Cox wraps up NZ Hillclimb champs

Cox wraps up NZ Hillclimb champs

Rotorua rally driver Sloan Cox has taken his second Motorsport New Zealand National Championship after wrapping up the 2011/12 New Zealand Hillclimb Championship with a perfect score after the final round in Wellington over the weekend.

Cox entered the final two hillclimbs of the series having taken four wins from four events across the North Island qualifying rounds held in Gisborne and Hamilton. However the final round would see the 20-year old come up against competition from the South Island, including their leading point’s scorer, Michael Tall, only eight points behind.

Like the qualifying rounds, the final round consisted of a gravel hillclimb on Saturday and a tarmac hillclimb on Sunday. Unlike the previous rounds, double points were on offer, meaning 150 points per day for a win rather than the usual 75.

The opening day’s competition was held near Upper Hutt on Valley View Road. In the practise run Cox set the fastest time by more than eight seconds over current national rally champion Richard Mason, despite a turbo pipe blowing off the Taslo Engineering Mitsubishi Evo 10, which not only cost power but also overheated the engine.

However it was an easy fix for the Cox Motorsport crew and on the first competitive run, Cox recorded the second fastest time behind title rival Tall, before reversing the standings in the second run and then taking out the final run by 0.7 of a second on an extremely dry, dusty and abrasive road that saw Cox chew through a set of tyres in the final two runs.

"Michael Tall's tough competition made me push and give it everything I had to stay in front. The win came down to the last run which shows you must always push to the end," said Cox.

Sunday saw a 1.3km hillclimb on Alexandra Rd in Wellington and with the short distance of the road the times were expected to be close. The practice run saw Cox have a mishap at the chicane after hitting a bump under braking. This forced him to tidy his runs up for the three competitive runs, although pushing hard to try and beat not only his championship rivals for the event, but the local non-championship competitors as well.

In the end Cox was unable to do so, claiming second for the event but still top championship-registered competitor, completing his perfect score for the series to take the championship win to go with his 2010 New Zealand Junior Rally Championship win.

Cox Motorsport would like to thank Brent Miller for the use of his workshop to store their rally car and trailer overnight following the theft of a competitors rally car during the weekend.

With the confidence of some strong rally results under his belts, plus a national hillclimb championship, Cox along with co-driving sister Tarryn turn their attention to an attack on the New Zealand Rally Championship title, starting with Rally Whangarei on March 30 – April 1.

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