Team rallies round for rebuild

Kieran Hall

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Nelson rally driver Kieran Hall is facing big challenges before he can make it to the starting line in this year's New Zealand Rally Championships.

Hall's promising rallying career took a big hit last year when a high-speed crash in the 0800 Boxman Rally of Nelson destroyed his rookie championship chances and his car.

But the 26-year-old engineer was determined to continue chasing his rallying dream and late last year he made the commitment to buy another car.

The new 2008 Subaru Impreza STI Hatchback arrived from Possum Bourne Motorsport last November, and since then, the Hall Motorsport team has been busy rebuilding the car to meet rigorous Group N specifications.

"I always knew we were going to come back," he said. "Everyone has their setbacks, but you have to get through it."

Hall, Paul Heath, of Kustom Fabrication, and Paul Stevens, of Ansco Engineering, have so far spent about 115 hours on the rebuild.

They have completely stripped the car and seam-welded it to strengthen the body and were preparing to mount the seat tubes and install the roll cage.

Although it was a big and expensive job, Hall said one of the positive spinoffs of the rebuild was that the team would know the car intimately. If something went wrong during this year's championships, there was a good chance the team would be able to pinpoint and repair the problem quickly.

Hall said it was going to be "a big ask" to get the car ready for the first round of the championships in Dunedin on April 10, but the biggest challenge would take place outside the workshop, raising the funds to pay for the rebuild.

"We are saving about $20,000 by using the gearbox and big brakes from the WRX and we're doing most of our own labour, but it's still an expensive job.

"We will have to pay $40,000 for the car, and by the time we finish, it will have cost about $90,000."

Hall said Possum Bourne Motorsport has helped out by releasing the car for $25,000 so that they could start the rebuild, and now he was focusing was on fundraising. This month, Hall Motorsport launched a 250 Club fundraiser that gives businesses a chance to win advertising space on the new car.

"We are hoping for good support. It will be a Nelson-built car run by a Nelson team in the national rally championships, so it's a good opportunity for a business to get some good exposure," Hall said.

* For information on the fundraiser, see hallmotorsport.co.nz.

- © Fairfax NZ News