Offroad racers go full throttle for the 2008 title

The 2008 Asset Finance New Zealand Offroad Racing National Championship draws to a close this Labour Weekend with two full-on days of racing at Manukau, and any one of five drivers have a clear shot at the outright title.

Nelson racer Dennis Andreassend scored a clean sweep at the South Island’s final round and leads the championship outright, an important psychological advantage going into the finals, where he will race against the fastest Super 1600 drivers in the country.

He has 190 points, four points clear of Christchurch’s Daniel Powell who runs a Jimco single-seater in the unlimited class. Behind them are Super 1300 driver Ryan Densem on 182 points, Maurice Bain on 175 and Nick Hall on 169.

Shaking up the Super 1600 class, though, is a late entry from Christchurch’s Wayne Moriarty, who led the championship in his Euroblast Cougar Toyota until his transmission failed at the last South Island round. He has now repaired his car and secured additional backing for the long and expensive trip north.

The event brings offroad racing the closest it can be to metropolitan Auckland and teams it with the 2008 Targa Rally to create Manukau’s Full Throttle Weekend. Targa starts in Manukau on Labour Weekend Monday, the day after the offroad racing action concludes.

At the offroad racing event, the drivers will race in “short course” class by class heats on the Saturday before coming together for an all-in 160 km endurance race on the Sunday.

Leading entries in the Race Shock Specialists Class One category include defending class one national champion Tony McCall, experienced racer Grant Ferguson of Drury, Whakatane racer Clive Thornton, Christchurch drivers Geoff Densem and Daniel Powell.

Densem is expected to unveil a new car – possibly the sport’s worst kept secret – at the event; Powell is racing his big Jimco Nissan V6.

Camco class two for production trucks includes former championship outright leader Maurice Bain, who is expected to be battling longtime rival and fellow Hamiltonian Nigel Newlands. The first entries in the class are Scott Hay in his Toyota Surf and Robin Smith.

The Leader Products Super 1600 class includes current outright championship leader Dennis Andreassend (Nelson) in his Chenowth Honda VTEC single-seater; Donn Attwood of West Auckland and Malcolm Langley of Whakatane along with Manukau racer Warren Rogers. Also entered are Albany driver Richard Crabb in his innovative and fast mid-engined car along with Devlin Hill and Shane Cato.

Camco class four is up for grabs, with South Islander Simon Smith seventh overall and leading the class but undecided whether to come north. Second in the class on points is another South Islander, Dave Manze; while third on points – and potentially class winner if the mainlanders don’t come north – is Wellington’s Glenn Turvey in his V6 Toyota Hilux ute.

“Part time Jafa” Ryan Densem, defending champion in The Workshop Super 1300 class, works in Auckland though his roots are firmly in the South Island. He is up against Darren Rollinson, Pete Tinsley, and full time South Islanders Haydn Andreassend and Bruce Rolls, with a half dozen additional fast cars expected to enter in the coming week.

Entries in the crowd-pleasing Camco ThunderTruck class are led by the two trucks that will battle out series honours in the class: Otakiri driver Gary Baker, in his Asset Finance Nissan Navara V8 and Bryan Chang (Christchurch) in his GT Radials Ford Falcon ute. South head’s Raana Horan has also entered in his supercharged V8-powered four wheel drive Nissan Safari ute.

The VW Shoppe Challenger class for cars with flat four VW 1.6-litre engines will be fought out between Troy Tufnell, Nick Leahy, Shane Porter and Geoff Matich. South Islander Scott Campbell has entered but is unconfirmed due to a leg injury.

The short course track to be used on the Saturday places emphasis on vehicle speed and agility with fast, sweeping corners and a long back straight leading into a hairpin turn and crowd pleasing jumps with plenty of “air time”. Each class heat will be five laps of the 1.2 kilometre track.

Organisers say the following day’s enduro track has “a bit of everything” to test drivers and race cars. Set on approximately 200 acres of premium farm land the track starts on the short course layout and extends for another four kilometres for a total lap distance of five km, meaning the lead cars will complete 32 laps for a total distance of 160 kilometres.

The Iveco-backed event will be held October 25 and 26 at Prices Road, Manukau. Adults admission is $10 per person, children under 12 are free. Short course racing starts 10.00 am Saturday, sprints for the enduro grid are at 9.30 am Sunday and the 160 km enduro gets under way at 12.30 pm.

Information will also be available at www.oranz.co.nz