National rally champion faces tough test

Press, 10 April 1980, Page 38

National rally champion faces tough test

. By JOHN FRIDD Paul Adams, the national rally champion, will face the toughest test of his short association with , General Motors when he races in the Hubprint rallysprint in. the Ashley Forest near Rangiora or Saturday. /■/

Adams has proved with a hat-trick of wins in three events that he ■ is too good for the South Island’s best drivers, but in the Hubprint event he will come up

(against some of the North [island’s best, drivers for the (first time in the Chevette.

• Leading the challengers will be John Woolf, .the talented Auckland driver who finished second in last year’s Television One rallysprint. Woolf will share his potent Woolf Mufflers Mazda RX3 with another experienced North Islander, Neil Johns, of Whangarei.

Howard Collier, an aggressive Auckland driver, will

also be a threat in his Es-i cort RS2OOO. General Motors will field a second Chevette in the < rally sprint,' which will be televised live on TVI. The car, based on ' Adams’s .works' carbut built ;in New Zealand.) will be driven by the. up-:. and-coming Auckland driver,j; Shane Murland, who finished!: fifth behind Adams in last! year’s Motogard Rally. The veteran Masterton driver, Hugh Armstrong (Es-i

icort RS1800) will complete;! 'the North Island entry. p ■Trevor Crowe (Christ-js church) and Wayne Murdoch I < (Timaru), both driving- high- . ly . modified 'Avengers, head: the South Island challengers.ll )Crowe .finished- second andli [Murdoch. third in .the last), (year’s Ashley Forest rally-; (sprint. ‘ i i Carl Rabbidge (Timaru, Escort RS1800) and Alam. IWills (Duntroon, Escort; IRS 2000), who filled the/

i minor places when Adams won the North Otago rallyisprint last month, will also compete, along with Barry Robinson (Gore, Viva 2300), 'Alan Hewlett (Kumara, Esicort RS2000), Ross Hore ■(Blenheim, Mazda RX3), lan I Begg (Wyndham, Mazda RX3), Chris Bird (Dunedin, | Escort RS2000) and John | Sergei (Christchurch, Escort I :RSI800). ■ . ; i The expected 35 cars will icompete over a tricky I.7km!

course near the Ashley Forest headquarters on Saturday. The trickiest part will be the high-speed, downhill run to the finish, where one mistake by a driver could see his car careering off the road and rolling. After timed runs in the morning the slower drivers will start to be eliminated progressively, until the two fastest combinations remain to contest the final, worth $l2OO to the winner.