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A race of two halves

Tuesday 5 July 2016, 3:18PM

By Mark Baker

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Jacob Brownlee and Wayne Moriarty
Jacob Brownlee and Wayne Moriarty Credit: Mark Baker

Canterbury’s newest offroad racer takes first championship win

Local drivers made the most of their home round and surged to the front of the 2016 Polaris New Zealand Offroad Racing Championship at West Melton near Christchurch.

Seasoned Christchurch racer Moriarty dominated the 1600 class in sunny conditions on the Saturday, winning all three heats in close racing. He then briefly led the enduro but was happy to take second at the flag and add 71 points to his existing championship tally of 66 from the opening round and leads the southern points battle outright.

Former stock car racer Jacob Brownlee used his new unlimited-class Mitsubishi Evo-powered car to take his first championship race win on the first day and then to win Sunday’s 205 km endurance race in bitterly cold and rainy conditions.

He was ecstatic at his result and said after the enduro “I’ve just had more fun in two days than I ever did driving round and round speedway tracks in my stockcar”.

Neither he nor his car faltered on their charge to the enduro win despite a strong early challenge from Nevil Basalaj of Nelson in his massive Jimco Chev. Basalaj had raced the 2016 Woodhill 100 the week before, where he broke an axle. Arriving at West Melton he took two outright wins in the short course racing and led for four laps on the Sunday but then broke the other axle deep in the forest.

Vinnie Harvey had also raced hard on the Saturday, and was chasing Brownlee in the enduro when his engine let go, punching a hole through the side of the block. Moriarty had been second and took over the outright lead for two laps, but Brownlee was focused on the win and swept through to take and hold the lead on lap seven.

Behind them, Bob Uttridge consolidated third overall in his new Yamaha S class racer.

In the truck classes, Ron Crosby emerged the leader after a pitched battle with Blair Prebble, the pair both running Mitsubishi Pajero 4WDs in 4WD Bits class 2

Darrin Thomasen blew his transmission in the enduro but had done enough in the first day’s short course racing to hold out Otago driver Wayne Wilson – especially when the latter only lasted one more lap on the Sunday. He won 4WD Bits class 4.

Bryan Chang had dominated GT Radial Tyres class 8 in the short course with three wins from three starts and was locked in battle with Gavin Storer until Chang slid wide into a ditch. Storer stopped on the next lap and towed him out, enabling Chang to take second in class for the enduro.

 

2016 Polaris New Zealand Offroad Racing Championship

Top ten provisional southern standings after two of three regional rounds

1 Wayne Moriarty 137 pts

2 Ron Crosby 128 pts

3= Bryan Chang 126

3= Brad Harvey 126 pts

5 Ray Tavinor 108 pts

6= Darrin Thomason 106 pts

6= Clint Densem 106 pts

8 Nevil Basalaj 95 pts

9 James Dickson 67 pts

10 Slim Slee 61 pts

 

Kiwitruck youth category

K Class Drea Simcox 72 pts

J Class Brooke Storer 72 pts