Notice: Meremere Round now 26th September due to track conditions. more info here

ROLLS TAKES FIRST MAJOR TITLE

Bruce Rolls - South Island Round 3 Winner

Christchurch offroad race driver Wayne Moriarty went into the fifth round of the 2010 Asset Finance New Zealand Offroad Racing National Championship at West Melton keen to extend his 12 point lead in the championship.

The event had been brought north from Dunedin after the southern course was inundated with rain.  Canterbury Offroad Racing Club had agreed to take over the round at short notice to maintain the correct number of regional rounds for South Island competitors.

For Moriarty, that meant a shorter drive to the race course than the 6-8 hour tow to Dunedin.

But his title points chase was derailed after just one heat when his Euroblast Cougar was sidelined with a broken transmission.

Instead, he watched rival Bruce Rolls run away with the class win and take the weekend victory in the process.

Rolls, driving the ex-Dennis Andreassend Chenowth Honda Super 1600, has been the only racer able to stay with Moriarty in the South Island all year.

When the Moriarty Cougar coasted off into the infield of the Rock FM race course, he made no mistake, pushing his car to a string of class wins.

Moriarty competes in the most hotly contested class in the championship, but has dominated the racing in his Euroblast Cougar Toyota Super 1600 single seater with outright wins at every round.

He won the opening endurance race at Nelson by a significant margin, then capped that in June with victory in every heat and a dominant performance in the endurance race at the two-day Mainland Challenge in Christchurch.

His DNF at Christchurch on Saturday means he retains his overall championship lead, but has not extended his margin over second-placed Malcolm Langley by as much as he would have hoped. The Big Posters Super 1600 class was the most numerous of the weekend, and included one North Island driver, Lance Cargill.

Langley meanwhile gets a chance to edge into the lead in two weeks time at the final North Island round, to be held at Meremere in the North Waikato.

Other racers found recent rain had caused the track surface to become unpredictably slippery.  Christchurch driver Daniel Powell survived a lurid 360-degree spin down the track in the first heat but made the most of his Jimco Nissan’s power in the slippery going to win Southern Lakes Transmissions class one.

Winton driver Donald Preston started the day in fine form in his Toyota Hilux V8 but broke axles in the later races, surviving the day to with AFWE ThunderTruck class.

Also in trouble was Christchurch’s Scott Campbell, who repeatedly hit tyres in the two-laned section of the race course and in one heat jammed his clutch pedal to the floor, allowing Adam Ross to take the win in VW Challenger class.  Campbell also rolled his Cougar in the final race of the day, causing the race to be restarted.

Tapanui’s Hamish Lawlor, driving an Australian-made Barracuda class ten race car, was unfazed by the slippery going.  His diminutive and agile motorcycle-engined single-seater never stepped out of line all day and outpaced larger cars at will.  He won his class for the day and the South Island Series outright.

Mark Baker