There’s something special about daybreak. It’s the start of a whole new day. A whole new adventure. When darkness deserts the streets of Manawatu on Saturday September 23, rallying will return to a corner of New Zealand for the first time in a decade.
The Daybreaker’s back.
Run for the first time 40 years ago, this event rapidly became a go-to event located in the lower half of the North Island. Across the whole country, it was second only to Rally New Zealand. Because it did something a little bit different.
Starting at 10 o’clock at night – or latterly at midnight – the event ran through the early hours of the morning and finished at four the following afternoon.
There’s no midnight start next month. Instead, there will be the symbolism of the first car going off the line and into the opening stage at daybreak. A further eight stages and close to 100 competitive miles will follow on this fourth round of the New Zealand Rally Championship.
The Daybreaker last ran in 2013 and returns this year following the loss of the Hawkes Bay and Coromandel rounds of the series due to the storms that hit New Zealand earlier this year.
Tony McConachy is one of the driving forces behind the return of the Daybreaker Rally.
“The Daybreaker was the first event I ever did,” said McConachy. “It was back in 1986. Some friends and I built this Mk2 Escort and thought: ‘This rallying thing looks pretty cool!’
“We pieced the car together and entered the Daybreaker. We started at midnight and went into the event with the Alpine stereo still in place… but it was a crazy-tough rally. We were absolutely knackered and shocked at how taxing the whole thing was. But we made it.”
McConachy soon roped in fellow Kiwi competitor turned organizer Paul Fallon.
Fallon told DirtFish: “There’s something special about this one. Starting at midnight and running through the night on some amazing roads, it brings some real emotion. Everybody has memories of this rally and the chance to bring it back is something we couldn’t miss out on.
“Obviously, the reasons are really tough: the storms hit Hawkes Bay and Coromandel so hard. Losing them meant the championship was down to four [rounds] and we needed another event. Bringing back Daybreaker just made sense.”
So why no midnight start? McConachy: “We would love to do that, but it’s fair to say there are a few competitors who wouldn’t. From an organizers point of view, there’s no doubt it’s a challenge to run a rally in the dark and we’re keen to walk before we start running again.
“A midnight start in the future is certainly something to think about, but there will be an element of darkness for some crews this year.”
The first entry for the fourth round of the NZ series came from Brian Green, a man who has put more into New Zealand rallying than most. And a man who’s no stranger to the Daybreaker, having competed on the event in such lauded machinery as an ex-Juha Kankkunen Ford Escort WRC.
The former Malaysian Rally Champion, now in his fifth decade of competition, will drive his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX on the event he’s sponsoring.
Expecting a sell-out entry, Kiwi crews will take on current NZ series leader Hayden Paddon and defending V8 Supercar champion Shane van Gisbergen, who confirmed his entry aboard the same Audi S1 AP4 car used at the International Rally of Whangarei held in May.
“I’m looking forward to my next round of the NZRC,” said the 34-year-old star. “We had a tough time at Whangarei with some issues but a lot of work has been done to make sure we are ready to go for the Daybreaker. We did a test event a couple of weeks ago and the car was feeling great.
“From history the Daybreaker was always an awesome event and it’s great that it’s back on the calendar this year, I can’t wait.”
