Offroad racers ready to go full throttle

Competitor Gary Baker being given a Start by Mayor Brown in Manakau's Street Parade

Under a brooding Manukau sky, more than 60 top offroad race teams have completed scrutineering for the weekend’s Iveco-backed offroad racing national championship final round.

The event will be held over two days, with crowd-pleasing short course racing on Saturday at Colin Dale Park, Prices Road, Manukau; then the following day a 160 km endurance race on the same park.

The Manukau City Full Throttle weekend got under way with a welcome from Manukau Mayor Len Brown, who rode in a street parade of rare and collectable cars, Targa road rally cars and the best offroad race cars and trucks and then declared the weekend open in front of invited guests including the major sponsors of the Targa and the offroad national final.

Mayor Brown, a long-time motorsport fan, said he had never got as close to the sport as this weekend, where he flagged away a representative group of cars that will compete in the 2008 Asset Finance New Zealand Offroad Racing National Championship and the 2008 Targa Rally.

The 2008 Asset Finance New Zealand Offroad Racing National Championship draws to a close this Labour Weekend with two full-on days of racing at Manukau, and any one of five drivers have a clear shot at the outright title.

Nelsonian Dennis Andreassend scored a clean sweep at the South Island’s final round and leads the championship outright, an important psychological advantage going into the finals, where he will race against the fastest Super 1600 drivers in the country. 

He has 190 points, four points clear of Christchurch’s Daniel Powell who runs a Jimco single-seater in the unlimited class.  Behind them are Super 1300 driver Ryan Densem on 182 points, Maurice Bain on 175 and Nick Hall on 169.

Shaking up the Super 1600 class, though, is a late entry from Christchurch’s Wayne Moriarty, who led the championship in his Euroblast Cougar Toyota until his transmission failed at the last South Island round.  He has now repaired his car and secured additional backing for the long and expensive trip north.

The event brings offroad racing the closest it can be to metropolitan Auckland and teams it with the 2008 Targa rally to create Manukau’s Full Throttle Weekend. Targa starts in Manukau on Labour Weekend Monday, the day after the offroad racing action concludes.

At the offroad racing event, the drivers will race in “short course” class by class heats on the Saturday before coming together for an all-in 160 km endurance race on the Sunday.

Leading entries in the Race Shock Specialists Class One category include defending class one national champion Tony McCall, experienced racer Grant Ferguson of Drury, Whakatane racer Clive Thornton, Christchurch drivers Geoff Densem and Daniel Powell – the former announcing a new team backed by his company and a new car – having bought ORANZ president Ian Foster’s Tamiya Ryan VW single seater.

Camco class two for production trucks includes former championship outright leader Maurice Bain, who is expected to be battling longtime rival and fellow Hamiltonian Nigel Newlands, along with Scott Hay in his Toyota Surf and Robin Smith.

The Leader Products Super 1600 class includes current outright championship leader Dennis Andreassend (Nelson) in his Chenowth Honda VTEC single-seater; Donn Attwood of West Auckland and Malcolm Langley of Whakatane along with Manukau racer Warren Rogers.  Also entered are Albany driver Richard Crabb in his innovative and fast mid-engined car, Devlin Hill and Shane Cato; the Super 1600 class has attracted the strongest entry fo any class at the final with 14 cars set to take the green flag as racing starts on Saturday.

Camco class four is up for grabs, with South Islander Simon Smith seventh overall and leading the class and second in class on points Dave Manze not entered.  Brendon Holland from the North Shore has brought out his Toyota-powered Suzuki SJ for a run and Wellington driver Glenn Turvey is also entered in his V6 Toyota Hilux ute.

“Part time Jafa” Ryan Densem, defending champion in The Workshop Super 1300 class, works in Auckland though his roots are firmly in the South Island. He is up against a field of ten top cars full time Darren Rollinson, Pete Tinsley, South Islanders Haydn Andreassend and Bruce Rolls, with Ray Olsen making a comeback after a spectacular crash at the Bay of Plenty round in his Nissan-powered Cougar single-seater.

Entries in the crowd-pleasing Camco ThunderTruck class are led by the two trucks that will battle out series honours in the class: Otakiri driver Gary Baker, in his Asset Finance Nissan Navara V8 and Bryan Chang (Christchurch) in his GT Radials Ford Falcon ute. Baker is North Island class champion, Chang is South island class champion.  South head’s Raana Horan has also entered in his supercharged four wheel drive V8-powered Nissan Safari ute.  Also racing are Kumeu’s Lyndsay Dowler in his fast Lexus V9-powered Toyota Hilux and Graham Steedman.

VW Shoppe Challenger class for car with 1.6-litre VW flat four engines will be fought out between top racers including Troy Tufnell, Nick Leahy, Shane Porter and Geoff Matich. South Islander Scott Campbell has entered but is unconfirmed due to a leg injury.  Nine Challengers are entered, making for close and exciting in-class racing.

The short course track to be used on the Saturday places emphasis on vehicle speed and agility with fast, sweeping corners and a long back straight leading into a hairpin turn and crowd pleasing jumps with plenty of “air time”. Each class heat will be five laps of the 1.2 kilometre track.

Organisers say the following day’s enduro track has “a bit of everything” to test drivers and race cars. Set on approximately 200 acres of premium farm land the track starts on the short course layout and extends for another four kilometres for a total lap distance of five km, meaning the lead cars will complete 32 laps for a total distance of 160 kilometres.

The Iveco-backed event will be held October 25 and 26 at Prices Road, Manukau.  Adult admission is $10 per person, children under 12 free. Short course racing starts 10.00 am Saturday, sprints for the enduro grid are at 9.30 am Sunday and the 160 km enduro gets under way at 12.30 pm.