Titans clash with tiddlers in championship final

The fastest unlimited-class car in the New Zealand offroad racing vs the fastest and largest four wheel drive truck racing in the sport in this country,

with a 1.3-litre single seater squeezed between them: that’s the prospect when the 2010 Asset Finance New Zealand Offroad Racing Championship

final round starts tomorrow at Mankuau.

Whakatane offroad racer Malcolm Langley currently leads the championship points race in his Bakersfield Mitsubishi Evo single-seater, while South Head’s Raana Horan is third in his massive Nissan Titan.

Between them is the agile but much less powerful 1.3-litre car of Pukekohe’s Nick Hall.

Langley snatched the lead in the 2010 Asset Finance New Zealand Offroad Racing Championship with first equal at the final North Island regional round, held on Sunday September 27 at Meremere.

Tomorrow he races in stadium-style short course heats to amass points that can further extend his lead.  On Sunday, he will go head to head with Horan and Hall and a host of others in a punishing endurance race to finally decide the title.

The championship final is part of Manukau City’s Labour Weekend Full Throttle motorsport and automotive weekend.  The event, which will be held on Manukau Council land at Colin Dale Park, off Prices Road near Auckland Airport, will feature two days of racing, with “short course” or stadium racing on the Saturday of Labour Weekend and a 160 km endurance race on Sunday plotted over open farm land, offering spectators excellent viewing of the race action.  Up to 45 of New Zealand’s top offroad race teams are expected at the national final, where they will do battle for class titles and the outright championship win.

Already, Langley’s rivals are lining up to meet his challenge.  Colin Meredith, in the former Clive Thornton Southern Cross V6 race car, will contest the event in Langley’s class, as will newcomer Paul O’Keefe of Tauranga, who was third in the unlimited class at Meremere.  The Southern Lakes Transmissions class one field is expected to be one of the strongest in the event, with up to 15 of the sport’s fastest cars lining up to race.

In BigPosters class three for Super 1600 race cars, former championship points leader Wayne Moriarty will make the trek north from Christchurch.  Moriarty broke his transmission at the final South Island regional round, but has rebuilt the gearbox and freshened the Euroblast Cougar race car’s Toyota engine in readiness for the final round.  He is the only racer to have won more than one round of the championship so far this year, an indication of how close the race for the title has been.

The two-car Bu-Mac Racing team of James Buchanan and Donn Attwood have been a strong presence in the class during the year and are among the first entries for the final round.  Also racing in that class is Warren Rogers in an American-built single-seater.

Second outright in the championship points race going into the national finals is Pukekohe’s Nick Hall.  He leads Autoworld Richmond class five for Super 1300 cars and will go up against Clint Densem.  Phil Finlay and Jim Cato have already added their names to the class five entry list for the final round.

Only ten points separate the top five competitors in V-Dub Shoppe Challenger class for cars with 1.6-litre VW engines.  Leading entries in this competitive class are Wayne Rowe, seasoned racer Geoff Matich, Trevor Brooks and Shane Campbell,

There is only one entry so far in the V-Dub Shoppe class 7 for cars with VW 1.2-litre engines: Josh Hoyland of Hamilton.

In the AFWE truck classes, the season-long battle between Hamilton’s Nigel Newlands and Aucklander Anthony Hewitt will be resolved.  The tussle went the way of Hewitt in his big Dodge Ram until the most recent round at Meremere, where boggy conditions allowed Newlands to take top points in his lighter Mitsubishi Pajero.

The sport truck class will see newcomer Paul Milne of Nelson go up against Wellington’s Glenn Turvey, both in Toyota Hilux four wheel drives.

In the Challenge Truck class, Steve McConnell is the leading entry in his Nissan.

The crowd-pleasing ThunderTruck class has been a seesaw battle throughout the year.  Class leader Raana Horan has his eyes on the outright title, but must dominate a class that will include Otago’s Donald Preston in a Toyota Hilux V8, Craig Westgate in a Ford Ranger V8 and an all-new American truck being brought out for the first time by Pukekohe’s Alan Joy.

The 2010 Asset Finance New Zealand Offroad Racing Championship takes place on Saturday October 23 and Sunday October 24 at Colin Dale Park, Prices Road, Manukau.  The race action is being filmed by action sport TV production company Leggework and will screen on TV3 on Sunday 31st October at 3pm and on Sky Sport starting on November 26th.

The championship power play

With six of seven rounds completed, the 2010 Asset Finance New Zealand Offroad Racing Championship is closer than ever, though South Island teams now have their work cut out to take back the points advantage and win the title.

A champion is likely to be found from the ranks of the Super 1600 or unlimited buggy classes, though the truck and 4X4 classes are threatening to overtake the fast buggies.  The championship top ten is evenly divided between north and south and also between race cars and race trucks.

Malcolm Langley’s step up from Super 1600 to the unlimited class in his Bakersfield single-seater has gone well.  He won his class on debut at Whitianga against a 12-strong unlimited-class grid and won the enduro outright; then at the second round chased the massive black Nissan Titan of Raana Horan throughout the Woodhill 100, finishing second overall when his car’s clutch began to slip.  Outright victory at Meremere lifts him 22 points clear of second-placed Nick Hall with Horan a further 16 points behind Hall.

Christchurch racer Wayne Moriarty remains in contention, fourth overall on points.  He won the first two South Island championship rounds in his agile Euroblast Cougar Toyota Super 1600 single-seater, but broke his car’s transmission at the third and final regional round leaving him short of valuable points.  He is just four points behind Horan.

The outcome of the national final round of the 2010 Asset Finance New Zealand Offroad Racing Championship rests on the strength of fields in class one (Langley), class 3 (Moriarty) and class 5 (Hall).

The AFWE Production, Sport and Thunder truck classes wait for a chance at the top step of the podium as well.  South Head’s Raana Horan is currently third on points for the series behind Nick Hall and is determined to give his big black Nissan a run at the title.

A strong turnout in these classes at the final could deny the top teams essential points and allow others in the top ten to secure the title – or even let a prospect further down the points table slip through for an upset win. 

Followers of the sport are predicting this could even happen during the Saturday short course racing, allowing the eventual winner an easy run through the punishing 32 laps of the Sunday enduro.