News

Fantastic experience for Nelson’s Hunt at international rally shootout

Rising rally star Ben Hunt, from Nelson, has come through his first-ever international rally shootout with a lot of valuable experience and information about what it takes to succeed as a professional rally driver.

Having won the 2011 New Zealand two-wheel-drive rally championship, the 23-year-old earned a place at the Ford Fiesta SportTrophy International Shootout in the United Kingdom, a trip sponsored by Auckland Ssangyong and Genuine Vehicle Imports.

The two-day competition is run by M-Sport, the team which runs the Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team. Fourteen Fiesta SportTrophy champions and nominees from eight countries headed to M-Sport’s northern England base to compete for the opportunity for a 12 month work experience contract with M-Sport. The successful contestant wins the chance to work with M-Sport’s WRC programme as well as other areas of the company, travelling to the European WRC events, attending press functions and driving at PR days.

New Zealander Stephen Barker, from Kerikeri, won the Fiesta SportTrophy International Shootout last year and has enjoyed an enormously busy, productive year with the highly-regarded M-Sport operation. Now 23, Barker was on-hand to welcome Hunt and New Zealand Fiesta SportTrophy co-ordinator Neil Allport to M-Sport’s headquarters when they arrived on 16 November.

After the first day of the shootout, which comprised gruelling fitness tests, intensive psychological assessments and several interviews, Hunt had scored well enough to be fourth.

Allport, a former New Zealand rally champion, co-drove for Hunt during the second day’s driving challenge where the competitors from Sweden, United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, Russia, Ukraine, Italy and New Zealand tackled three timed runs at Carlisle airport at the wheel of a 1600cc Ford Fiesta R2.

Allport said Hunt’s driving day was always going to be a bit of a steep learning curve having never driven a left-hand-drive car before, or one with a sequential gearbox.

“Ben made a good start in his first run, to deal with all of that. He made a really good improvement on his second run of about three seconds and really needed to make about the same on his third run to be on the final pace. But it all got a bit much when he stalled on the start line and it just went from bad to worse as he tried to make up time. So Ben finished well out of it in the overall time, but I think he did a good job. Normally they take the top four into the final interview with M-Sport boss Malcolm Wilson, OBE, but this year they took the top six. Ben would have made the top six if it hadn’t been for the mistake on the last run, but that’s just how it goes.

“Overall I was very pleased with the effort that Ben put in; it’s a massive learning curve for people. This sort of international competition is another level and it’s opened his eyes and shown him where he needs to be if he wants to improve, even here in New Zealand. Your attention to detail just needs to be so much higher to be at that level.”

Allport added: “The opportunity to contest the shootout has done Ben the world of good; he’s very, very determined now to go back there next year. He’s still young enough to have another crack at it and is motivated. So he’ll have lifted his game by next season, so I’m really pleased for him.”

Fiesta shootout contestants were driving an example of the relatively new Fiesta R2 specification rally car built at M-Sport by a team which included Barker.

Allport noted: “The R2 spec car Ben drove is a fabulous wee car. If Ben gets hold of one of those things here, there are going to be people in four-wheel-drive cars who will have to look out in the New Zealand Rally Championship. The R2 Fiesta has certainly shown its performance capabilities at Wales Rally GB this year and other events.”

Rally New Zealand’s chairman Peter ‘PJ’ Johnston is very happy to see young Kiwi rally drivers progressing into the international arena. “Ben, like new production world rally champion Hayden Paddon, have benefited from the support of Rally New Zealand’s Rising Stars driver development programme. Ben also has support from a Rally New Zealand scholarship which was introduced in 2011 for two-wheel-drive competitors and included assistance and products from Dunlop, Gull and Castrol. We will endeavour to enhance this scholarship for future seasons to continue to provide additional support for younger drivers at the grassroots of our sport.”

The 2011 Fiesta SportTrophy International Shootout was won by reigning Swedish Fiesta SportTrophy champion Steve Røkland from Norway. Meanwhile, Hunt heads back to New Zealand around 25 November to continue developing plans for his 2012 New Zealand Rally Championship campaign.