First rally to Rod Millen

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34131, 19 April 1976, Page 22

First rally to Rod Millen

(N.Z, Press Association) . WHANGAREI. Last year’s national car rally champion. Rod Millen, of Auckland, provisionally won the Northland opening round of the national Pall Mall rally championship. Third place provisionally went to the Akaroa driver, Rob Gerard, in a Mazda RX3. Provisional results released last night confirmed that Millen (Mazda RX3) is the likely winner —a result which became fairly certain after Mike Marshall was forced to withdraw when a front wheel came off his LPG Escort.

Paul Adams, of Auckland, in an Escort RS 1800 was second ahead of Rob Gerard. Torrential rain forced the rally organisers to cancel stages in the rally. The decision to cancel the two Waitangi Forest stages

was made to ensure the forest roads would not be damaged. Heavy rains had reduced them to thick mud. Poor conditions took their toll on the field of 117 cars, with only 75 completing the round. Among the withdrawals were Aucklanders Steve Millen and Blair Robson, seeded third and fourth. Both were rated with good chances of taking top positions. However, Millen’s Escort RS 1600 developed a bad oil leak, while Robson’s Escort RS 1800 had oil pressure problems, and he pulled out in special stage four. During the first stages, rivalry between the two top drivers, Rod Millen and Mike Marshall, became intense. Both drivers pulled out all the stops to out-do each other in a neck-and-neck race. Before the wheel came off

his car, as a result of a stub axle breaking, Marshall had about an eight-second lead on Millen.

The rally director, Mr Mike Lister, said the round had gone well. He said organisation had run smoothly except for one incident shortly before the round started, when a Tutamce farmer had threatened to park a truck across one of the special stage roads. The farmer toid organisers he would be using the road for transporting grass seed on Sunday. However, with the threat of legal action, he decided against blocking the road. Colin Taylor (Wellington) was provisionally fourth in the rally, in his Escort RS 1600. John Sergei of Christchurch (Escort RS 1800) was in fourteenth place and another Christchurch driver, Geoff le Cren, was fifteenth.