Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship 2011
Rally Hawkes Bay - FINAL ROUND
20-21st August 2011
Jagger Targets Junior Title at Final
Ben
Jagger and Ben Hawkins
images:
Little Devil Motorsport
Ben
Jagger looks for top five finish at Rally Hawkes Bay this weekend and
the junior driver's title.
This
weekend Whangarei rally driver Ben Jagger heads to the final round of
the New Zealand Rally Championship with the aim of stealing away the
Junior Championship title from Nelson's Ben Hunt.
Jagger lost the lead in the title fight when earlier in the season a
retirement cost him some major points forcing him to play catch up
since.
Jagger's consistent season throughout 2011 suffered just the one glich
in the system when losing a gearbox drive shaft at Rally New Zealand in
May earlier this year causing an unwelcomed retirement for him and
co-driver Ben Hawkins.
"That breakage impacted quite hard on our entire season where now we
are having to push hard to regain the lead in the Junior championship
title fight. Unfortunately Ben (Hunt) will need to have a pretty bad
run this weekend for us to win it but we will be giving it everything
we've got." said Jagger.
However his good pace and consistent run throughout the season sees
Jagger sitting in eighth place overall heading into the final round or
just one place behind reigning champion Dean Sumner in the 4WD
Championship.
With Sumner on 235 points, Jagger on 184 and averaging 57 points per
completed rally the Northlander retains an outside chance of passing
the current champion with an exceptional result.
"I'm feeling very good heading into this final round and the car is
going well too. It's very cool to be going back to Hawkes Bay and we
will give it a good push to get inside the top five for this rally." he
said.
Rally Hawkes Bay returns after one year's hiatus and Jagger will no
doubt hold it close to heart as not only being on the calendar the year
he clinched the Group N 2WD championship in 2009 but also where he and
current co-driver Ben Hawkins made their debut as a team back in 2007.
That year Jagger and Hawkins competed an elderly Suzuki Swift taking a
class win which heralded the creation of a highly competitive rally
team destined to become national title winners.
The 2008 season saw them narrowly lose a close fight with Patrick
Malley for the Group N 2WD title but they then fought back claiming the
title as their own the following season of 2009.
In 2010 the duo took the next step and overcame the financial and
competitive hurdle of entering into the four wheel driver category.
Finishing a gruelling rookie season in 15th place they capped off their
debut season by winning the Rally of the Far North outright to ending
on a high in front of their local supporters.
Richard Mason currently leads the national championship ahead of Haydon
Paddon who will not be competing the final rally due to commitments in
the WRC Production Championship. Next in line and looking for the win
is Emma Gilmour who is then followed by fourth placed Chris West then
Glenn Inkster in fifth.
Rally of Hawkes Bay gets underway with an opening ceremony on Friday
night where the rally cars entered in the event will be on display at
Napier's famous sound shell. An autograph signing session will take
place before the first car crosses the ramp at 6.30pm that evening.
The real action gets underway however on Saturday morning with the
first car leaving for the opening special stage at 7.00 am from
Napier's Municipal Theatre.
On Sunday the second leg of the rally begins at 7.05am.
More information on Rally Hawkes Bay and the Brian Green Property Group
New Zealand Rally Championship can be found on www.benjagger.co.nz and
www.nzrallychampionship.co.nz.
Further information
regarding Ben Jagger and the SeedForce Subaru Impreza WRX
is available at www.benjagger.co.nz.
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