The battle between Bryn Jones and Tim Mackersy in the NZRC 2WD class of the New Zealand Rally Championship has been fierce this season, and it is shaping up to be a season-long two-way battle.
Jones has three successive wins on the board but has been pressed hard in each of the three rallies to date by Mackersy – both guys operating identical Ford Fiesta Rally 4 cars.
With the championship leaving the fast, open roads of the South Island and moving north to more cambered and some tighter and more twisty roads, there is a school of thought that it could play to Mackersy’s advantage.
Jones made some comments at the season-opening round in Otago about not enjoying the forestry stages. With both Coromandel and Bay of Plenty – the next two rounds on the calendar – featuring forestry and tighter roads, some might say he could be at a disadvantage. Still, Jones says that is not necessarily the case.
“It is down to the conditions of the roads,” he said.
“When we did stages like Kakahu, obviously, it was a bit slippery and bit tight and technical, and there are a lot of areas I need to work on to perfect that.
“At Canterbury, it was a bit faster and a bit more wide-open stuff and a bit more consistent, so that is where we tend to shine a little bit more.”
Mackersy feels more at home in the forest, but he doesn’t feel he has a clear advantage.
“I quite like the forestry stuff but at Timaru [Bryn] had had a good run through there, so it is quite even I think,” Mackersy said.
If he is to pull back the gap to Jones, Mackersy knows he needs to put a complete performance together in order to get to the top step of the podium.
“We are close, but we are always sort of on the wrong side. Looking back, we have had quite a few stage wins, but then Bryn seems to pull out a couple of real good ones, and that makes the difference.”
Header Image: Geoff Ridder
