Subaru brand ambassador and New Zealand national rally champion Ben Hunt is ready to defend his title, although he will have a key team member missing at this weekend’s season-opening Rally of Otago.

It is not a mechanic from his Hunt Motorsport team, nor is it long-term co-driver Tony Rawstorn - it’s his wife Emma, who will stay home in Auckland looking after the Hunt’s new baby girl.

“I guess I’ll have to find somebody else to do my on-event social media for me. Having little Isadora means Emma is out for the first few rallies. She definitely enjoys coming along but the flipside is she gets to enjoy this special time with our daughter,” Hunt says....more...

Following last year’s cancellation of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship (NZRC), Emma Gilmour’s excitement levels are higher than usual heading into the 2021 season opener at her home event this weekend.

The Dunedin rally driver will start the five-round NZRC at the Rally of Otago with a tried and proven new team and a fresh perspective. Choice Performance, in Pukekohe, has given the Vantage Windows and Doors Suzuki Swift AP4 its pre-season refresh and has been running it for Emma in the North Island....more...

Christchurch’s Dylan Thomson will return to where it all began when he contests the FIA two-wheel drive class of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship, starting with this weekend’s Winmax Otago Rally.

  Having moved to the outright class for the 2019 season, where he placed third in the national championship, Thomson was unable to put together a package to return in an outright car.  

Instead, he and regular co-driver Amy Hudson will return in the Total Lubricants Ford Fiesta ST which has delivered great success through the early stages of his career and will return to a class that is stacked with young talent.  ...more...

It’s advantage to John Giltrap as the 2021 Mainland Rally Championship heads to Otago for their second of six rounds this weekend.  The two-day Winmax Brakes Otago Rally incorporates the one-day Mainland round within the rally as part of Saturday’s Leg 1 based around the township of Lawrence.    

Giltrap and Daph O’Rouke won the recent Westland Rally held in the Grey district in March, finishing ahead of local Graham Ferguson/Ross Moody (Ford Escort RS1800) and Cantabrian’s Sean Haggarty/Sean Sands (Subaru) and Robbie Stokes/Grant Marra (Ford Escort).  Giltrap’s Mitsubishi Evo proved quick and reliable while a number of title rivals retired, including favourite Josh Marston (Holden Barina AP4), Regan Ross (Ford Fiesta R5), Deane Buist (Ford Escort DT2400) and Jeff Judd (Ford Escort 2000).  ...more...

New Zealand rally crews are heading to Dunedin en masse, with a record entry received for the 2021 Otago Rally.

To be held from April 16 to 18, 114 entries will start the 2021 edition of the rally – a record number of Kiwi crews for the Otago Rally, and one of the biggest fields ever in a New Zealand event.

The entry list is headlined by 49 entries in the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship, of which Otago is the first round.

An additional 42 entries will start the popular Otago Classic Rally, and a further 14 crews – all in Subarus – contesting the 4WD Classic Rally....more...

She’s already a legend in the world of motorcycle racing, and now superbike racer Avalon Biddle is switching from two wheels to four to compete as Otago Rally’s celebrity guest driver.

The first woman to win the much-coveted New Zealand’s Supersport 600 title and two-times winner of the FIM European Women’s Cup, Biddle will drive an H6 Subaru at next month’s Rally, run by Jeff Judd’s Magnum Motorsport team based in Christchurch.    

Twenty-eight-year-old Biddle, who is also a co-presenter for Sky Sport’s Skyspeed, says she leapt at the chance to compete in the Rally alongside this year’s other guest driver, New Zealand motorcycling legend Aaron Slight.  ...more...