Other big events include the unbeaten Hawke’s Bay Magpies’ fourth NPC rugby match of the season, with a crowd of over 5000 expected at McLean Park, Napier, for the kickoff against the Manawatū Turbos at 7.05pm on Friday.
On Saturday, Hawke’s Bay Racing Inc’s winter races will be held at the Hastings Racecourse, with eight races from 12.25pm to 4.30pm as a prelude to the return of the three-day Colliers Spring Racing Carnival on September 12 and 26 and October 10.
Also on Saturday, both Hurricanes region boys’ secondary schools First XV rugby semi-finals will be played in Hawke’s Bay, at noon at Napier Boys’ High School and Lindisfarne College. MPs will also be in Havelock North for charity netball and rugby matches and there will be a full day of mainly schools netball semi-finals and finals in Hastings.
On Sunday, Central League football leaders Napier City Rovers play their penultimate match against third-placed Miramar Rangers at Bluewater Stadium, in Napier.
The motor rally starts with the gathering of the race fleet at about 4.30pm on Friday at the Sound Shell and the ceremonial start off the ramp soon afterwards.
Racing starts in Wairoa at 7.30am on Saturday and there will be six stages as it makes its way to an end at Mainfreight in Tyne St, Napier, soon after 5pm.
It will include rural stages between Wairoa and Waikaremoana and on Mōhaka Old Coach Rd, with service stops at Wairoa and Pūtōrino and between Tūtira and Pohokura and Waitara Rd before heading for Napier on State Highway 5.
It is the fourth round of the New Zealand Rally Championship, which has brought some big names to Hawke’s Bay in the past.
In addition to Paddon’s win five years ago, the following year – the last before the cyclone – featured the first serious rally drive of Supercars champion and then prospective Nascar racer Shane van Gisbergen, winning the first three stages, crashing out in the fourth, withdrawing from overall contention but rejoining the race to finish fifth and second in the last two.
About 40 teams have confirmed entry, including the frontrunners after the previous legs in Otago, Southland and King Country.
The series is led by 2025 New Zealand Junior rally champion and Rangiora driver Jack Stokes, who won the Barry Robinson Memorial Rally Southland in his team Skoda Fabia.
In second place is Jack Hawkeswood, from Whitford, southeast of Auckland, in a Toyota Laris, and third is Hawke’s Bay Car Club member Quentin Palmer, from Taumarunui, also in a Skoda Fabia.
Other Hawke’s Bay interest includes Ben Harding and daughter Charlotte Harding in a classic Mazda RX7, while Australian Toby Price is crossing the Tasman barely a week after rallying in Tasmania.
Hawke’s Bay Car Club president Brent Redington said he congratulated those who have repaired the roads over the last three years, and Wairoa District Council and Hastings District Council for helping enable access to the roads for the rally.
After an announcement on Monday, Hawke’s Bay is also scheduled to be included in the National Rally Championship next year.
Doug Laing is a Hawke’s Bay Today reporter, based in Napier, with more than four decades’ experience covering news and sports events and issues in Hawke’s Bay.