Dancing on gravel

Dancing on gravel

Emma Gilmour can draw on rich and varied experiences going into this year’s Otago Rally, but is also trying a few new things, Catherine Pattison writes.

Offering to run as the zero car for the Otago Rally committee 18 years ago, Dunedin’s Emma Gilmour had no inkling she was on the slippery slope to becoming a fully-fledged rally driver.

Next weekend she will line up again in the Drivesouth Rally of Otago in her refurbished Suzuki Swift AP4, having contested her home event every year since 2002. In the intervening time, Gilmour has travelled the world, rallying at WRC events in Finland and Germany in 2006. Three years later she finished runner-up in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship, flying to Indonesia, China and Japan to compete. In 2014 she became the first woman to race in the testosterone-fuelled Global Rallycross Championship across the United States. The following year an FIA Women in Motorsport cross-country project scholarship saw her swap gravel for sand as she tried her hand at off-road racing in Qatar, Italy and Portugal.

‘‘I never ever would have imagined how things would turn out. How many amazing adventures I would have all around the world and how many incredible people I would meet,’’ she said.

While every year getting the funding together, organising the car’s preparation and the logistics of sending it, plus her team around the country for the six-round New Zealand Rally Championship, takes up a lot of time, once she starts the first stage of the first rally, it’s all worth it.

‘‘I still get the same buzz I did back when I first started driving at speed on gravel roads in a rally car. That’s what keeps me hooked when I’m dealing with all the hard work pre-season. When you have the road to yourself, making a car dance on gravel, the feeling is unbeatable.’’

This year Gilmour, who is the Gilmour Motors dealer principal and manager in Dunedin, has a couple of major changes on board. Her six-season-old rally car nicknamed MMMMMs, has had an extreme make-over, having been stripped to a bare shell and rebuilt into a virtually new machine.

Driving this Suzuki, she became the first woman to ever win a national rally championship round in 2016. While she has also achieved several podium results in it over the years, she felt it was time for a change.

‘‘It’s been challenging over the past six years to build the car on the go, as budget has allowed. It’s like trying to renovate your home while you are still living in it. We decided to change that this year and even considered building a brand-new car, but it wouldn’t have been cost effective. Option two was to ‘move out’ completely and start again with the Suzuki, which is what we have done, and I’m thrilled with how it has turned out,’’ she said.

Her team entrusted Team Ralliart New Zealand, in Pukekohe, with the rebuild project under the guidance of regular team engineer Lane Heenan, in Perth.
Last Saturday Gilmour had a chance to test the car’s new aerodynamic wings and flares, plus the refurbished Suzuki 1600cc engine, at the Eastern Southland Car Club’s Popotunoa Rallysprint.

‘‘It was a great shakedown at the weekend, capped off by a win to start the year. With the changes we’ve made over the off-season, the Suzuki is feeling the best it ever has,’’ she said.

Gilmour is now counting down the days to Rally Otago next weekend, which she says is her ‘‘favourite event with some of the most amazing roads in the world’’.
She will also have a new face on the passenger side, starting with Thursday and Friday’s recce of the stages to the north and south of Dunedin, before the event-proper. Her long-term co-driver Anthony McLoughlin has taken on an opportunity in the 2019 Australian Rally Championship (ARC), so fellow Australian Ben Searcy replaces him.

An experienced navigator, Searcy won the ARC last year with his compatriot Eli Evans and was runner-up the previous two years with Australian drivers Nathan Quinn and Simon Evans respectively. This year the lure of New Zealand’s rally roads was too appealing.

‘‘I’ve always wanted to do the NZRC. And to have the opportunity to do the championship in a competitive car, and team, plus with Emma as a highly experienced driver, it’s going to be a great opportunity. I’m honoured to be there and can’t wait to get over for Otago next week,’’ Searcy said.

Gilmour and Searcy will be among a record-breaking 132 cars starting the 17-stage Otago Rally, which tops the previous highest entry number set in 2017. There are 55 competitors registered for the national championship, 37 in the classic rally field, and 15 in the fast-growing 4WD classic field.

Because Otago is also the opening round of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship, there are eight different countries represented among the competitors. Sixteen Australians are heading across the Tasman, with crews also coming from Japan, New Caledonia, the Philippines, Norway, Ireland, Germany, and even an expat Kiwi from Burkina Faso, in West Africa.

‘‘It’s great to see how much the Otago Rally has grown in the years I’ve been competing in it. It has the same fantastic roads but has really focused on building the international reputation of the event,’’ Gilmour said.

Although a win has eluded her at the Otago event, she’s finished second before and just missed out on a podium finish last year, when a last stage puncture robbed her of third.

‘‘The car is fast this year. I’m driving the best I’ve ever driven and if the rally gods smile kindly on me, we’ll be in for a good result.’’

Gilmour’s local fans can catch her, MMMMMS and Searcy, along with the rest of the rally field, at the ceremonial start in Dunedin’s Octagon this Friday from 5pm.

Photo: Becky Ladbrook - Fast Exposure Photography

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