Maramarua Success For Campbell
Maramarua Success For
Campbell
Phil Campbell has ticked all the
boxes with a strong performance at Rally Maramarua over the
weekend that saw him win his class and second two-wheel
drive.
After winning his class at the opening round
of the New Zealand Rally Championship while debuting the new
Letts Construciton Ford Fiesta R2, Campbell entered the
Maramarua event aiming to learn the new car more and get
more mileage in the new car.
With no pre-set
expectations, Campbell and co-driver Venita Fabbro
consistently set top three two-wheel drive stage times
across the morning to sit in second place after five of the
nine special stages, despite having a smaller 1600cc
engine.
An afternoon charge saw the gap between
Campbell and morning pace setter Grant Liston come down from
41 seconds to just 10 seconds by the end of the rally, an
impressive effort on the highly specialised
event.
The result saw Campbell not only second in
two-wheel drive, but also a convincing winner in the 1600cc
class by three and a half minutes. He also just missed a top
ten outright finish, coming home in eleventh.
“We
had a great run. We came into the event hoping to learn more
about the car and some of the damp conditions in the forest
really helped with that, plus our speed was really good even
though we were giving away horsepower to the front runners,
so that’s a bonus,” said Campbell.
The Campbell
Rally Sport team now turn their focus to the second round of
the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally
Championship, Rally Whangarei, on May
17-19.
ENDS