They also went to the top of the 2WD classification, overtaking Rangiora driver Ari Pettigrew, who exited when he crashed his Porsche 911 GT3 on the same Glenhill 2 stage bend, and rolled.
“We stayed on our wheels, he didn’t,” said Ben, who was later surprised to see the 2WD classifications: Harding, of Napier, No 1 in a list of 16.
The cows scarpered as the team kept mind and eye on the job, the dashcam recording their pass through one open gateway and stopping at another gate for it to be opened and closed – the only stop.
The Mazda RX7 of Napier rally drivers Ben Harding and daughter Charlotte on Mohaka Old Coach Rd during Rally Hawke’s Bay. Photo / Geoff Ridder
“It was Charlotte that spotted the gate and said I’m sure we can get out through it,” Ben said. “I’m not one for quitting, so if she hadn’t spotted it I would have kept on looking for a way out.
“Once we got through the gate, the road was just straight up there,” he said.
The car survived with nothing more than a few scratches on the paintwork.
One of only seven crews to start all five legs of the six-rally series to date, with just Rally Bay of Plenty to go, on October 31, the Hardings are headed only by Whitford driver Jack Hawkeswood, in a Toyota Yaris and already assured of the championship title, and the Skoda Fabias of Jack Stokes, of Rangiora, Quentin Palmer, from King Country, and Stokes’ brother, Robbie.
Doug Laing is a Hawke’s Bay Today reporter, based in Napier, with a career of 53 years in journalism, including more than four decades covering news and sports events and issues in Hawke’s Bay.