2011 Valvoline Rally of the North
Saturday 15th October 2011
Heated Battle Gets Red Hot
Ben
Jagger and Ben Hawkins
images
LittleDevilMotorsport/Media
Ben Jagger
flying over the Hella Bridge at Rally Whangarei earlier this year
A stomping
last minute charge by Ben Jagger in the final stage at Rally of the
North on Saturday came to an abrupt halt when his Subaru WRX suddenly
burst into flames just three kilometres from the end of the rally.
Time lost due to a puncture early afternoon saw Rally of the North's
number one seeded driver Jagger clawing his way back up the order and
looking strong for the win before an engine fire forced the Whangarei
driver to retire.
The fire was thought to be caused by a ruptured power steering line
which has yet to be confirmed.
"We were doing around 200 kms and when I braked for a bend I saw what I
thought were sparks from the brakes which turned out to be flames
coming down the side of the car past my window." said Jagger.
"We emptied our extinguisher into the engine bay and luckily Dylan
(Turner) turned up soon after and stopped to help. Malcolm (Reid) was
out of the car and running up to us with their extinguisher before
Dylan even had the car stopped." he said.
Four rally cars in total came to the aid of the stricken Subaru to put
the fire out and make sure the pair were not injured before they
continued on their way through the final few kilometres of the rally.
Times were approximated for those drivers who aided Jagger to reflect
their most likely result in the stage.
The morning had brought an exciting battle of the Northlanders betweenr
Jagger and Kerikeri driver KingsleyThompson who had taken an early
lead. Jagger had been closing the gap on him before Thompson was forced
to retire with a mechanical failure in SS6.
Unfortunately Jagger suffered a puncture in that same stage preventing
his assuming the lead dropping him into third spot behind Lee Robson
then Dylan Turner. Robson then rolled his car out of contention in SS7
leaving Auckland driver Turner and Jagger to battle over the victory.
"We hit a rock earlier on and had to change tyres which lost us around
three minutes. We were a minute behind the leader with two stages left
and going into the last stage we had cut that to less than 30 seconds
so were pretty confident of getting ahead." said Jagger.
"It was very disappointing to have the rally end like it did because we
thought we could pull off the win. Dylan was also disappointed because
he reckoned he was going to take us but we never had the chance to find
out who really was quickest in the last stage." Jagger said.
Thus ends the 2011 rally season for Ben Jagger and co-driver Ben
Hawkins with two very solid results from their final two rallies being
torn away from their grips just before the finish line.
In the final round of the New Zealand Rally Championship at Rally
Hawkes Bay the pair were just a mere few kilometres away from achieving
their first podium finish in the four wheel drive category when their
engine blew at the end of the final special stage. They finished the
season in ninth overall after five rounds of the championship.
Ben Jagger plans to contest the national championship for their third
time in 2012 and will spend the off season preparing the car and
seeking sponsorship support.
"I want to thank SeedForce and all my sponsors, my mum and dad plus all
the family for their support. The crew of course for all their hard
work through the year and musn't forget my co-driver Ben (Hawkins).
said Jagger.
Further information
regarding Ben Jagger and the SeedForce Subaru Impreza WRX
is available at www.benjagger.co.nz.
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