Evo 10 takes top honours in the Targa Hawke’s Bay

30 May, 2019

McKenzie and Sayers set an early lead and held onto it throughout three days
of torrid classic tarmac rally racing in the bay.

Haydn McKenzie and co-driver Matt Sayers (Mitsubishi Evo 10 4WD) won the 2019 Targa Hawke’s Bay tarmac motor rally, held this year over three days from Friday May 17 to Sunday May 19, after managing a lead they held from midway through the first day.

The name Kirk-Burnnand remained at the top of the time sheets in the HW Richardson classic 2WD class too. This time it was the patriarch of the Auckland clan, Barry Kirk-Burnnand, and co-driver Dave O’Carroll (BMW E30 M3) who won the class.

At the end of the first day and until the lunch break of the second, it looked like the Wellington branch of Targa’s ‘first family,’ Mark and co-driving dad Chris, were going to repeat their 2018 win in the HW Richardson Classic 2WD class in their virtually identical E30 M3.

But fate in the form of an electrical issue had other ideas. Mark and Chris were forced to put their car on the trailer at Turangi halfway through Day 2 and it was left to Barry and Dave to defend family honours.

Up front it was all about Albany, Auckland ace Haydn McKenzie and his Hamilton-based mate and co-driver Matt Sayers as they led home teammates David Rogers and Aidan Kelly (Mitsubishi Evo 10) who were second, and finished just over two-and-a-half minutes up on the third placed BMW 318ti (and first 2WD car home) of last year’s event winner Steven Kirk-Burnnand and his co-driving brother Carl.

As well as their overall places on the three-day, 1143km thrash from Rotorua to Havelock North, each pair claimed a class win.

2019 Targa Hawke’s Bay results
Fri-Sun May 17-19, 2019

1. 981 Haydn McKenzie/Matthew Sayers (Mitsubishi Evo 10) 3:03:29.1
2. 961 David Rogers/Aidan Kelly (Mitsubishi Evo 10) 3:04:24.4 +0:55.3/+0:55.3
3. 756 Steven & Carl Kirk-Burnnand (BMW E36 318ti) 3:06:07.3 +2:38.2/+1:42.9
4. 667 Eddie Bell/Blair Forbes (BMW M3) 3:07:09.2 +3:40.1/+1:01.9
5. 966 Andrew Oakley/Steve Hutchins (Audi RS5) 3:12:24.9 +8:55.8/+5:15.7
6. 631 Mike Tubbs/Mike Vincent (BMW M2) 3:12:42.7 +9:13.6/+0:17.8
7. 988 Graeme Wong/Kim Blatchley (Subaru WRX) 3:14:47.1 +11:18.0/+2:04.4
8. 583 Jeremy Friar/James West (BMW E46 318ti) 3:16:05.9 +12:36.8/+1:18.8
9. 912 John Rae/Dave Leuthart (VW Polo R) 3:17:12.4 +13:43.3/+1:06.5
10. 699 Tim James/John Mulrennan (Porsche 996 GT3) 3:17:57.5 +14:28.4/+0:45.1

The Targa Tour remains a popular part of the Targa Hawke’s Bay event. Photo credits: Fast Company/Ben Hughes@ProShotz.

Motorsport Flashback –The right racing recipes, and cake

17 September, 2025

If a top-fuel dragster sits atop the horsepower list of open-wheel racing cars, then cars designed for the massively successful Formula Ford category are close to the opposite end. Invented in the mid-1960s as a cheap alternative to F3 for racing schools, the concept was staggeringly simple: introduce the Ford Kent pushrod to a spaceframe chassis; keep engine modifications to a minimum; same tyres for all; ban aerodynamic appendages; and you get the most phenomenally successful single-seater class of racing car the world has ever seen.
The first-ever race for these 1600cc mini-GP cars took place in England in July 1967, but it quickly took off. The US and Australia were among the earliest adopters. It took us a little longer because we had the much-loved National Formula, comprising predominantly Brabhams, Ken Smith’s Lotus, and Graham McRae’s gorgeous self-built cars, all powered by the Lotus-Ford twin-cam. After a memorable championship in 1968/69 the class was nearly on its knees a year later. The quality was still there with Smith winning his national title, just, from McRae, but the numbers had fallen. Formula Ford was the obvious replacement and was introduced for the 1970/71 season as ‘Formula C’.

Angela’s ashes

28 August, 2025

In November 2018, Howard Anderson had a dream of finding a 1964 Vauxhall PB Cresta to recreate the car he, his wife, Ruth, and three friends travelled in from London to Invercargill in 1969. The next night’s dream was a nightmare. He dreamed he would find the original Angela but it was a rusted wreck somewhere in Southland.
Howard’s inspiration came from reading about a driver in the 1968 London–Sydney Marathon who was reunited with his Vauxhall Ventora 50 years later. He, Ruth, and her parents had watched the start of the rally from Crystal Palace in South London. The fashion at the time among the rally and race set was to paint bonnets flat black to avoid the sun’s reflections flashing into the driver’s eyes, thus saving them from certain disaster. Howard admired the flat black bonnet on the Ventora so much he had Angela’s bonnet painted dull black.

Evo 10 takes top honours in the Targa Hawke’s Bay

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