Photo: Marice Bain leads Clive GeorgeThe best, fastest and bravest offroad racers in the North Island are headed for Matata this weekend in a bid to gain more points toward the national title.
Organised by the Bay Offroaders club, the Matata round of the 2008 Asset Finance Offroad Racing National Championship has already attracted more than 40 entries.
Spokesperson Gary Baker says the fastest cars in the sport will be well represented. Already, eight entries have been received in the Race Suspension Specialists Class One (unlimited) category, including defending North Island outright champion Tony McCall in the Cougar Evo Porsche; Neville “Max” Smith in his Cougar Honda VTEC Turbo; Rob Ryan in his Ryan Honda VTEC and Shayne Huxtable in his Ryan Nissan Turbo.
“Just among those four the battle will be fierce during the morning’s short course races. Tony McCall is the man they love to target, and none of the other three have managed to beat him on the track – so naturally they all want to!”
Local driver Clive Thornton driving a Australian-built Southern Cross adds to the mix, fresh from an outright win at the Woodhill 100 and fourth in class at the previous national round; while Hamilton’s Paul Smith is bringing his powerful Eagle Nissan Turbo; series regular Melvin Rouse is heading south from Whangarei to contest the event in his Nissan-powered car and Colin Meredith will also race in the Chenowth-Cougar Toyota Turbo two-seater developed by Clive Thornton.
“Any of these guys can win on the day if the scrap among those fast four at the front gets messy”
An eleven-strong entry for the Leader Products Super 1600 class includes the fastest North Island racers in the class and sets the scene for some close racing over the course of the morning.
“Donn Attwood, Richard Crabb Malcolm Langley re-start their season-long rivalry for top points and even as it stands they will be hard pressed to dominate this class field, because grids are random and make sure everyone gets a front, mid and rear of the grid start. I reckon adding a further five or six cars in late entries means we could well have the biggest Super 1600 grid of the year.”
In The Workshop Super 1300 class, young Nick Hall of Drury is the top contender, leading the national points race for the class and third overall on points with only Maurice Bain and South Islander Wayne Moriarty in front of him. Other leading entries in the class are Hawkes Bay’s Dean Graham, a former class champion, and Ray Olsen, one of the fastest drivers in the class who is making a welcome return to competition.
Another national class leader is Shane Porter, racing in the “one make” VW Challenger class. All Challenger cars race with a specific 1.6-litre flat four VW engine to control costs, making the class an ideal entry point to the sport. He faces some of the most experienced racers in the class: Troy Tufnell, Greg Mullins, Geoff Matich and Paul Thomas are all front-runners and often feature well in endurance races.
The leader of the Camco production truck class is also heading to the Bay of Plenty in a bid to preserve both his class lead and his North Island points lead. Nissan Navara Maurice Bain saw the latter advantage whittled away at the previous round at Hawkes Bay despite driving a problem-free race.
He is up against long-time rival and fellow Hamiltonian Nigel Newlands in a powerful Mitsubishi Pajero V6 and the Toyota Hilux of Scott Hay.
In the crowd-pleasing Camco ThunderTrucks, local drivers Gary Baker and Clive George go head to head in their mighty V8 trucks – Baker in a quad-cam Nissan Navara and George in a Chev engined Toyota Tundra. Though the pair are team-mates, there are no niceties when the flag drops.
Another local driver, Pete Weatherley, is out for his second race in a new V8-engined Pajero. Adding to the mix is South Head’s Raana Horan in his Nissan Safari V8.
All except Baker have four wheel drive, often an advantage in tight going though less handy in an open, fast farm enduro. Qualifying time trials for the afternoon’s endurance race start at 7.30 am sharp, and will conclude at 8.40 am.
Grid-up for the first of the “short course” heats is at 9.15 am, final heats will be complete just before 1.00 pm.
In all, race fans will see up to 21 heats of short course racing and a 175 kilometre endurance race in one day. In addition to the offroad racing action there will be quad (ATV) racing at several times during the event.
Admission to the track is $10.00 per adult, with children under 12 admitted free.
Asset Finance Bay of Plenty championship event
Leading entries as at Friday 18 July (driver name and car number)
VW Shoppe Challenger class
Paul Thomas C84
Aaron Dickson C69
Shane Porter C77 (national class leader)
Geoff Matich C18
Greg Mullins C49
Troy Tufnell C76
The Workshop Super 1300 class
Reece Bartle 519
Dean Graham 507
Nick Hall 561 (national class leader)
Ray Olsen 531
Pete Tinsley 559
Leader Products Super 1600 Class
Donn Attwood 371
Brooke Bartle 321
Jeff Barton 355
Richard Crabb 357 (national class leader)
Colin Goodwin 356
Devlin Hill 305
Malcolm Langley 393
Lindsay Pointon 350
Warren Rogers 348
Chris Whyte 320
Alan Butler 308
Race Shock Specialists class one
Tony McCall 1
Colin Meredith 162
Clive Thornton 130
Robert Ryan 101
Melvyn Rouse 135
Shayne Huxtable 125
Paul Smith 171
Neville Smith 188
Camco Production class 2
Maurice Bain 200 (national class leader)
Scott Hay 204
Nigel Newlands 206
Camco ThunderTruck class 8
Gary Baker 830
Clive George 876
Raana Horan 899
Peter Weatherly 814
