Former Nelson driver Dennis Andreassend is the 2011 New Zealand Offroad Racing National Champion.  From qualifying for the opening 165 km enduro to the greasy farm paddock tracks of Sunday’s short course racing, Andreassend was unbeaten – and unchallenged – on his way to his third national title.
He made the most of his Cougar Evo VW’s traction and power throughout the weekend, starting with the qualifying prologue for the endurance race where he was one of only two to lap the short course track in less than one minute, posting a 58.56 ahead of the tiny Barracuda of Hamish Lawlor.

Though the farm course was still slick with morning dew, Andreassend sent the 41-strong field an emphatic message with his time, which was only the fourth to be set for the day.  As the track dried out, racers set times closer to the 1:01, but none broke through the minute barrier.
The first day also saw racers tackle the endurance race, which combined farm and forest roads and tracks.  In a weekend of contrasts, drivers found themselves contending with thick, cloying dust that cloaked the course in the hilly sections of the forest.
Off the start line, Andreassend dived into the fastest line for the first corner with the field bunched behind him, but when he emerged from the short course area he had a fifteen second lead over Tim Culling in a Jimco Honda single-seater, with Nelson driver Ashley Kelly holding third.

Christchurch driver Wayne Moriarty had come to the event with top points in class three and needed a podium finish in the endure to challenge Andreassend for the outright title, but is car’s throttle linkage disconnected, forcing him to pull off the track at the first corner.  It was the start of a nightmare day that put paid to Moriarty’s hopes of a title, the car’s throttle linkage failing two more times during the endurance race.
Ashley Kelly slipped past Culling in the forest, emerging second behind Andreassend at the end of the first lap, though he was more than two minutes adrift.
Like Andreassend and Moriarty, Pukekohe racer Nick Hall had come to the event with top points in his class five race car, but there were insufficient entries in Leader Products Class Five to enable him to mount a full challenge for the title.
Hall had qualified fifth fastest with a late session 1:01.57, and after the first lap he had forged through to third overall.  Next out of the forest on that first decisive lap was Whakatane's Clive Thornton, with the first truck - the V8 Toyota Hilux of Winton's Donald Preston - emerging close behind.
The big movers in the pack were Wayne Moriarty - fighting back from dead last to within the top ten - and Hamish Lawlor, carving through the field in his Suzuki Hayabusa engined Barracuda.
None, however, could match the pace of Andreassend, who completed the second lap with a lead of almost three minutes.  Ashley Kelly had dropped out with gearbox problems, bringing Nick Hall up to second overall with Nelson racer Gordon Adamson taking third close behind Hall.

Clive Thornton went out when his Desert Dynamics Chev destroyed a rear wheel hub, the failure also smashing the car's brake disc and caliper.  The demise of the Thornton car brought Donald Preston up to fourth.
Preston was slowed in the closing laps if the enduro when his truck suffered a flat rear tyre; Tim Culling's fight back to the front was also slowed when his car shredded a rear tyre.  Whakatane's Malcolm Langley, third in the championship last year, also went out when he ran over a tree stump in the forest.

Out front, Andreassend was averaging 100 km/h over the 14 km lap of the course.  None of his pursuers could mount a credible challenge.   
Andreassend ran out the winner, setting up his second day sprint to the title.  On the Sunday, steady sleeting rain turned the farm-based short course track greasy but Andreassend was once more able to dominate at will.  He won all four of the short course heats and was the fastest in the last of these, which was run as an all-in heat.
In rain or dust, wind or mud, the Andreassend-Cougar Evo combination had proven itself once more the strongest in the championship.