
“2020 was just a short forestry stage; this year it’s a big 40km stage.
“It will be crucial to do a good time through there.”
Another thing for Blackberry to chase this year is a chance to land an overall NZRC podium, something that has been hard to achieve against the modern generation cars in recent years.
But with a few regular entrants missing, Blackberry is a strong chance of finishing on the podium with a clean run.
“Would love to get an overall podium in a national championship rally – priority is to win the Rally Challenge and anything else is a bonus.”
Header Image: Geoff Ridder
