Summerfield shines in Catlins Coast Rally
Matt Summerfield won four of the six special stages on his way to victory in the 20th edition of the Catlins Coast Rally in his Mitsubishi Mirage AP4.
The Christchurch driver took the lead after the third stage and had built a lead of 52 seconds before Gore driver Andrew Graves won the final stage, cutting the margin to 38.8 seconds at the finish of the August 8 event.
It was third time lucky for the pairing of Summerfield and co-driver Jared Christofferson after they also competed together at the rally in 2018 and 2019.
“We had a really good day, you have to drive pretty hard to beat Duggie [Graves]”, says Summerfield.
“We had a spin in the first stage and I had to change what I was doing but the day went pretty smoothly. It was a good battle and it is a great event.”
Four-time winner Graves, with son Hayden co-driving, finished second in his Mitsubishi EVO 3 after triumphing in the first and last stages of the event, which is organised by the Eastern Southland Car Club.
Kaikoura driver Regan Ross took third sport in a Ford Fiesta R5, with Dean Bond of Balclutha in a Mitsubishi EVO 6.5 and Canterbury’s Josh Marston completing the top five.
