Pettigrew Takes Popotunoa Rallysprint

Ari Pettigrew of Cromwell dominated the annual Eastern Southland Car Club Crossroads Clinton Popotunoa Rallysprint in South Otago last Saturday.

Pettigrew, driving a Holden Barina AP4, set some scorching times to win the event with a total elapsed time of 10 minutes.00.39 seconds, bettering Gore driver Andrew Graves in his venerable Mitsubishi EVO 3 (10 minutes 15.32 seconds) with Aucklander Jack Hawkeswood in his GR Yaris close behind in third, with a time of 10 minutes 19.05 seconds.

Carter Strang of Wallacetown took Class D honours in fourth place with his EVO 10 while Marcus Van Klink of Christchurch took out Class C in his Mazda RX8 in 10 minutes 46.15 seconds and Ian Warren of Dunedin Class B in his Nissan Pulsar VZR (11.00.94).

Each driver had three runs over Leg 1 and then three runs at Leg 2, which was the same road used in the opposite direction. Pettigrew set the fastest times in both, shaving 20 seconds off his time in Leg 1 over three attempts to record a best of 5.04.19 on his final run before setting a best of 4 minutes 55.40, the only driver to get under the 5-minute mark on Leg 2, a time which broke Emma Gilmour’s previous record for the leg – 4.56.08.

Pettigrew rated it an “awesome weekend.” “It was our first run in the Barina since an off season rebuild and it helped me blow off some cobwebs. The car went really well all day and I built some really good confidence.” Pettigrew skipped a run during Leg 2 as he ran short of tyres, but his times were just too good.

Graves was impressed by Pettigrew’s speed. “Ari is a quick wee driver.” The Gore driver suffered a puncture on his last run as he tried to claw back some time. “I was trying reasonably hard and clipped something which put paid to my chances. It is just one of those things.” Graves used the event to give supporters a ride in the co-driver seat and thanked the club for a fantastic event while thanking the volunteers for donating their time and the sponsors for their support.

Hawkeswood, contesting the event for the first time, described it as “an awesome piece of road.” “We are still doing a little bit of development and we made some good gains with the GR Yaris. It was a big development day. I hadn’t driven it on roads similar to the Otago Rally before and it was the perfect event to prepare for it.”

Winton driver, Brendon Mitchell, blew a head gasket after he lost a fanbelt in his Datsun 1600 on his first run which ended his day while Craig Cormack of Gore broke a roll pin in the gearbox selector of his Toyota Corolla ruling him out of Leg 2. David Scoles of Otautau lost a wheel on his Toyota Trueno early on but returned to complete his remaining runs while Nathan Fraser of Wanaka had his day ended prematurely with fuel pump issues in his Subaru Impreza WRX.

A superb field of 28 cars entered with four North Island competitors – Hawkeswood, Ray Wilson of Pokeno, Andrew Keighley of Pakuranga and Amy Keighley of Auckland – and one from Australia, Mike Townshend.

Event Secretary, Roger Laird of the Eastern Southland Car Club said, “the club was delighted to have Crossroads Clinton on board to support the event.”