Chang team introduces the next generation

Christchurch offroad race driver Bryan Chang had a surprise in store for the field at the Southern Dirtfest on Saturday.
He came to the final South Island round of the 2008 Asset Finance New Zealand Offroad Racing Championship aiming to score maximum points and win the Camco ThunderTruck class, but he was also watching the VW Shoppe Challenger class more intently than usual.

For the first time, there were two Changs on the entry list. Bryan’s son Owen, 21, was making his offroad racing debut in the Challenger class. Chang senior said having two generations of Changs racing at the same event was “way cool”. Owen and best mate Neil Falkingham have crewed for Bryan for several years, and the drive was a way to add depth to the Challenger field and maybe shake up some pre-conceptions among the Challenger drivers. The team had worked hard to keep their expanded race programme secret until the day.
“We got an opportunity to run the Chris Devereux Magnum car, which is very competitive. Owen and I have both worked on this car in the past so it was the perfect way to get him up and racing. We just made sure nobody knew about this except us and Chris!”

On the day, the team had no expectations about Chang junior’s race prospects.
“Owen’s only had one drive before, when I ran my truck at a club day and they had a mechanic’s race. He did okay then, but this was a national championship event so we just wanted to see what would happen.”

Armed with hand-cut “prickle” tyres for greater traction, Owen hit the front in the first race and simply drove away from the field.
“I hit a tyre, drove over one in fact, but when I looked around I still had a good lead and so I just took off.”
An emphatic win in his first-ever offroad race followed, and Chang junior went out and repeated the performance in the next two heats. He was prevented from making a four-race clean sweep when his car’s clutch failed in the 20-lap feature race.  It was the first time any competitor had won three from three in their offroad racing debut.
The three outright wins were enough, too, for a share of third place in Challenger class for the weekend. Experienced Queenstown racer Matthew Pratt took the class honours for the weekend with a string of four second placings.

Meanwhile Chang senior was making sure of his points in the truck class, bursting off the start line to lead each heat. He took a clean sweep of  four from four wins and won the class at the event, also taking the class title for the South Island and amassing a points lead ahead of the national title round at Manukau in South Auckland next month.
“Owen went so well on his first run that we may well look at taking two cars north for the final. It’s been a perfect weekend.”

The Chang team were supported at Dunedin by GT Radials and Mag and Turbo.  Bryan Chang's mighty Ford Falcon ThunderTruck was on display at Mag and Turbo in Dunedin on the Friday before the event; the blue Challenger was quietly tucked away at the team's motel, safely out of sight ready for its debut.