Saturday August 08, 2026 marks the day that rallying returned to the Taumarunui district for the first time in 27 years. The atmosphere on the morning of the event was nothing short of amazing, the locals sure know how to get behind a rally when it’s in town!
8 special stages in lay ahead, stages 1 and 2 repeated as 3 and 4. Then after lunch crews headed into 5 and 6 repeated as 7 and 8. To say that the stages were in stark contrast to each other would be a staggering understatement, the first loop were tight and technical whereas the afternoon loop saw crews being able to get the cars into full flight.
Seeded 11th for the event out of 47 entries, the EX Lancer Motorsport team would be playing a role as one of the early road sweepers, however the second pass would level the playing field with the early gravel now somewhat dispersed. SS1 saw the team come away a steady 14th overall before heading onto the tight and technical SS2 Otunui stage at 24km long.
A small moment going wide at a junction saw the team come through the stage in 14th position once again and 13th overall on combined times. Crews headed back to Taumarunui for a 25 minute break to give the teams a chance to top up the fuel and change rear tyres that had clearly taken some punishment!
SS3 (Kururau 2 at 11km) saw the team emerge in 14th (again!) through the stage but moving up to 12th overall, then the second pass through Otunui saw further progress moving up to 11th overall following the exit of third seed Mason Grimmer.
Back into Taumarunui for the lunchtime halt and fair to say the car had been perfect. More fuel and tyres before heading off for the afternoon loop. At this stage of the rally, the usual Class D battle with Ngatea’s Phil Broadbent was back in full swing. Sadly that fight ended 700m into SS5 with Broadbent stuck off road, losing over 40 minutes.
SS6 (Hikumutu) was everything you could hope a rally stage would be. The real highlight was the hundreds of spectators out watching near the stage start! We unfortunately got caught out in another cars dust at the start of the longest straight of the rally, losing approximately 30 seconds in the process. The good news was that we had now moved into 10th overall.
A trouble free final two stages saw the boys return to Taumarunui for the final time, coming home a solid 10th overall and first in Class D for 2001cc and over 2WD cars. In terms of overall points for the North Island Rally Championship, Tony sits tied for 2nd overall in drivers points, and Jayson sitting 2nd overall in Co-driver points. The pair continue to lead the overall Class D points, Tony now has a 15 point gap back to Dave Strong for the Drivers title while Jayson has a 35 point lead on Rob Scott in the Co-Drivers points.
Next event on the calendar is Rally Bay of Plenty on October 31.
Photo credit Chelsea Karl - Chelsea Media Co
