Spectacular clash in prospect at national championship final

HARD CHARGERS TO THE FORE

Final regional rounds of the 2015 ENZED Offroad Racing Championship have put two of the most exciting driving talents in the sport head to head going into November's final in Hawkes Bay.
Tony McCall of Manukau and Nevil Basalaj of Nelson carry maximum points to the event, having dominated the Achilles Radial backed unlimited class. McCall survived broken steering on his BSL Terra Chev at the final northern round to amass 121 points ahead of John Morgan in the ex-Thornton Desert Dynamics Chev. Basalaj had a slightly simpler run to the final, winning the southern region rounds with two outright victories including a second Nelson Ruf'n'Tuf 250 title.

Basalaj overcame huge odds to win the final southern round of the 2015 ENZED Offroad Racing Championship, the Ruff’n’Tuff 250 in Hancock Forest near Dovedale in late July. His greatest challenges, though, lay in simply getting to the race. He had to jump flights in from Papua New Guinea after his bookings were disrupted, then make a dash on the morning of the race from Nelson Airport southwest to the track, suit up and post a qualifying sprint. An understeering moment at the qualifying turnaround cost him precious seconds and dropped him to fifth off the start line.
But from the moment the green flag was waved, Basalaj owned the 250 km endurance race backed by Greg Winn
He still had to contend with a caution for excessive speed through the slow-down area at the pit entry, and also pitted to change a flat left rear tyre mid-race, but Basalaj was not to be denied.
His in-class rivals in the Achilles Radial unlimited class crashed or found they were unable to stay close to the Jimco on the slippery 42 km course.
"It was a great course, very technical which meant I was always busy, the car was great and went strongly all day. It was hard work in the tight stuff for sure," he said afterward.
Race sponsor Greg Winn stepped up from third overall last year to be second in 2015 in his RV Magnum Toyota.
Tim George was third overall and first in the Polaris sponsored UTV class.
Production 4WD class honours went to Steven Boyd, who finished 12th overall after rolling his Suzuki Escudo. Ron Crosby had started 20th, risen to 16th overall then was slowed when he suffered a flat tyre not far into the third lap. He continued on, destroying the tyre and rim, pitted and rejoined the race and finished second in production class.
Josh Rutledge won class five for car with engines up to 1.3 litres.
Defending champion Owen Chang upheld Canterbury honours by winning the unlimited truck class to advance to the finals with maximum points.
Victory hands Basalaj the southern regional title and sends him to November's final round of the 2015 ENZED Offroad Racing Championship with maximum points.

The final northern round of the 2015 ENZED Offroad Racing Championship at the beginning of August brought elation and disappointment in equal measure for the top championship contenders.
In a long day of short course racing at the All Terrain Racing Club's Meremere track, six drivers amassed the maximum 72 points.
Three of the four truck classes saw drivers take the maximum: Cameron Taylor won class 2 for production four wheel drives and truck in his Nissan Navara; Te Puke's Rex Croskery won class four for sports/improved trucks in his Toyota Hilux; Warren Adams won class six for Challenge trucks in his Nissan Safari.
Gregg Carrington-Hogg won class 9 with a clean sweep in his Chev-powered Baja; Paul Hussey won class 10 in his Edge Barracuda with four wins from four starts. Also taking the full 72 points in the youth category was Jackson Savage in the tiny but deceptively fast K-class Polaris.
For the first time, it was the youth Kiwitruck category that had the biggest entry in the championship.
The event attracted a record ten J-class entries in the youth category along with the new K-class Polaris and two M-class Kiwitrucks.
It was a tough day in class 8 for unlimited trucks and four wheel drives for Jono Climo who destroyed a front upright in the Kumho-backed JRC Toyota V8. Nick Leahy was making a 'guest appearance' in the same class driving the Camco Toyota Chev but broke the truck's steering.
Multiple national champion Tony McCall broke his ENZED BSL Terra Chev's steering in heat two for the Achilles radial-backed class one unlimited race cars. His crew repaired the car but he repeated the damage in heats three and four, nursing the crippled single seater home in fourth place in both those heats.
Tauranga's Dyson Delahunty rolled his Polaris RZR 1000 in the U-class heats. Joel Giddy rolled his RZR on the same corner in the final U-class heat.
Devlin Hill rolled his class three single seater stadium car on the same corner that claimed the two UTVs. Brendon Midgely won three of four class three heats. The overall win on the day and victory in class one went to Whakatane's Malcolm Langley who capitalised on Tony McCall's misfortune in the second heat. Langley was third in the first heat (won by McCall) then won the next three to maximise his points take from the day after pulling out of the previous round, the Woodhill 100.
Albany's Raana Horan was only able to race three of the four heats in his Nissan Titan V8 due to business commitments. Nick Hall, who had harried Horan's Nissan in his Toyota Chev Prolite all day, won the final heat for the class and posted fastest time of the day with a lap of 56.583 in heat three. Lap times had tumbled as the track dried out and the top trucks were under the one minute barrier even in the slippery first heat, while the big unlimited class race cars were unable to match Hall's time, set in the closing laps of the penultimate class 8 heat.
The biggest drama in the class, though, befell Palmerston North's William van der Wal, whose new truck caught fire in the middle of the third heat. Overheating transmission fluid had sprayed onto the engine block and exhaust pipe, causing the fire. Parked off the track, van der Wal at first attempted to put the fire out himself before marshals arrived to extinguish the flames. The national championship final round will be held in November on a farm course in Hawkes Bay.