Tauranga's Phil Campbell heads to the fourth round of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship, the Stadium Finance Rally South Canterbury, looking to return to a podium position.

Campbell started the season by placing The Roofing Store Ford Fiesta AP4 on the podium with a third place finish.

Unfortunately, Phil was forced to retire from the second round while in podium contention and came home fourth at the most recent round, less than 20 seconds away from a top three finish.

The South Canterbury event joined the national championship last season while Campbell and his team were developing their new car. That unfortunately means he heads to the event with no experience but is looking forward to what has been described by his rivals as ultra-fast gravel roads from the Timaru-based event.

Campbell and co-driver Mal Peden currently sit third in the national championship points standings, but they are well aware that the chasing pack are close and a podium finish will be their best bet at retaining the position and moving closer to the leaders.

'I'm really looking forward to getting to South Canterbury, unfortunately we didn't make the event last year, but we've heard so many great things about it and the roads sound exceptional,” says Phil.

'It's been an up and down start to the season, we're third in points and a podium should really help us hold that position down.”

The Stadium Finance South Canterbury Rally gets underway with a ceremonial start from Caroline Bay in Timaru on Friday night, with crews leaving outside the council office from 6:15am.

Teams will take on 12 special stages totalling 196 kilometres before the finish at Levels Raceway from 3:30pm.