Huxtable wins Gwavas enduro

Hawkes Bay Driver Shayne Huxtable

He had a surplus of power and a traction deficit, but Hawkes Bay racer Shayne Huxtable has kept his turbocharged Ryan Nissan race car on track to win the 2009 Gwavas offroad endurance race. 

Behind him Bay of Plenty racers Malcolm Langley and Clive Thornton fought to retain their points advantage in the North Island championship title. 

Langley had qualified fastest in his less powerful Super 1600-class car, and was at a disadvantage running first on the road with the faster class one cars surging through after the start. 

Thornton had only managed sixth on the grid and like Huxtable made a charge toward the front as the 23-strong field sped into the depths of the forest. 

Nick Leahy, second at the start behind Langley in a tiny 1.6-litre Cougar VW Challenger, struggled with a misfiring engine and was quickly overwhelmed by the attacking class one cars.  Huxtable timed his run perfectly, making the most of a new engine development programme that delivers his car more pulling power at lower revs to sweep cleanly past the struggling Challenger driver.  He hunted Langley down, making the most of his power advantage over the Bay of Plenty driver. 

Huxtable said a new, simplified engine build has created “a weapon”. “The car is just transformed, we have maximum torque at around 2000rpm so I always have pulling power down where we need it and there’s no waiting for the turbo boost to come in.  The thing just lights up and goes.”

The red Ryan racer emerged from the first lap with a ten second lead over Langley, with Challenger class front-runner Troy Tufnell also sweeping past a frustrated Leahy to be third. 

Heading into the second lap, Huxtable said his car’s new-found power and torque highlighted the importance of having the right tyres. 

“The car was just sliding around at 160 km/h and more, I was turning into the fast corners and the back would just wash out.  I spun it once up in the top of the course and ended up looking over a very big drop!” 

The car would spin its rear wheels in top on straight sections of road, forcing Huxtable to compensate by shifting gears early and ignoring the engine’s new potential.

“We’ll have to sort that out.”

Behind him, Langley found himself in what quickly became the battle of the race.  Instead of being able to concentrate on the rear of Huxtable’s car, he was fighting off an inspired Troy Tufnell.  Langley’s Bakersfield car runs in the Pine Harbour Painters Super 1600 class and has a 1.6-litre multi-valve Toyota engine.  Tufnell’s runs in the V-Dub Shoppe Challenger class and runs a 1.6 litre flat four VW engine, but is lighter and more agile than Langley’s car.

The pair swapped second and third placings for most of the six lap, 175 km race before Langley’s car threw off its power steering belt, forcing him to drive the last lap with heavy steering.

That sealed Tufnell’s second overall, the Langley car dropping behind as he struggled with the steering.

The effort was worthwhile tough – the points he amassed hands Langley the outright North island championship title.  It was a winning weekend for the Bay Offroaders club, which counts both Langley and Clive Thornton among its members.  Thornton was second outright in the Championship with Huxtable upholding Hawkes Bay honours and coming through to be 4th in the North Island points tussle.  Another club member, Anthony Hewitt, won the Camco Offroad production trucks class in his debut year, driving his bright red Dodge Ram 1500.  Hewitt had not entered Gwavas, focussing on the coming Asset Finance Taupo 1000 endurance race, but took the title when his main rival, Hamilton’s Nigel Newlands, failed to finish at Gwavas.

Held in unexpectedly sunny conditions on Saturday 25 July, the race was the fifth round of the 2009 Asset Finance New Zealand Offroad Racing National Championship.

More details to come...

 Mark Baker