Tough start to championship for Campbell

Tough start to championship for Campbell

Tauranga’s Phil Campbell has been crippled by electrical problems at the opening round of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship, powered by Brother, the Brother International Rally Whangarei.

25-year old Campbell came to the opening round confident of a good result, however from the very first stage, the Letts Buildings Ford Fiesta would drop into limp mode several times per stage.

This meant Campbell and co-driver Venita Fabbro had to turn the car off and reset the computer every time, costing the pair more than six minutes to class winner and team-mate Josh Marston over the course of the opening day, although Campbell still took second place in the Group N two-wheel drive class.

With the service crew unable to rectify the issues dogging Campbell, however the shorter stages meant the car was not as badly affected and Campbell was able to set two fastest stage times across the days eight stages, although by days end he had lost a further minute and forty seconds to Marston, but still secured a good haul of points.

“It was a really frustrating weekend for us, the roads in Whangarei are fanstastic, so fast and so much fun but we had to keep re-setting the computer,” said Campbell. “We don’t know what caused the car to drop into limp mode but it will certainly give us something to do between now and Wairarapa. But at least when the car was running well, we were on the pace we wanted to be on.”

Campbell now looks to extract revenge at the second round of the New Zealand Rally Championship, Rally Wairarapa, on April 28-29.

© Scoop Media