They have won two classes in the championship which wrapped up with the Rally of Whangarei last month.
Graves, 50, powered his 1995 Mitsubishi Evo 3 to win the Rally Challenge 4WD class and the Group A Challenge (4WD cars built before the end of 1995).
The championship consisted of six rallies across the country over the year.
The Gore driver attended two rallies in the North Island — the Whangarei rally and the Daybreaker rally in Palmerston North. He missed a rally in Bay of Plenty, deciding not to attend.
He raced in all three rallies in the South Island: Rally Otago, the Southern Lights Rally in Invercargill and an event in Timaru.
Graves journeyed to Whangarei leading the two classes — the only two he entered — but not entirely comfortably.
"We had to finish and we had to finish well.
"We were probably going to 90% most of the time, just trying to not make any mistakes," he said.
He said he was very surprised to win the championship and bag a title.
"I didn’t expect it at all.
"Our car is pretty old compared to the cars we competed against.
"I thought maybe top five overall but we were really happy with our pace."
The Evo 3, which he described as modified minimally, held together well, and could get exceed 200kmh.
Graves admitted he was a driver who just drove flat out, all the time.
Being the driver was a different job than being the co-driver, more so away from the car.
"There is a lot more going on.
"When you run the team you have to make sure everyone is where they are supposed to be.
"Just all the logistics around it.
"Being busy all the time."
He liked the Otago Rally the best. It had really good roads to drive on and let drivers take control.
His race at Timaru was scuttled by a gear box failure which led to him having to retire.
That was disappointing but was just what happened in the sport.
He said he could not have done it without his family and friends.
Helpers such as Craig Frew, Glenn Frew, Alison Glover and Craig Beattie were invaluable.
His son Hayden Graves had been his co-driver and was a key player in the successful season.
The 21-year-old is keen to move to the driver’s seat but Graves said there was no rush for that.
He thanked his sponsors who helped out and he could not have enjoyed the success without them. At this stage he was not considering defending his title next year, citing cost as a major factor.
