15/04/2026
Rally Otago was an emotional roller coaster!
After two days of recce and an epic opening ceremony on Friday night, we headed off on Saturday morning hoping to ease into things. Frustratingly, I made a silly mistake on a slow corner midway through SS1 and got the car stuck in a ditch. With no damage to the car, the sweeper pulled us out and we were able to make it back to service with a few minutes to spare, allowing us to rejoin for the next loop of stages. Running down the field, we battled dust for most of the afternoon but did start to find our rhythm and enjoy the fast stages.
Unfortunately, late on Saturday night we were excluded from the rest of the event for our overzealous efforts to get back to service earlier in the day. No excuses - a naive mistake we will learn from. 🤙🏽
We didn’t get as many miles as we’d hoped, but as always, it was an epic trip away with the family and crew.
Cheers to KBM, and to Mark at New Lynn Tyreworx for the final touches on the car pre-event — much appreciated! Thanks to Dave Christie on the notes, and of course Matt, Ray, and Leila for making the trek down to help. As always, big ups to Mum and Dad for supporting me in this tough sport. And much love to Cheyne for riding shotgun on the long drive south, the tour of your scarfie haunts, and cheering me up on Sunday.
Had enough fun to know we need to come back and finish the job! 🤙🏽
Photos - A Little Bit Sideways, Fullsend Media
Haltech / New Lynn Tyreworx / Kayne Barrie Motorsport Ltd / Shores NZ / GearMotive / Bigem
