In 2016, Evans raised some eyebrows when he won the seven-day monster-length 1000-competitive-kilometre New Zealand Historic Silver Fern Rally in his first attempt.
\It was no easy feat, Evans said.
"I found the Silver Fern hard in a lot of ways, but mostly to manage the pace for such a long time. Seven days in total. I had never had to do this before and was a challenge in itself to do this for such a long period."
What the biennial rally - which was based in the south of the South Island that year - did though was give him a taste for the Mainland's gravel.
"What has enticed me back to NZ is the welcome we received from the general Kiwi people and I absolutely loved the terrain.
There is nothing comparable anywhere in the world, and obviously I wanted to take on another challenge in lovely NZ." Evans said.
He believes what he learnt on the Silver Fern will come into play on the Otago Rally.
"Mostly it was the driving style needed that was totally different to Wales. In Wales you have to scrub so much speed away quickly as the terrain is rougher and corners are so much sharper, which makes the speed so much slower. In New Zealand it's the total opposite, as you need to carry the speed not scrub it and pick the correct line, which obviously makes the speed so much higher. So it's all about confidence-building for the high-speed roads."
Evans will be one of the front-running drivers in the Otago Classic Rally and has an impressive list of driving credentials.
He is a three-time Welsh Rally champion (2011 to 2013) - becoming the first competitor to achieve this feat in the history of the Welsh Road Rally Championship.
In 2014 he was the International Rally Isle of Man Tarmac Classic winner and in 2012 won five major championships: West Midlands, Welsh Association of Motor Clubs, North West, Border and the Teifi Valley Motor Club.
He has run Wales Motorsport, a company that builds Ford Escort RS1800s for customers worldwide, and his most well-known client was the WRC Managing Director, who in 2010 commissioned Evans to build a car for him personally.
Evans will driving his own handiwork at this weekend's event but says his time in this RS1800 has been less than minimal.
"Without a word of a lie, I have not driven this car in any way. Just through the door on to the race shuttle to transport it to meet the ferry container in East England."
"The car is brand-new, it will be a real eye-puller, and hopefully we should do okay."
Evans is teaming up with Auckland co-driver Rob Scott and thanked Otago Rally manager Norman Oakley for being "a great help to me, as I'm coming from the other side of the planet".
As for his immediate rivals, Evans rated Norwegian WRC star Mads Ostberg, who will drive a borrowed Ford Escort RS1800, as his biggest threat to classic category glory, but did not discount the Kiwis.
"I'm sure [Ostberg] will do very well as he obviously has done well at the high end of the sport, and you don't get there by accident. I'm more looking forward to having a go at mixing it with the local Kiwis, who are great competitors." he said.
