Reigning national champion, Ben Hunt has won a thrilling final stage battle at the Central Machine Hire Otago Rally to make the perfect start to the 2025 New Zealand Rally Championship.
Hunt came out on top of an epic three-way battle on Sunday by 3.7 seconds in his Skoda New Zealand Fabia Rally 2.
The Pukekohe racer and Robbie Stokes were separated by just 0.1 seconds heading into the final stage, the iconic Kuri Bush stage.
Stokes gave it his all in the Stokes Motorsport Skoda Fabia Rally 2 but had to settle for second place for the second year running. Stokes did win the day points on Sunday.
His younger brother, Jack Stokes, had been fighting for the rally lead throughout but was cruelly eliminated when he got a stick through the radiator of his Stokes Motorsport Ford Fiesta AP4.
Jack Hawkeswood stormed back to grab the final place on the podium in his Force Motorsport Toyota GR Yaris – just pipping Josh Marston (RDL Holden Barina AP4) by 2.8 seconds.
Emma Gilmour was fifth in the Vantage New Zealand Citroen C3.
Bryn Jones managed to hold off Tim Mackersy in a battle of the Ford Fiesta Rally 4 cars in the NZRC 2WD class.
Fuyahika Takahashi (Ford Fiesta) was third in the class.
Veteran driver Dave Strong (Honda Jazz) took out the Open 2WD class as the only finisher.
Deane Buist produced a comprehensive win in the Historic 2WD class in his Ford Escort ahead of Stephen Gill (Ford Escort) and Pat Norris (Toyota AE86).
The championship heads north to Rally South Canterbury next month.
2025 NZRC Dates:
- Apr 5-6 Otago Rally
- May 10 Rally South Canterbury
- Jun 1 Rally Canterbury
- Aug 23 Rally Coromandel
- Oct 11 Rally Bay of Plenty
- Nov 7-9 International Rally Whangarei
Header Image: Geoff Ridder
