A stellar line up heads to South Otago this Saturday (28 March) to contest the annual Eastern Southland Car Club Crossroads Clinton Popotunoa Rallysprint.
The event is Round 1 of the Hawkeswood Mining Deep South Rallysprint Series which will be fought out over four rounds.
The event takes place just two weeks before Rally Otago and that has provided many competitors with an ideal opportunity to prepare at Popotunoa. The
capacity entry includes every past winner of the event, several of the country’s very best rally drivers, including four from the North Island, as well as one from
Australia and another from Vanuatu.
The top seed is the winner of the event for the past two years, Jack Hawkeswood of Hamilton in his Toyota Yaris. Hawkeswood, a former FIA Junior Asia-Pacific
Rally Champion, has previously described the Popotunoa venue as “an awesome piece of road.” Last year he had a mammoth battle with another
multiple winner, Emma Gilmour of Dunedin in her Citroen C3, before taking the victory. Hawkeswood arrives in the south fresh from a win at the Possum Bourne
Memorial Rally in Waikato last weekend.
Waikuku brothers, Robbie and Jack Stokes, are seeded at two and three respectively in their Skoda Fabia’s. Robbie was second in last year’s New
Zealand Rally Championship, (NZRC) as well as the Mainland Series Champion. He has an outstanding record over the past two years that has seldom seen him
outside the top three in any rally he has contested while his brother Jack was fifth in last year’s NZRC.
Gilmour is seeded at four this year in her Citroen. She has been runner-up in the NZRC three times and third once and was the first women to win a round of the
NZRC in 2016. She has been a factory McLaren driver in the Extreme E Series and a member of the Hyundai USA Red Bull Rallycross team.
There will be much interest in Gore driver Andrew Graves, seeded at five for the event. Graves has achieved much success in an elderly Mitsubishi EVO 3
including multiple wins at this event. This year he will be at the wheel of a GR Toyota Yaris Rally Cup car. Toyota GAZOO Racing NZ will introduce an exciting
new class for the cars into the NZRC next season and Graves’ outing in this car at Popotunoa is part of the testing programme for the car.
Sponsor of the series and the 2017 NZ Rally Champion, Andrew Hawkeswood of Auckland, is entered in his Mazda 2 at six after finishing third at the Possum
Bourne Rally last weekend, his first rally since 2019.
Two top local drivers, Carter Strang of Wallacetown in an EVO 10 and Caleb Macdonald of Queenstown in a new car, an EVO 8, start at seven and eight.
Richie Chadwick of Mosgiel in an EVO is next while the 2023 winner, Ari Pettigrew of Ohoka in Canterbury, returns in a new car, a Porsche 911, to
complete the top ten.
Just outside the top ten come Tony McConachy of Palmerston North in his Toyota Starlet, Nelson Law of Vanuatu in a Toyota Yaris, and Gore driver Derek Ayson in
his Opel Manta while other notable entries are Ray Wilson of Pokeno in a Subaru Impreza and Richard Galley of Brisbane in a BMW 320i.
The class battles will provide plenty of competition with Class D for 4wd competitors sure to be fought out between the top nine seeds. Class C for cars of
1601cc & over will see Pettigrew, McConachy, last year’s winner Ayson and Tim Mackersey of Dunedin in a Ford Fiesta to the fore.
Jake Thomas of Mosgiel in a Toyota Corolla leads the Class B (1301-1600cc) entry from the class winner for the last two years, Ian Warren of Dunedin (Nissan
Pulsar), Rory Lawn of Christchurch (Toyota Starlet) and Paul Cross of Gore in a Toyota Corolla.
Class A (0-1300cc) is a repeat of last year’s battle between Jak Elliott of Oamaru and Kevin Brockie of Dunedin in their Toyota Vitz’s.
The event will run over two legs, the first 9.7 km of public road with the second a run over 9.6 km in the opposite direction. Competitors will get up to three official runs on each leg and results will be determined by combining a competitor’s fastest single run on leg 1 with their fastest single run on leg 2.
The event will be signposted from SH1 south of Clinton and south of Waipahi.
Eastern Southland Car Club committee member, Roger Laird, said “we are delighted with the calibre of entries and we look forward to an awesome event.”
