Phil Macquarie was crowned the Historic class champion of the 2026 New Zealand Rally Championship in Whangarei last month.
He and co-driver Andrew Brooks have a big enough lead heading to the final event, Rally Bay of Plenty in a couple of weeks, that they cannot be caught.
Macquaire will get to celebrate his championship, a culmination of two years of work, on home roads in the Bay of Plenty, but even then he won’t think about it until after they finish.
“I don’t think the class win has sunk in yet as we still have the job to finish,” Macquarie said.
“It will be time to celebrate with the team after the rally, and we are focused on getting another good finish at Bay of Plenty.
“Very special being able to finish the championship at our home event with family and friends. They all know how much work went into our preparation and the two-year journey.
“Andrew and I were very clear from the start: build the best Historic Mk 2 Escort that we can, make it stand out and win the NZ title – oh and have fun.”
Rally Bay of Plenty will take in some classic Kiwi rally roads but will be a little different to the past couple of events based out of Tauranga.
The 2026 rally will be based in Whakatane.
Yes, the route is a great one this year with some past WRC stages in the mix and similar to other years so there are some familiar roads, but I don’t know them that well,” Macquarie explained.
“Having said that, some stages are in reverse direction, and that will level things up nicely.”
And while the dust is yet to settle on 2026, you couldn’t blame Macquarie for starting to think about what 2027 holds.
“I haven’t decided about next year. Most likely we will just do selected events. I feel that we have made good progress with the car and there is still more to come, so in that sense I’m not finished.
“The car is very capable for 50-year-old technology and just keeps giving confidence – it really is getting a bit addictive now.”
Header Image: Geoff Ridder
