Fog, rain, and flooded fords are part of the endurance test that makes up the Silver Fern rally, still some 600 kms and 2 legs down with 2,400 kms and 33 special stages and 5 days still to go! But the NET-HERO Anglo New Zealand Team up to 10th as team ingenuity keeps them going!
The epic, historic endurance rally that is the New Zealand Silver Fern, has bared its teeth by throwing torrential rain, flooded rivers and fords with a mix of fog, at competitors from Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
“This is what we signed up for” said experienced international rally co driver Welshman Alun Cook who went on to say; “I have preached this for a long time about the Silver Fern Rally, it is effectively two season’s worth of typical UK rallying in one week, here in New Zealand. You wouldn’t get that anywhere else in the world, I can’t wait for Leg 5 when there is a 74 kms special stage!”
Stage 4 was cancelled due to a flooded ford but with 5 legs and 2,400 kms still to go of the endurance event, the surface has only just been scratched. Seasoned competitors warn of long tough stages to come, some with a multitude of crests, but mostly very high speed and arduous.
The Anglo-New Zealand NET-HERO team of Tony Jardine (UK) and Warwick Martin (NZ) have kept their 1985 Toyota Corolla at a good consistent pace despite a couple of scares. Warwick was convinced they were about to roll over as the car dropped into a high speed hollow, then high on the rocky fast Hakataramea Pass, mist and fog clouded their judgement.
Further along the hill top stage, having successfully threaded the Toyota through the rock strewn paths over many fords, the crew hit a cattle crossing at high speed which kicked the rear of the car high into the air, Tony Jardine commented; “ I saw the earth ramp at the far edge too late, up she went, but luckily there was little damage. In the damper conditions we made the right choice of the Pirelli super soft front tyres which have given us great turn in, the tyres have survived quite a battering!”
There was no such luck for New Zealander Ken Macdonald at the same crossing as his RS1800 Ford Escort dug in as it hit the earth ramp at high speed. The sump guard sliced into the mud and stones some of which were ingested by the expensive BDG Ford racing engine, game over.
Welsh Crew Ron Morgan and Marc Clatworthy went flying off the road in their Ford Escort, over a bank and ended up in a farmer’s field. Ron said; “I was distracted by a Mazda which was off the road, the next thing we knew was we landed too far left and flew off into the field. The ironic thing was that the farmer’s son who helped get us out, works in Swansea!”
The Bryce Biggs run Toyota AE86 of Jardine and Martin has in fact been kept on the road through the team’s ingenuity and creativity, after the exhaust manifold cracked and then split open mid-morning creating a potential fire hazard and severe loss of power. From strategic pit stops in with the chase crew and makeshift welding, to finding an amazing mobile welding service team who were allowed into the ‘end of the day’ final service at the beautiful old stock market town of Oamaru and its colonial quarter, the exhaust manifold is fixed. The ‘extractors’
