Otago Rally 1st Rnd of NZRC 2010 which has very fast challenging cresty roads. Thursday and Friday were reece which went very well. The scenery around northern Otago is fantastic. Mark arrived Thurs evening with truck and rally car after a marathon 2 day trip. The rest of crew arrived Friday lots of laughs with Peter in fine fettal taking the mickey out of Roger and everyone at every opportunity as usual. The dusty roads don’t really suit us. So it was always going to be a big ask. Saturday an early start to get to 1st stages up by Oamaru. All went well. At the end of day 1 after normal attrition of competitors and 3 Great service stops by crew we were in 2nd place in class. Stage times not as good as I would have liked. Sundays plan full attack. After 3 great stages south of Dunedin at 110 % and many near offs we were 2nd in class by less than a minute. After a few more normal dramas that rallying inevitably throughs up. Disaster struck In the 2nd to last stage when the right front suspension bottom ball joint broke in corner at a very popular spectator corner. The word BUGGER came to mind ..Instant retirement. Retirement always SUCKS.         But on a positive note things could have been a lot worse if the ball joint had broken 300 mts earlier on a flat right over a crest and the inevitable car damage. Thanks to Nelson Cottle a collector of Nissan 240RS cars for letting us stay at his home and Sarah for cooking for us on Friday night. Thanks also to crew Peter, Mark, Roger, Matt, and CG, For a great effort and enjoyable weekend. Overall Rally roads fantastic. A great adventure. Not quite the results we were after. Getting ready now for 110% attach WRC Rally May 8thThis newsletters attachment comes from Dave Lunny an expert Fabricator and welder who works for Peter Van Bruegal at Prestige Motorsports where they make our Roll Cages. We did not roll as was reported on web site.