3 July 2006
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| Copyright © SUBARU New Zealand |
On Friday night West was excluded from the first two rounds of the series, losing all the points he had gained, effectively putting him out of contention in the championship he won in 2004.
The exclusion came after the team had broken the seals affixed to the engine of his Subaru Impreza WRX STI after the Rotorua event when the car suffered engine problems.
The penalty for breaking the seals without a motorsport official present is exclusion and the stewards of the Whangarei event confirmed that on Friday night.
"Winning today can't make up for what's happened," said Westy. "It was an unfortunate error the team removed the seals to fix the motor without going through the proper procedure. It's history now. We've just got to get on with competing."
"I didn't really need any more motivation to win. It's taken us a couple of rallies to get the car going properly. Now it's working really well."
With co-driver Garry Cowan in the Subaru New Zealand Rally Team Impreza, Westy finished one minute and 9.5 seconds in front of Sam Murray after the seven stages totaling 175 kms.
Westy made his winning break on the day's first stage over 48 kms when Mason, the leader of the championship, punctured, losing 73 seconds and Murray, who finished the stage second fastest dropped 24 seconds.
Westy had a slight scare when he slid wide on a corner near the end of the fifth stage and ripped off the rear bumper and slightly damaged the car's right rear suspension.
"The road conditions have been tricky," said Westy. "Sometimes the grip is really good and then it's slippery. I just miss-judged the braking for a corner and we went into a culvert."
It was not enough to slow him down, as he won the sixth stage to extend his lead over the chasing bunch.
Mason recovered from his opening stage puncture to finish third, with Emma Gilmour coming home fourth in front of Todd Bawden to complete a Subaru clean sweep of the top places.
