HEREFORDSHIRE rally star Keaton Williams has been showcasing his talents on the other side of the world.

The reigning ARA America Rally Championship winning co-driver and Bromyard resident together with his Subaru USA driver Brandon Semenyuk were invited to take part in the Rally Otago in New Zealand.

The rally is regarded by many as the best gravel rally in the world with 270 kilometres of the finest and most difficult roads in world rallying.

Each year some of the world’s best drivers are invited to Otago to compete and this year Semenyuk and Williams were loaned a 1998 Subaru Impreza with its normally aspirated H6 engine entered in the classic category.

The two-day event attracted 130 cars to the New Zealand rally championship opener.

The Herefordshire star opened up with two fastest times in the Classic Category but stage three saw them plummet down the leaderboard when a puncture saw them having to stop and change it losing a lot of time.

The next test was the longest of the event at some 42 kilometres and they bounced back to set 14th fastest overall time, the rest of the opening day was spent playing catch up to end day one 11th overall & second in class.

Day two started well with a string of fastest times in the category still holding second in class the final test was the famous Kuri Bush test.

The stage is one of the most famous in New Zealand mainly for the huge accidents that occur each year due to the nature of the roads.

This is exactly what happened to the duo, when they ran wide hitting the rear end into a bank dragging the front end around and rolling the Subaru.

Precious time was lost as spectators put the car back on its wheels and despite no glass left and a broken front screen they managed to finish the stage and arrive at the final control with just 15 seconds of their permitted maximum lateness to finish 37th overall seventh in class

"What a fantastic rally, fabulous atmosphere, great people, you can see why people want to come here," said Williams. 

From Otago it was straight to Shelton Washington DC for the Olympus Rally, round three of the ARA series.

Subaru USA used it for test and development of the new Impreza despite the duo winning the opening two rounds of the series.

The car ran faultlessly and they took another comfortable win to further tighten their grip on the series.

"For once the weather was kind to us although the stages were littered with huge pebbles, it’s still the best event in the championship and would make a fantastic WRC event," added Williams.