Nelson repels northern offroad raiders

Nelson racers Nevil Basalaj and Darrin Thomason have won their classes in the opening round of the 2016 Polaris New Zealand Offroad Racing Championship, held in Tadmor Valley on Saturday.

Four northern drivers had come south to contest the event, aiming to take home points and trophies as part of a northern invasion of the championship’s southern rounds, but found themselves in the thick of crash-and-bash action in the top classes.

Basalaj won through despite a determined push from Clim-Tristan Lammers of Hikurangi, near Whangarei. Lammers won the first unlimited class heat, but then collided with Basalaj in the second, the impact launch his car skyward and shredding Basalaj’s front tyre. Lammers was out of the race with a smashed front right suspension; Basalaj completed the heat on the flat tyre. The pair continued their rivalry in the final two heats, including the all-in feature race which was won outright by Basalaj, who netted 61 points. Another Nelson driver, Ash Kelly, rolled his Cougar VW Evo but recovered to finish second in class, just one point behind Basalaj.

In the GT Radial Tyres unlimited truck class, Martin Van Der Wal and Grant Rosenburg of Palmerston North did battle with Christchurch drivers Bryan Chang, Mike Blackmore and Andrew Johnstone along with Dunedin’s Carl Gardner.

Van Der Wal won the first heat but it was Chang who took the class, emerging with 68 points for the day. Rosenburg and Johnstone tangled repeatedl;y in the later heats, while Mike Blackmore won a heat but then withdrew from the final with a suspected smashed differential.

In 4WD Bits class four for modified utes and four wheel drives Thomason’s competition was all southern. He went up against Wayne Wilson and Dave Ballantyne and emerged the winner in his Mitsubishi Pajero, taking a strong 70 points to be second overall for the day.

A maximum 72 points went to young Ray Tavinor (16) of Christchurch who won all four heats for V Dub Shoppe class seven.