Hello Winter

Race, crew, spectate or volunteer, it’s all exciting and part of the spirit of NZ rallying.

Pukekohe club members were dotted throughout the Otago event in all facets, along with many other rallying faces. After a very big few days of exciting racing through pristine countryside, the final night Awards dinner offered a relaxed ‘off the clock’ evening for teams to unwind and enjoy the ambience of the Dunedin Town Hall, celebrating the winners and grinners of the event.

If you’re not competing, volunteering is the lifeblood of events. The Motorsport Accredited Volunteer system now boosts volunteers and allows applicants to choose a listed role of interest, register and track your record and progress with a logbook, just like a driver. In support of the initiative, I encourage all our many volunteers to sign up via MSNZ-Officials channel and build on this drive.

I actually have a challenge for you members, support thy club and bring along a new face and show them why we enjoy our weekend motorsports’ so much.

Also, get old mate to get his car out and give it a hoon. Hillclimbs are the best short type events if you need a bit of seat time to bed in the driver or the car. Hillclimbs are a short single stage, speed event on a closed road. Fastest person to the top, wins.

PRESIDENTS RAMBLES

April 2025

The year is flying by! Autumn is here- and finally some welcome rain for us farmers!

PCC ran their Rally Sprint early March, using Ponganui Rd for the first time in a number of years, based at the Wairamarama Hall.

What a great piece of road, and it was enjoyed by all the teams competing. Thanks to all the teams for taking part, thanks to our volunteers who worked hard, and a special thanks to our residents, events can’t happen without any of these.

A team of PCC members were in the action at the SACC Jack’s Ridge Rally Sprint- both competing and volunteering. Its always good to help out- and I certainly enjoyed being out on the course watching the action rather than being in the control and results.

Well done to the members who competed at Otago Rally- especially Ben Hunt taking the win- it was edge of the seat stuff as we followed the times on Crissport!

Brian Best and I are going to the next planning evening- we are looking at dates for Murray Rd Hillclimb in October, Speed weekend- which will be the Clubsport Champs in November. We are looking at a hillclimb in the Maramarua forest for late August. And we hope to pull together another series of motorkhanas. We would really like to get a tarmac hillclimb or bentsprint as well, if anyone knows of a suitable road

PCC is part of a group of Clubs pulling together a rally in the North Waikato. It’s a good concept- as many of our Clubs struggle to do these events separately, but together we have numbers and skills that combine well to run events. Depending on a few dates we are looking at a date mid- March 2026. If you are keen to help, please let me know. The prospective roads look good!.

Nikki and I are attending the Motorsport Conference and AGM next month, lots of connections are built at events like this- so we will report on this after.

Plenty of other events coming up- with rally sprints and rallies all coming up- Clubs are always happy to hear if you can help out on the day, if you aren’t already sitting in a car. There are always good skills to be learned out there.

Cheers

Our Calendar for the Year

The club is focused on continuing to deliver events throughout the year. The current splattering of events are;

We’ve got Hillclimb’s on the horizons and naturally the motorkhana and autocross’s will kick off again when the paddocks are dryer.

We’re enquiring into an Aug/Sept hillclimb at an old stomping ground to keep it fun and we’re also trying to hone in on a tarmac road for our tarmac racers..

Motorsport NZ Hillclimb Championships

Speed Weekend / 22-23 November 25

Pukekohe Car Club are proud to be supporting the Motorsport NZ Hillclimb Championships, including our 2-day tarmac + gravel hillclimb roads, in the pristine Port Waikato area, as part of the competition scheduled for later in the year.

This is the opportunity for national competitors to come and battle with the locals for the fastest time up the hills. It’s always a great to team up with MSNZ to host these type of events, the name of the game is to open events up to new competitors, and to have as many as possible competing on the day.

Accommodation will be available at the shearers quarters in Limestone Downs. Nestled up in between the two hillclimb roads, it’s a humble abode and offers all the needed amenities required after a days racing. It’s also a great chance for competitors to unwind in a social setting, enjoying dinner, a few drinks and goo yarns into the evening. The Event Secretary will collate interest and bookings prior to the event date. Nikau Caves is also another fantastic spot for accommodation near by, its great to support local when you’re out and about racing in the regions where you can and this is a gorgeous wee spot, check them out Nikau Cave & Cafe

Our club works hard behind the scenes to maintain good communications and rapport with residents. Communications are crucial as we work through road closure applications to Council for pubic road use. Hours are spent on resident visits, email communications, competitor communications and general admin. As volunteers, we do this and the icing on the cake for us, is to see numbers attending scheduled events. We also open the door to other disciplines of motorsport to come and join us at these events; Targa, Track, Drift, Cross Karts, come out guys and girls and enjoy the hillclimb roads.

Otago Rally Recap

The writer, had the opportunity to codrive at the Otago Rally alongside local Auckland driver, Colin Cole. What an offer I thought, a once in a lifetime opportunity to be part of this level event. I mulled on it, knowing very little about the Otago stages, the terrain, anything about this rally really, I’d never been to Dunedin before hehe. I looked up Kuri Bush on Youtube and switched my laptop off a few mins into the in-car stage video as it was so intense to watch, one of the scarier stages I figured, well that and crests everywhere down there.

I also had to ask the family for a 6-day away from home pass and that’s a fair time away from home and my young nippers. All or nothing I figured, so bags packed, with jacket, and off to Scarfie town. When you land, you sort of want to explore a bit to get your bearings, and find a watering hole, naturally. Newbies to this event have very little time to do such things. The 2-pass stage reconnaissance clocked up a massive amount of kms over Thurs & Fri, like 2,000+ with 10 & 7 hour days. Tidying up illegible scribblings of stage notes seemed to take hours to get right but all worth while, doing all this whilst tracking a car coming down from Christchurch to Dunedin, for us race in. She did arrive though in the nick of time and nestled in amongst the recurring competitors at the Dunedin Octagon Ceremonial Start, she looked the business.

A fresh pair (mainly myself) set off on Saturday, I was hoping I was reading all the dialogue correctly to get us to where we needed to go. Bloody spilt my flat white on my overalls, gawd, probably nervous! Check-in then check-out and off we go .. the car felt real good, the intercom was fading so a battery change in transit & ah ha, we can hear properly. After a big tour with a few tail wiggles on the gravel bits to grasp the car handling, and time to belt up and get stuck into the first 34km stage, Berwick Forest- gulp. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Go .. Seeing Hayden Paddon on the side of the road not far into the stage was daunting, then Rambo, then 7 other competitors off, my anxiety started setting in. Just focus on the notes, it felt so good, like a crazy Maramarua Forest but ready to bite ya hard. Holly s**t, we got to the end of the first stage … wee celebration, woo hoo .. then a tour of many tours, past the Middlemarch Ploughing competition and into the most amazing town of Middlemarch. The following four stages were flowing, fast and fun. I stickered the crap out of my tour and stage note books, helping me quickly hone in on the right sections. ‘What’s over this crest again’, Colin said a few times, I replied ‘I hope like s**t it’s flat otherwise it’s all over rover’. We questioned ourselves over a few Flat Over Crest calls, as you do, Colin had serious trust in me, ahhhh don’t disappoint!!!!

Stage 7 Nenthorn, literally the scariest stage of my LIFE. At 37kms, it starts off quite fun, big stretches, crests, gates, grates, scenery, ascending .. then it goes a little precarious and narrows in bits and when you’ve had a chance to see what is, or what I felt, what isn’t on the side of the descent down the side of the mountain range, I went super cautious and wound heaps of corners back to lower numbers, sorry Colin. 5R into 3L 80 into 4R I don’t want to die, 6L be careful into 4R get me home today. I think it’s mad racing down mountain ranges, perhaps if I focused more I could have gotten back in the zone but arghhhhhh those drops. The final stage of day one, the Dunedin tarmac stage 8, literally circles around a big block, I liked this to wind down from the many big stages of the day. Throw her round the corner and give the crowd a tyre screech. The Magnum crew looked after us all day and it was awesome to see them at the required pits stops, such a great bunch of people and I must say it’s luxe hopping out of a car, being offered food and water and having others do the car checks, brakes, tyres, refuel etc …

Oh boy the wine tasted so good that night! I got to Google ‘a place’ to go from the gas station whilst getting more gas for day two. I’m a Google fanatic, so I found a ‘non-pub’ and made a quick booking at Vault 21 for our big group, what a nice wee spot, bit fancayyyy….

Day two and the fatigue starts kicking in. First stage, a big one, we get to the stage and we’re advised it’s cancelled, bad accident. OMG, tour through, where’s my paper bag, breathe, stay chill, stay chill … Next stage, Akatore is massive too, 34kms. Fast through forestry, rough and narrow sections, honestly with on-point notes, you could absolutely fly in here! Stage 13 Waipori Gorge, OMG again, intense, the corners that flow then tighten, arrghhh. This was another stage where I almost forgot to blink, eyes drying, narrow and cliffy, very scenic and arrghhh hairy ..

Hello service crew, you awesome bunch, and our PCC mates spectating. NO time for a cup of tea and a quick lie down, tick tock, goes the clock. OK, off again. Throw away that bloody paper bag, we’ve got this .. quick look at each other, yip, we’ve got this.

Stage 14 and we encountered some minor mechanical niggles. A master switch had popped off a bracket inside the car behind the handbrake and was arcing on the inner body making some smoke and making the car cut out. Colin magpied that issue super fast and threw me a weird wire thing to hold and pace-note at the same time. ‘What is this thing I said, it feels like hot and weird, like zappy’, ‘just hold it till we get to the end’ he said. What a champion, I felt relieved to see the finish line and get rid of the weird wire thing. In tour, this South Auckland girl already had a roll of electrical tape in my race bag, beside the M&Ms and antinausea pills, so Colin taped the s**t out of it and allowed us to head to the pinnacle stage of the WHOLE EVENT – Kuri Bush. By this stage I’m rather rattled and zapped.

I thought I had it, a was breathing like I needed the paper bag again, the sun strike and lying dust was very real and in the back of my head I could hear ‘don’t stuff up the crests, it’s easy to get the crests mixed up’.

Hurrrrahhhhh all or nothing ….. race face and go, go, go. I kept up with the notes at the start, it felt real good but I lost my place after a spectator intersection and proceeded to freak out like a cat about to have bath. Poor Colin was cool as a cucumber throughout my panic. I mean it’s pretty flippin awesome that road, you kinda cant battle it confidently though after only a 2 x pass through, it’s an ABSOLUTE BEAST. Do not do that road if crests are not your thing, full concentration, full send, last stage of the event, yeee haaaaaaa … calm down crazy cat, just go with it, Colin can clearly drive pretty dam good, we’re hurtling towards the finish of the marathon and I see that last finish line.

I hadn’t been paying attention to any results, I feel like we did pretty good, in honesty we (or maybe myself) didn’t care where we finished, we were elated we’d finished, what a feeling, hugs and a big pat on the back!! Our Pukekohe club mates met us at the end after a two day spectating excursion, a big adventure for all of them as well. Quietening down, and laughing over stage stories in the field by the sea with the rolling waves, the DX Corolla was cleaned out and rolled back onto the trailer for its drive back to Christchurch, bye DX, you did us proud.

High five all the way Colin and to the rest of the other PCC competitors. Massive congrats to Ben & Tony, what an awesome rally win!

What the .. 1.5 hours until the big dinner … we bolted back to Dunna’s and I selfishly called shotgun for the first shower. Warpaint on and shimmie off to the awards dinner, a treat to top off a huge few days. I ordered a bottle of bubbles, yes I did, no drinking the night before ‘did not‘ apply on this night with celebrations and spoils to be had with an absolute stella crowd of people. The afterparty, well, we don’t let loose what happens at the afterparties, this is something you have to experience yourself, I will tell you though, it doesn’t disappoint!

What an event! Highly recommend for everyone to do. I’m still fizzing!!!!

Cheers, Nikki

Committee Life

We’re as busy as we always are with many things in the pipeline. Events events, emails, planning .. We’ve also got our End of Club Year coming up in July and an AGM that flows not too far after that.

Before this coming AGM, we’re calling out to our members for interested peoples to step forward to the Committee. No pressure and no commitments, we value all inputs however you can give it. Time to step up members and reach out to secretary@pukekohecarclub.co.nz, it’s a group effort and without you we cannot do it alone.

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