Hawkeswood, in his Toyota GR Yaris, and Dunedin driver Emma Gilmour had a massive battle throughout, with Gilmour in her Citroen C3 leading after the three runs through leg 1, her best time of 5min 10.26sec placing her ahead of Hawkeswood before leg 2, which was the same piece of road traversed in the opposite direction.
Hawkeswood grabbed the lead after the first run through leg 2 before Gilmour regained it on the second run. Hawkeswood then produced a time of 4min 47.59sec on his final run. Gilmour also set her best time of leg 2 on that final run with a 4:52.18 but when each driver’s best times from each leg were tallied, it was Hawkeswood with an elapsed time of 9min 59.02sec who took the victory, just ahead of Gilmour on 10min 02.78sec. Hawkeswood’s last run of the day also set a record for leg 2 of the event.
Sixth seed James Worker of Mossburn, in a Mitsubishi EVO 6, was third, with his young son Sam in the co-driver’s seat, while Carter Strang, of Wallacetown, (EVO 10) was fourth, followed by Caleb MacDonald, of Queenstown, in his EVO 6 and Kingsley Jones, of Pukekohe, in his Skoda Fabia R5.
Class A was won by Jak Elliott, of Glenavy, in a Toyota Echo, from Kevin Brockie, of Dunedin, in a Toyota Vitz.
Other class placegetters were Paul Cross, of Gore, in his Toyota Corolla AE86, third in class B behind Warren and Paul, and Tim Mackersy, of Dunedin, third in class C behind Ayson and Gill. With the top three overall not eligible for class prizes, Strang won class D from MacDonald and Jones.
Eastern Southland Car Club event secretary Roger Laird said the event went off smoothly.
"We were very lucky with the weather and the event was very well received by competitors and the landowners, with many favourable comments received. Thank you to the competitors, landowners, volunteers and Crossroads Clinton for their support of the event. A special mention to Kingsley Jones who made the big trek south from Pukekohe for the event."
— APL
