Hi Everyone,

The rally of New Zealand is New Zealand's biggest rally event. This year, I was lucky enough to spend a few days chasing the cars around the North Island. I thought I'd share some of my experience of the Rally with you.

Stevie and Carlos Sainz

Wednesday 12th July 2000
On Wednesday morning we ventured up to Komokoriki to watch the World Rally Championship cars testing. It was scheduled to start at 8.30am, so we had to get up at about 6am to get there in time. Once we arrived there, we walked for about 40 minutes and found a good corner to watch from.

The first driver out on the road testing was Didier Auriol. He was driving a yellow SEAT. We stayed at the same corner for all of the WRC drivers - they were all very quick (very, very quick!).

At about 11.30am, all the other drivers competing in the rally were allowed onto the road. We stayed for a while but decided to head for home in the early afternoon. It was going to be a busy next couple of days for us all!

Marcus Gronholm driving onto the start ramp.

Thursday 13th July 2000
On Thursday morning all the rally cars had to be scrutineered. That started at 7.00. Before the start of the rally the organisers ran a 'Rally Show' where I was lucky enough to meet some of the drivers including Richard Burns and Carlos Sainz (have a look at some of the photos I had taken). We moved ourselves into the crowd to watch the official rally start at Aotea Square ( for those of you who may not know - Aotea Square is in Auckland City). The cars started by driving up and over a start ramp (this is more for show than anything else). When the cars stopped on the ramp they were spun around on a rotating stage, and each of the drivers was interviewed.

First across the start line was Richard Burns from Great Britain. He drives for Subaru. He is leading the WRC points for the drivers. Second was Colin Mcrae, who drives for Ford. Third was Marcus Gronholm, who drives for Peugeot.

Stevie and Cameron Bates.

After watching a few of the top drivers, we headed up to Sky City Casino, and watched the cars come in. After going through a time point, the drivers then went and parked there cars on the Sky City carpark. I managed to get a few photos with some more of the rally drivers, one of which was Cameron Bates (only 18 years old!), he drives a Subaru.

All this took most of the day. It was another early start tomorrow so we headed off home for bed.

Friday 14th July 2000
On Friday morning, we drove down to Raglan, where all the days stages were being run. We had to get to our vantage point by driving along the same roads as the rally drivers (you have to be off the road two hours before the rally cars come through - for safety reasons) and had a long wait before the first cars came through.

The section we watched at is called Te Papa Tapu, which was stages 3 and 6. The first car that started the stage was Richard Burns, at 10.49am. He was really flying! But the fastest driver of the stage was Marcus Gronholm. The action was pretty fast.

After the modern rally cars, came the historic cars. They were mainly made up of old Ford Escorts. They were good to watch as they are in a lot of ways more spectacular than today's computerised four-wheel-drive wonders (they certainly get far more sideways!).

The second time through for the modern rally cars was at 1.36pm. Again Richard Burns was first through. The fastest driver this time through was Francois Delecour.

Tommi Makinen at pace.

After that stage, the cars went back to the Raglan airport for service, then onto the Manukau Super Stage, which was stages 7 and 8. Quickest through the first time was Colin Mcrae in a Ford Focus, and his Team Mate, Carlos Sainz was 2nd. Second time through, it was Colin Mcrae again the fastest, followed by another one of his team mates, Petter Solberg.

So at the end of the first day of 'real' rally competition, Francois Delecour driving a Peogeot was leading, with Petter Solberg (Ford Focus) 2nd, third was Marcus Gronholm.

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