The Rock Rallysport

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

Chuffed to be at the start line of Rally Otago. A ‘bucket list’ event that we’ve wanted to do for many years! Grateful for the support and help from everyone who makes our little team tick. The roads are epic and the car is set to jet early tomorrow!

Haltech / Kayne Barrie Motorsport Ltd / New Lynn Tyreworx / GearMotive / Bigem / Shores NZ Autoworx - Motorsport & General Fabrication /Rutherford Electrical

Stoked to be on route for the long journey south to Dunedin for the Otago Rally next weekend 🤙🏽… Shout out to the ‘team principal’ Cheyne Stevens for keeping me company 😂

Haltech Kayne Barrie Motorsport Ltd New Lynn Tyreworx Shores NZ Autoworx - Motorsport & General Fabrication GearMotive Bigem Rutherford Electrical

A solid hit out over the weekend to start our year off. 2nd in class and 8th overall at HCMC’s round of the rallysprint series. Thanks to Scott Rutherford for sitting in the silly seat at the last second!

With everything going to plan - we can now confirm our entry to the Central Machine Hire Otago Rally in April. It’s going to be a epic trip away, and it feels great to tick this one off the bucket list 🤙🏽

Photos - Geoff Ridder, Replay Images, Scott Davison, Fullsendmedia2025

Haltech / Kayne Barrie Motorsport Ltd / New Lynn Tyreworx / Rutherford Electrical / Shores NZ / GearMotive / Bigem

The best shots from Whangarei earlier in the month! Dust-trails, hang time and some torrential rain as well! 🤙🏽

Photos - Steve Ritchie, Jason & Dylan Byrne, Stanley B Mans

Our luck at Whangarei continues to escape us!

Sitting 1st 2wd in the rally and 11th overall after 5 stages, we unfortunately dropped out after our windscreen completely fogged up during a wet stage 6. What could have been…

Massive thanks to Carol for filling in on notes for the day. And to Scott and Rutherford Electrical for coming up to service and support our Whangarei efforts over the weekend. As always thanks to dad for getting the beast ready.

Thanks to my wife Cheyne too for letting us clock up a rally this year merely weeks after our wedding - PS ive got the pace so I’ll guess I’ll have to have another crack next year 😂.

Photos - A Little Bit Sideways

Haltech / Kayne Barrie Motorsport Ltd / New Lynn Tyreworx / GearMotive / NDT Developments / Bigem

Took the chance to head away to Rotorua last weekend and go for a skid at Motorsport Bay Of Plenty’s Matahina Forest Rallysprint.

After two runs we were 1st 2wd, but sadly we had a driveline failure halt us mid way through a scorching 3rd run.

Big thanks to Jess Parker for coming down to call notes, and shout out to Matt and the old man for keeping us ticking over! On to the next one 🤙🏽 NDT Developments Shores NZ Autoworx - Motorsport & General Fabrication Kayne Barrie Motorsport Ltd New Lynn Tyreworx Rutherford Electrical

Photos - Greg Henderson & John Slater

Few snaps from the weekend. Photos - Geoff Ridder & Alex Stewart.