Campbell returns to happy hunting ground

Tauranga’s Phil Campbell returns to a happy hunting ground for the Dayle ITM Goldrush Rally Coromandel this weekend for the penultimate round of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship.

The Whitianga-based event was the scene of Campbell’s first NZRC round win back in 2014 and since then he has also recorded a second place in 2015 and just missed the podium with fourth in 2017.

A challenging 2019 season started with a podium finish but a pair of did-not finishes see Campbell in sixth, although still with the opportunity to get amongst the top three with a couple of strong results to finish the season.

The Campbell Rally Sport team have made good use of the almost two-month break between events to check over The Roofing Store Ford Fiesta AP4, including a full gearbox rebuild after retiring from the latest South Canterbury round.

“I’m really looking forward to Coromandel, obviously it holds some pretty special memories for us with the first round win,” says Campbell. “This year has been really up and down, we’ve finished two rallies and we’ve been third and fourth, so if we can have a couple of strong finishes we should end up close to the top three.”

The Dayle ITM Goldrush Rally Coromandel kicks off with a ceremonial start on Friday night at 6pm in Whitianga’s Albert Street. The following day sees eight special stages around the Coromandel Peninsula totalling 126 kilometres.

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