Timaru’s Darren Galbraith along with James Bracefield has won the 2015 Stadium Finance/REPCO Westland Rally held on Saturday. In a highly competitive opening round for the 2015 Mainland Series, Galbraith won the rally on the last stage when fellow competitor Jeff Judd from Christchurch had his suspension arm let go on his Subaru WRX. Judd had a 15 second lead heading into a repeat of the 23 km Ahaura stage 9, where torrential rain made conditions extremely slippery.
“We had a couple of issues during the rally,” commented Galbraith. “We hit a rock on stage two which was a worry but there seemed to be little damage. The roads were really good. The last stage was raining that hard we couldn’t see with the wipers on full speed.”
The lead between Galbraith and Judd had been swapping throughout the nine stages. Judd won four while Glabraith won two stages.
“Judd had the better of us at the end of the day,” commented Galbraith. “I was first on the road for the last stage so didn’t know he had an issue. Once we realised he hadn’t come out of stage then we knew the rally was ours.”
“We had a cracked bottom arm for most of the rally,” commented Judd, “and it kept getting worse. We didn’t have a spare but as we were leading the rally I thought we would give it a ‘go’. Luckily we didn’t have a major off as the arm let go under braking and we came to a halt. It’s gut-wrenching but it could have been worse.”
Second home was Richard Bateman/Sharisse Guckert in a Mitsubishi EVO 8. Bateman won the fourth 10.6km Lake Kaniere stage and battled for most of the day with Christchurch’s Deane Buist (Ford Escort) who came in third overall. The fast flowing roads suited the Ford Escorts which filled the third to fifth spots. Fourth overall was Robert McCallum/Peter Kennard while fifth was Regan Ross/Richard Atkinson.
The opening stage, Lady Lake 1 was won by Rangiora’s Matt Summerfield in a Subaru WRX. Clutch issues saw him retire on the fifth stage. Peter Scharmach/Mike Hopkins (Subaru WRX) was the other stage winner taking out the first run through the Adairs 5.09km, stage three. The pair eventually finished in 14th position overall.
Galbraith was awarded the Leo Leonard Motors Trophy by the first winner of the event back in 1974, Leo Leonard.
“It’s a thrill to get this trophy. I wasn’t born back in ‘74 but I know Leo from Timaru and have competed against his son Mark,” commented Galbraith.
Round two of the Mainland Series gets underway in May with Rally Otago set to go on May 9-10.
