The Dunedin-based Vantage Team Subaru driver will start the Wairarapa event placed second in the series after being one of the pacesetters at the season-opening Rally of Whangarei. At that event she entered the record books as the first woman to win a leg of a New Zealand national rally championship round on day one, before getting a flat tyre.
“There is a sense of unfinished business heading for the Wairarapa,” says Gilmour. “I was pleased with my pace in Whangarei and, with a couple of suspension and engine tweaks since then, the aim will be to go faster again this weekend.”
Gilmour has been seeded fourth for the Wairarapa event behind national champs leader Alex Kelsey (Subaru), defending champion Richard Mason (Subaru) and former champion Chris West (Mitsubishi).
“That should be an ideal position on the road to push for the championship lead and an outright round win,” says Gilmour, whose comeback drive after early problems was one of the talking points of last year’s Wairarapa event.
She says that her confidence for this weekend has been boosted after a successful debut with her new co-driver Anthony McLoughlin at Whangarei.
This year’s Wairarapa event will be over 16 high-speed special stages: eight on the Saturday and a further eight on the Sunday. The first car is expected to reach the finish at Masterton’s Copthorne Solway Park Hotel soon after 3.30pm on Sunday.
