Rally’s Rising Stars prepare for Memorial Rally

Rally New Zealand

Media statement re Rising Stars driver development programme

19 August 2009

Rally’s Rising Stars prepare for Possum Bourne Memorial Rally

This weekend’s Metalman Possum Bourne Memorial Rally offers points’ scoring opportunities for the competitors entered in two components of the Rally New Zealand Rising Stars driver development programme.

The one day Possum Bourne Memorial Rally, run by the Pukekohe Car Club, is one of two compulsory events for the young drivers seeking to win either the Development Award or the International Award, which each have a prize pool worth at least $50,000. The Rising Stars competitors have each nominated four out of six rallies in which to score points.

Currently Hayden Paddon, from Geraldine, leads the International Award points’ table with 30 points ahead of Rotorua’s Sloan Cox with 26 points. This event is Paddon’s last opportunity to add to his total, while Cox will earn points at Possum Bourne Memorial Rally and at September’s Rally Nelson. However, the top two drivers plus a wildcard entry selected from the other competitors – Nelson’s Kieran Hall (18 points) and two Christchurch drivers Josh Marston and Matthew Jansen (both on 15 points) – will go through to a shootout weekend in November to ultimately decide this year’s International Award winner.

In the Development Award, Whangarei’s Ben Jagger, with 29 points, leads from Auckland’s Patrick Malley, with 27 points. This weekend’s event is the last remaining opportunity to score points for these two drivers. However the three young Nelson drivers – Ben Hunt (18 points), Daniel Harris (17 points) and Dominick Unterberger (14 points) – also competing for this award, have nominated Rally Nelson in September as one of their four points’ scoring events. Again, the top two drivers, plus a wildcard entrant, from the Development Award competitors go to November’s Rising Stars shootout weekend to decide the winner.

The Rising Stars Development Award is for competitors currently running in the N3 or production car front-wheel-drive championship, and offers the 2009 winner support to run a four-wheel-drive car in Rally New Zealand and the New Zealand Rally Championship in 2010. The Rising Stars International Award provides the 2009 winner with significant funding and support to contest a major international rally in 2010. Each award prize package is worth at least $50,000 and compliments the Rising Stars Scholarship for a rookie driver.

Hunt won the first section of the three-part Rally New Zealand Rising Stars programme late last year, taking out the inaugural Rising Stars Scholarship. This supplied him with expert mentoring and a professionally-prepared Ford Fiesta in which to contest the five rounds of this year’s Vantage New Zealand Rally Championship and this weekend’s Possum Bourne Memorial Rally.

The 20-year-old says he can’t wait to get back into the Ford Fiesta for the event based in the Franklin and Raglan districts.

“This event uses some of the same rally stages as recent Rally New Zealand events, which is part of the World Rally Championship, so it’s exciting to get to compete on these roads myself. Add in the fact that this is a memorial rally for the great Possum Bourne, and it’s a huge honour to be competing in this event,” says Hunt, who holds a very credible eleventh place in the Vantage New Zealand Rally Championship in what is his first-ever full season of rallying.

Drivers interested in competing for the 2010 Rising Stars Scholarship can now register their intentions with Rally New Zealand by emailing the Rally office, info@rallynz.org.nz, to receive all relevant information. Applications will open in August with the 2010 Scholarship weekend shoot-out expected to take place at the same time as the shoot-out for this year’s Development and International Awards in November.

The current points for the 2009 Rally New Zealand Rising Stars programme can be found at http://www.chrissport.co.nz/points/2009/risingstar.htm, while the weekend’s Rising Star’s results can be tracked via the ‘Possum Bourne’ link on the left hand side of www.chrissport.co.nz.

ENDS/

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