Offroad racing lead goes south

The outright lead in the 2011 Mickey Thompson New Zealand Offroad Racing Championship has shifted to Christchurch after a rainy day of race action in Nelson yesterday.

Dennis Andreassend, a former Nelsonian now living in Christchurch and former double champion, took a clean sweep of racing in the unlimited class to top the points table. He won all three of his heats to hold 72 points, deposing Beachlands driver Neville Smith who had held the lead after the first North Island round. Joining him with an equal share of the top position is another Christchurch driver, Simon Smith, who took his Nissan Navara V6 to wins in all the heats for class four sport trucks.

Sleet and chilling rain that fell across much of New Zealand throughout Friday evening continued today in Nelson and turned the Mainfreight Raceway in Richmond into a slimy bog that caused problems for many of the drivers and forced organisers to cancel the final all-in heat. But for Andreassend, driving a Cougar Evo single seater with a 2.8-litre naturally aspirated flat four Porsche-style engine, the day was simple enough. He surged into the lead of each heat within metres of the start, making the most of his car’s light weight and tractability to dominate. He headed local driver Ashley Kelly in each heat, Kelly finding the power of his car’s turbocharged Nissan engine difficult to translate into consistent grip in the muddy going.

Simon Smith, meanwhile, had a fight on his hands in his early heats, going head to head with local driver Darrin Thomason in a Nissan Navara. Smith got into the lead in the first heat when Thomason spun, then made the most of four wheel drive and Nissan V6 power to create an unassailable lead and win. He was not headed again in the remaining heats, Thomason spinning off the track again in the next heat as conditions worsened.

The next round of the championship will be held over two days of Easter Weekend at Palmerston North.