“I mean, the roads up there are just sublime,” the Cantabrian said of Northland.
“You can carry so much speed because of the camber, and there’s lots of corners, but it’s still quite high speed, which I quite enjoy, and I mean the car was going great up until then, so it was really enjoyable.”
Conditions were wet, but visibility was still good.
The stage finish was a few hundred metres away.
“So you sort of probably get a bit excited that you’re nearly at the finish and probably just forget that you’ve still got that little bit to do.”
As they reached a corner, Stokes kept his foot down. That method worked last year.
Flying around the bend about 170km/h, the rear of the Skoda stepped out, sending the car sideways.
“It all happens so fast that you don’t really have time to register what’s going on at all,” Stokes said.
The left rear of the car clipped a tree stump at the roadside, the impact knocking the pair unconscious.
Stokes’ foot was still pressed down on the accelerator, meaning the Skoda spun in circles at least five times before coming to a standstill.
Rally driver Jack Stokes’ car after the crash.
Stokes’ next hazy memory was waking up still inside the car as following co-driver Jason Farmer attempted to rouse him.
Stokes managed to clamber out of the car.
“I was pretty dizzy at that point,” he said.
Stokes’ brother, who was also competing, helped get Graves out a few moments later.
The pair sat down at the roadside, tried to drink some water, and waited for first responders.
“It sort of took probably five or 10 minutes to actually remember what was going on,” Stokes said.
Remarkably, the only damage to his gear was a crack in his helmet where the microphone came out.
He was thankful his head and neck support worked too.
“Which was probably the big reason why we weren’t more injured, to be honest,” Stokes said.
The pair were taken to Whangārei Hospital in an ambulance for medical checks.
Diagnosed with concussion, they had been stood down by Motorsport New Zealand until being cleared by a doctor.
“The past few days have been pretty average,” Stokes said.
“I’m just trying to focus on the recovery at the moment and reflecting a bit on what went wrong.”
Saturday’s crash wasn’t the first for Stokes, although it was his most severe.
He had no doubt he’d be back competing.
“It’s pretty addictive, so hard not to do it,” he said.
But Stokes couldn’t help but feel like he’d missed out.
“I mean, we’ve put thousands of hours into it. It was a pretty cruel way for it all to be taken away, but it’s just part of the sport, the risk that you accept when you sign up for it.
“The amount of work that you put into it gets ripped away from you like that. But yeah, it’s all part of the sport.”
Looking at his car while speaking to the Advocate, Stokes said the damage wasn’t catastrophic.
“It’s just back at our workshop, so we’ll fix it eventually. I don’t think we’ll be in any rush. We’ll do it properly and do a nice job of it.”
He knew he’d be back out at some point.
Stokes grew up around racing. His dad was a veteran. The whole family was involved in one way or another.
“I think my first memory is being at a rally,” he said.
“From what I’ve thought so far, I don’t really have any qualms about getting back in the car in terms of being able to do it again.”
Brodie Stone covers crime and emergency for the Northern Advocate. She has spent most of her life in Whangārei and is passionate about delving into issues that matter to Northlanders and beyond.