Sara Randall

Its been an exciting year for Sara Randall. Mid way through the New Zealand Rally Season, the 20 year old is leading the New Zealand Rally Co-Drivers Championship by a healthy 31 points. In addition to this, she has a contract to co-drive for driver and fiance Richard Mason for the GT Tires Team in the China National Rally Championship, meaning six trips from New Zealand to China this year and another six in 2007.

Sara and Richard won the New Zealand Rally Championship last year, but sadly Sara had to miss a round to concentrate on university exams, meaning she was placed 2nd in the Co-Drivers Championship. Richard became New Zealand Rally Champion for 2005, but was distraught he was not able to have Sara join him at the very top. This year he plans to make amends.

A rally co-driver's role in the car is that of General Manager and Director of Operations, not to mention psychologist and motivator. Basically, the co-driver does everything in order to enable to driver to drive to the best of his or her ability. Sara only took up co-driving last season - having previously been a driver. It is this background that Richard credits with her amazing ability to know exactly how and when to give him the road and route information he needs at just the right moment.

Stage Notes are supplied to the competitors immediately prior to the event, and these are checked during an official recconnaisance of the rally route - with many of the notes altered, deleted, or added to in order to account for each driver's particular driving style. Sara and Richard turn their notes into 'attack notes' allowing them to gain valuable seconds during the rally itself.

On the day of the event, Sara is responsible for giving Richard the calls at exactly the right moment. Each corner is graded as to its severity - in New Zealand, the lower the number, the tighter the corner. The distance to the next corner is also called out, plus any information as to the state of the road - e.g. 'don't cut' means stay on the road because there is a hidden danger on the inside of the corner. The notes and their delivery have to be totally trusted by the driver as many times they just cannot see the road ahead, and at the speeds they are travelling, they are unable to do anything to correct a mistake. Many New Zealand roads are very tight and twisty, necessitating the notes to be called out very rapidly. In a recent rally, one stage had 51 pages of notes for Sara to call, over 48 kms of twisty gravel road.

In the ten New Zealand rallies the pair have competed in to date, they have won eight and were second in two. This is despite them having the oldest car in the championship - a 2001 Subaru Impreza, racing against brand new cars. This isn't a team who arrive and drive, its a group of very dedicated individuals who service and maintain their own car - spending every available evening working on it to make sure it stays in optimum condition. They stay in the cheapest of accommodation and do their own cooking and catering for the rally in order to make ends meet and stay within their budget. Sara combines full-time university studies with managing the logistics of competition - from sourcing accommodation to planning meals.

Richard Mason & Sara Randall - still wet from the champagne! Photographer: Euan Cameron

Their greatest win so far has been the recent International Rally of Rotorua, where, with an awesome final charge, they won against three times Australian Rally Champion Cody Crocker.

Sara and Richard's ultimate goal is to compete in the World Rally Championship, but in the meantime,the next rally for the pair is at Liu Panshui in the Guizhou Province in the west of China over the weekend of July 22nd and 23rd. They will then fly back home to New Zealand to compete in the Rally of Hawkes Bay on July 29th & 30th to continue their assault on the New Zealand Championship.

Sara's Thunder Valley Racing Profile

Sara's Website

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