Campbell runner up at Far North Rally

Tauranga’s Phil Campbell has continued his impressive run in his new car with a close fought second place at the Far North Rally over the weekend.

After an encouraging sixth place at the recent Rally Coromandel, Campbell and the team entered the Paihia-based event to continue to learn and develop the new The Roofing Store Ford Fiesta AP4+ on an event that has been kind to Campbell in the past, coming home in second place last year.

Having set the third fastest time on the opening stage, Campbell took the stage win in stage two and was second fastest in stages three and four to hold a lead of six seconds at the lunch time service in Kaitaia.

The afternoon saw Campbell and co-driver Mal Peden continue to set front running stage times and would go in to the final stage of the rally just 0.9 of a second away from victory, but a badly timed rain shower in the final stage meant the pair would drop three seconds to claim a solid second place.

“We’re over the moon with the result, it’s only the third rally in the car and the guys at Choice Performance have done an awesome job to get the car working so well so early on, it really is a pleasure to drive,” said Campbell. “We can now go to Raglan and try a few more things that will really set us up for a seriously good crack at 2019.”

The Campbell Rally Sport team now turn their attention to the final round of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship, the Raglan Rally of the Coast, on October 13.

Media release: BB Media

Image: Jason Byrne/www.alittlebitsideways.co.nz