Škoda New Zealand have stepped up their commitment to New Zealand motorsport, aligning themselves with Ben Hunt in a bid to secure another New Zealand Rally Championship.
Ben Hunt is about as quintessential Kiwi as you can get, born in Nelson with Red Bands well and truly affixed,he carries himself with the cheek and cruisey swagger you read of in Crump novels.
There have been many steps that have lead up to Hunt’s success so far. Tooling around in cars on the farm from a young age, Ben followed his father into the sport and quickly his talent was evident, and he credits Kiwi Motorsport icon, Peter Johnston (P.J.) as one of the influences that has brought him to this point.
“I loved rallying, but probably wasn't looking at it that seriously, P.J. was running the rising stars scholarship back in 2009 and he was really encouraging through those three intense days of competition. I was pretty green, everyone else on the programme had driven with pace notes and co-drivers and that was all foreign to me. But my stage times were the fastest and was awarded the scholarship which gave me a fully prepared Group N Ford Fiesta for a season. That really got me hooked on the sport.”
After multiple national 2WDdriverchampionshipsin the Ford, Hunt migrated to the top tier of NZ rallying with an all wheel drive Subaru Impreza to secure the NZ Rally Championship. But more recently the championship has shifted to favour either AP4 or R5 specification cars, all based of shorter wheelbase, compact hatchbacks. Hunt knew his bigger car was struggling to maintain relevance amidst an evolving category. And then a conversation with his Father-in-law on a fishing trip changed things.
“My Father-in-Law asked me what my plans were in rallying. I’d known for a while if I was going to take things to the next step and keep competitive I’d move to a Škoda Fabia R5 in a heartbeat. That conversation basically lead to us making a plan to secure a new R5 from Europe.” Ben says, still slightly blown away by the reality of the factory-built rally car in front of him.
The Škoda Fabia R5 is the most popular factory-developed rally car of the current era, with more than 150 racing teams all over the world now using the platform and over 440units of the ŠKODA Fabia in R5, Rally2 and Rally2 evo variants.
It takes more than a good car and a good driver to take stage wins in rallying. And the Škoda New Zealand rally team has been formed around a very experienced set of hands. The car is prepared by Speedhub, a motorsport business that has been built by the former experts who took care of the legendary Possum Bourne.
Meanwhile the accurate and well-timed pace notes of trusted co-driver Tony Hawstorn give Hunt the confidence to attack corners at lightning speed, or to offer the all-important voice of reason when the red mist descends.
One thing I’ve noticed after decades documenting teams and drivers across all forms of motorsport is that for some reason rally teams just seem to enjoy each other’s company more, there seems to be a comradery forged in the mud and snow and gravel.
Following Ben and the crew from the first shake down of the new car through to the international rally of Whangārei the team is as close-knit as they get. The sausages are always hot, the beer is cold, usually, and the irreverent conversations are often unprintable.
It’s a mellow and fun environment, even when faced with challenges, of course the task at hand–winning rallies-is always at the fore but the team just gels and gets on with things. Its like their reading each others minds.
And despite a devil may care persona, Ben is anything but that behind the wheel. He isn’t just stepping into a car and mashing the throttle, he and Tony are constantly assessing conditions, stage times, road position, the championship points, and adjusting their tempo as required. As much as we all wish it were different, fast rallying these days isn’t about oversteering poetically through apexes, keeping the car as tight and smooth and shiny side up is what wins trophies.
Watching the top ten cars through the flowing, off camber roads of Whangārei, Ben is always the thesmoothestunder brakes, the least sideways mid corner and the cleanest on exit. He is surgically precise and economical with his car control and it’s even easier for him to position the Škoda Fabia R5.
“The car is so much more nimble with the shorter wheelbase and track. Physically I can use much more of the road and that takes more angle out of the corners so I can carry more speed. I’ll get faster with more seat time and tuning, but the Fabia is a very, very fun car to drive.”
Ben and the Škoda New Zealand rally team are currently running second in the New Zealand Rally Championship, and outstanding performance considering they have had only a 6 days of actual driving time in the new car.
And could another championship be within grasp then? “Mate, it would be rude not to give it a crack.”
