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Hi All
The Performance
Finance & Leasing /Turner Motorsport team of Dylan Turner and
Sandy Bansal left Rotorua in weekend on a high after a great result
in the fourth round of the 2005 Parker ENZED New Zealand Rally Championship,
Hella International Rally of Rotorua.
The team finished
the first leg in 7th place NZRC and pushed harder on the second
leg to claim 6th place NZRC, the best ever finish for the team this
year and the improvement that they were looking for after their
great result at Wairarapa.
After an early
afternoon start on Friday, the first 3 stages of the rally were
north of Rotorua over stages made famous in previous year's events,
with the Manawahe stage being a highlight.
"We noticed
rain clouds about 20 mins from our report time. I made a quick call
and out came the grooving gun to groove our Dunlop's. Sure enough
down the start ramp we go and down comes the rain. It was a good
call and we finished stage 1 to be 8th NZRC." explains Turner.
On stage's 2
and 3 the team set two more top ten times to be 7th NZRC and in
11th overall at the end of Friday's stages. It was then an early
morning start on Saturday for a long tour to Opotiki for the start
of the 4th stage, the mighty Motu.
"Motu made
Colin McRae famous and there's a bridge 2 kms in with my name on
it from last year; we didn't want to repeat that highly visible
spin again," explains Turner.
"3 2 1
and we are off and I'm really nervous. Coming into the bridge I
kept it really clean and we nailed it, much to my relief. Later
in the stage we had a few huge moments and set a great time of 5th
NZRC and 10th overall."
The team then
finished the leg with two final stages; Whakarau and Rakauroa, where
they were 7th o/a NZRC on both stages to finish Leg One in 7th place
NZRC and just 10.6sec behind the Evo 8 of Glen Smith.
Leg two on Sunday
was run on two stages south of Rotorua and the team experienced
very difficult conditions.
"Both Sandy
and I knew the stages would be wet. However they were really bad,
the worst I've seen in a long while. We picked a 205 Dunlop and
lost a little time but on our 2nd run we ran a narrow softer compound
Dunlop which was much better"
"On the
final run of the stages we clouted a bank with six kms to go and
bent something in the front suspension which made the car almost
un-drivable above 100km/h and the Performance Finance & Leasing
/Turner Motorsport Evo 6 vibrated like a washing machine on spin
dry. We backed off a bit and got to the end to find Sam Murray piped
us by 1.7 seconds to claim 11th. We were happy with a credible 12th
overall and 6th for leg 2 of the championship, our best ever result."
The team would
like to thank our sponsors for the 2005 Parker ENZED New Zealand
Rally Championship - Performance Finance and Leasing, LJ Hooker
Manurewa, AB Panel and Paint, Team Evolution, Dunlop, Gary Capper
Performance and Chiropractic and Sport.
Til next time.
Dylan Turner
& Sandy Bansal
Turner
Motorsport
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