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Whangarei’s own International Rally of Whangarei competitor grateful for NorthTec’s support

Former NorthTec automotive student and International Rally of Whangarei competitor Ben Jagger brought his Subaru rally car to NorthTec’s Future Trades campus recently to acknowledge the support of NorthTec boatbuilding tutor Roger Rhodes.

The Seed Force sponsored car has just been almost completely rebuilt in preparation for the upcoming International Rally of Whangarei with Roger and one of his students making an underbody protection pan out of Kevlar for the vehicle.

2010 is Ben’s third season in the national rally championship and he joins fellow Northlander Kingsley Thompson from Kerikeri in the prestigious Whangarei event, which counts for both the Asia Pacific Rally Championship and the New Zealand rally  title.

Ben has his sights on a international career in the sport and early signs are encouraging, with the 20-year-old holding a solid tenth position on the championship points’ table going into the Whangarei round.

“We’ve just received an Asia Pacific wildcard entry which means  we’re seeded tenth in the rally’s starting order, much higher up the field than usual. This gives us another fantastic learning experience as road conditions running further up the field could be different to what I normally get. There were four wildcard entries available and it’s a big deal for us to be selected.”

Role models are important for any young competitor with ambition and Ben is no exception. Ben admires current NZ rally champion Hayden Paddon who won a Pirelli Star Driver scholarship in 2009, worth around $NZ 1 million, which enables him to compete in six world championship events – an exciting and rare opportunity for any young rally driver, especially a Kiwi, given our distance from Europe, the heartland of world rallying.

Ben said that he is looking forward to testing his skills in the same event as Hayden in Whangarei next month, having competed against him in Rally New Zealand, a round of the World Rally Championship  which used roads in the Whangarei and Kaipara districts for one of its three days earlier this year.

“I would like to be a full-time professional rally driver competing in Europe and Hayden is a really good benchmark for New Zealanders to measure ourselves against. He’s competed against the best in the world and is doing really well.”

Ben and fellow Whangarei local and co-driver Ben Hawkins (who is also a former NorthTec student and Modern Apprentice), will contest the two-day International Rally of Whangarei over the weekend of 3 and 4 July after participating in several community-focused promotional activities with other drivers on Friday 2 July. Local rally fans can see ‘the two Bens’ during the driver autograph signing session in Cameron Street Mall, Whangarei on Friday from 3:30pm.