The off-road stars come out
Big action at Manukau
Despite a rule change that robbed the event of top South Island teams, there was plenty of off-road racing action at Colin Dale Park in February.
Counties Manukau Offroad Club hosted the opening round of the 2023 New Zealand Offroad Racing Championship at its purpose-built stadium track and drew more than 50 entries including multiple champion Carl Ruiterman in his all-new Yamaha YZX Turbo.
The event took place as Cyclone Gabrielle made landfall in Northland, and the weather deteriorated progressively as the day progressed.
Long-time racer Daynom ‘Slim’ Templeman won class 1 for unlimited race cars ahead of Justin Davies and Paul Eayrs. The class drew eight entries. Bard Harvey crashed into Alan Hilliam in one heat, ending up parked across the bonnet of Hilliam’s Porsche-powered car.
Class three for cars up to 1600cc saw the return of another long-time campaigner, former national champion Lindsay Pointon to the sport. The class win went to Connor Nicklin ahead of Mark Goldstone and Shaun Dickins. Nicklin showed the benefit of his aggressive driving and was third, third, second and first in the class 3 heats. Multiple national champion and Taupo 1000 winner Tony McCall entered his new class 3 car but was unable to race, the car’s steering failing before the first race.
Holly Russell has moved up from the youth Kiwitruck category and is racing in class five – she was clearly the quickest and won the class ahead of Aaron Hogg-Medlock, with Nick Magness third.
The big class 8 trucks turned on spectacular action, Paul Hackett crashing his US race truck over the track’s ‘tabletop’ jump. With panel damage and a wrecked left front suspension, he was out for the day.
Another to strike trouble was frontrunner Leigh Bishop, who caught fire midway through a race.
The class win went to multiple champion Nick Hall, with Nick Leahy second; both trucks built to American ProLite specs. Third was Bruce McKeown.
The sole class 9 (Baja) entry was Maurice Bain’s Crumco VW, driven by Arnold Jones.
In class 10, Ed Hiestand won ahead of Alex McIndoe.
The Challenger class for cars with VW 1600 engines was once more owned by young racer Matthew Bishop, who drove his Challenger and also his new U class Honda Talon. Second in Challenger was Emma McKinstry ahead of Steve Hughes.
The ‘side by side’ or UTV classes were the biggest grids of the event. In the main ‘U’ class there were 13 cars; the faster ‘S’ class drew another four.
U class honours went to Cam Paton ahead of Dyson Delahunty and Shane McWatt. Matthew Bishop’s Honda was an early retirement in the first heat.
Carl Ruiterman had a dream debut in S
class. He won every race for the higher performance modified UTVs. Aaron Rogers was second, Scott Munro third.
In the youth Kiwitruck classes, Zac Rowberry won J class ahead of Lily Williams and Lachlan McWatt; Asher Morgan won M class ahead of Luke Rowberry and Enzo Hackett.
Together with the Stadium Grand Prix, the first national round was filmed for broadcast on TV3. These are currently the only offroad events to profile the sport on free-to-air TV in 2023.
With Whangarei’s second round cancelled, the 2023 championship resumes in May with the first southern round in Nelson. Northern championship racing returns to the TECT Park near Tauranga in September.