NEW CHAMPION THOMASEN DOES DIFFICULT DOUBLE

• Dramatic final weekend sees first UTV champion crowned
• Rising star John Morgan wins final round
• Favoured contenders fade in enduro

Papamoa racer Ben Thomasen has completed the most difficult double crown in New Zealand offroad racing, winning the NZ1000 endurance race and the national championship in the same year.

In September, Thomasen won the NZ 1000 in dominant fashion, taking the chequered flag on both days and completing the full 1000 km distance. Then over the weekend, he came from an in-class points deficit to win the increasingly popular U-class for side by side (SXS) or UTV race vehicles and take out the overall title in the 2015 ENZED Offroad Racing Championship.

Drivers chasing class and outright national titles carried points forward from three North and South Island regional events during the year. The final round featured class-by class short course heat races on the Saturday and an 18-lap enduro on a demanding 11.6 km course on Sunday.

Driving a Polaris RZR 1000, Thomasen went into the national final trailing Class U leader and fellow Polaris racer Carl Ruiterman (Pukekohe) by four points.

The short course races brought no advantage to either Ruiterman or Thomasen.

‘‘We won two [races] each on Saturday so there was no change to the points. It was on-the-limit racing between us and really enjoyable,” he said.

Ruiterman, Thomasen and several other class front runners including multi-time champion Tony McCall in his BSL Terra-Chev Class 1 machine were still in title contention going into Sunday’s enduro. Jono Climo had rolled out of the class 8 stakes in the heats and defending outright champion Owen Chang had struck mechanical problems with a malfunctioning transmission, a damaged clutch and a flat tyre.

On the Sunday, Thomasen was soon locked in a fierce battle for the lead with McCall, then had to pit to fix a bent rear suspension.

Back into the race with a nine minute deficit to make up, Thomasen thought the title was out of reach.

Soon afterward, he saw the BSL Chev of McCall parked and out of the race with a damaged hub. Soon afterward, Ruiterman too was sidelined.

The final laps of the race were a nervous process of maintaining pace but looking after the vehicle.

“Toward the end I drove carefully because it was a really rough track with lots of jumps.”

Outright enduro victory – and the weekend win - went to the Desert Dynamics Chev class 1 race car of John Morgan with UTV class winner Mike Small just 1m 08s behind.

Thomasen was third, 3m 57s behind Morgan while Mt Maunganui teenager Dyson Delahunty produced another strong enduro drive in his Polaris to take fourth place, a result that secured him runner-up in the UTV class championship.

Only four drivers completed the full 18-lap distance; William van der Wal and Nick Hall finishing fifth and sixth were a lap down, Hall taking the class title in his Elf-backed Toyota Chev.

Donald Preston crashed his Toyota Hilux V8 out of the unlimited truck class in a spectacular end-over-end roll, while a weekend of mechanical woes continued for defending outright champion Owen Chang with a blown gearbox in the GT Radials Ford Falcon.

Thomasen clinched the overall title with 220 points from Challenger class winner Campbell Witheford on 212 while John Morgan’s final round effort earned him 204 points – good enough for third overall and the Class 1 title.

It’s the first time a UTV class competitor has won the outright national title. Thomasen now has a string of ‘firsts’ to his name: first to win a national championship enduro in a UTV (Gwavas 2013), the first to win the biennial 1000km race in a UTV and the first UTV racer to win the outright national title.

Thomasen is part of a two vehicle team supported by Polaris New Zealand, which also sponsored the NZ1000 and the final round of the national championship.

2015 ENZED National Champions

Overall: Ben Thomasen
Class 1: John Morgan
Class 2: Ron Crosby
Class 3: Devlin Hill
Class 4: Glen Turvey
Class 5: Nick Magness
Class 6: Warren Adams
Class 7: Ollie McCall
Class 8: Nick Hall
Class 9: Gregg Carrington-Hogg
Class 10: Rosco Gaudin
Challenger: Campbell Witheford
Class UTV: Ben Thomasen
Kiwitruck M Class: Boston Morgan-Horan
Kiwitruck J Class: Harry Hodgson