Chang shows the flag at Ashley Forest

ThunderTruck South Island points leader Bryan Chang ran four demonstration sprints at the final day of the Ashley Forest Rallysprint near Christchurch.  His demonstration run included two laps looped directly together, and the truck’s spectacular form has since appeared on the “clubsub” Subaru enthusiasts web site.

“There were a whole bunch of Subaru guys there cheering on the Impreza and Legacy entries in the rallysprint – but they also enjoyed watching the truck go up and down that hill.  In fact one of them reconed we cam closest the to turnaround tyre and had the biggest power slide out of that corner of the whole weekend,” said Chang.
 
The organisers of the event, the Rally and Trials Enthusiasts Club (RATEC), invited the GT Radials team to the event after demo runs at previous rallysprints had proved popular with spectators.  Chang was the only offroad racer invited to the event, and ran under Motorsport New Zealand insurance and sanction.

Adding to the family’s busy day out, son Owen rode shotgun on the 0-1300 class winner.

Driving a highly modified four wheel drive Mitsubishi Cordia, Steve Murphy won the event with a 59.89 second run up and down the course, which is divided into equal uphill and downhill legs.

In recent years, Ashley Forest has been expanded to include competitors from other forms of motorsport, accepting entries from the quad and super-quad racers who have in the past raced at the Queenstown race to the Sky.  This year’s rallysprint was marred by the death on Saturday of a quad bike racer.  A quadbike driver was killed yesterday after being thrown from his bike while competing in a popular race north of Christchurch.

Police said Stephen Hales, 33, was on the downhill stretch of the course when he lost control on a corner, hit a bank and was thrown almost 60m down the road.

Story By Mark Baker

Photos By Club Sub