Christchurch driver Wayne Moriarty aims to extend his championship points lead this weekend when the final South Island round of the 2010 Asset Finance New Zealand Offroad Racing Championship takes place at West Melton.
Moriarty competes in the most hotly contested class in the championship, but has dominated the racing in his Euroblast Cougar Toyota Super 1600 single seater with outright wins at every round. He won the opening endurance race at Nelson by a significant margin, then capped that in June with victory in every heat and a dominant performance in the endurance race at the two-day Mainland Challenge in Christchurch.
Moriarty has beaten off every challenge to his title campaign. Racing in Big Posters Super 1600 class means his car is limited to running a 1.6-litre engine and makes a fraction of the power of some of the bigger four wheel drive and unlimited class buggies. Despite this he is making the most of what many in the sport are saying is the perfect formula for success: a light, agile race car with a strong transmission, high-revving Toyota twin cam engine and well-balanced brakes and suspension.
Even the arrival in the South Island of one of the north’s fastest Super 1600 race cars proved no problem for the dominant Moriarty. Fellow Canterbury club racer Nigel Sutherland is now campaigning the Cougar Evo Toyota previously campaigned by Alan Butler in the North Island. The car, which has won both the Taupo 1000 and Woodhill 100, is rated among the top three Super 1600s in the north, but Sutherland was not able to translate that promise into results at the Mainland Challenge.
One of Moriarty’s rivals running in the unlimited class is former national champion Daniel Powell. The Powell team races a massive Jimco with a turbocharged Nissan V6 engine. Powell dominated his in-class heats at the Mainland Challenge but did not finish the endurance race due to a mechanical issue. Though the car’s engine was down on power and may not be making full power this weekend, Powell says he is now refitting it to the car ready to do battle. “The Jimco has had the engine pulled down after it lost all its oil at the Mainland Challenge. It’s currently going back in the car. With no time to correct the tuning it’s still in “limp home” mode, one blow off valve smashed open, 487 wheel horsepower – and that will have to be enough.” Powell is also planning to run with a slightly modified suspension set-up.
Defending national champion Dennis Andreassend has not yet confirmed he will start this weekend.
Racing on Saturday will take the form of a “Supercourse” or stadium-style short course race event at the Rock FM offroad race course off Weedons Ross Road at West Melton. Long a favourite with race fans in Canterbury, these events are close-fought and spectacular, with standing grid starts and all competitors getting airborne over the Rock FM track’s huge “tabletop” jump. The race cars will be scrutineered on Friday evening from 5.00 pm – 7.30 pm at Advantage Tyres, 179 Main South Road, Sockburn; many will also be on display. The following day, racing starts at 11.30 am, with three heats of five laps per class and an all-in feature race to finish off the day. Wayne Moriarty now holds a championship outright points lead over the North Island’s Malcolm Langley. With a strong run on Saturday, he stands to extend his lead further. Other South Island racers may step up into the top ten outright and into national class leads before the final round, held at Manukau’s Full Throttle weekend in October.
