For the first time in the history of off-road racing in New Zealand, a production-class 4WD has taken the outright North Island title. Hamilton’s Maurice Bain, a 20 plus year veteran of the sport become North island champion in cold, wet conditions at the Matata round of the 2008 Asset Finance Off-road Racing National Championship. The North Island rounds of the championship have been held in extreme conditions, but nothing could halt the charge of Bain in his Etco-backed Nissan Navara V6. He won his class in the opening-round at Meremere in thick, choking dust; repeated the feat at the second round, held in Gwavas Forest in the Hawkes Bay in sleeting rain and then fought through to win at the final North Island round, once more in constant rain. As well as taking the North Island outright title Bain became North Island champion in the Camco-backed production class and re-took an outright national championship points lead. It was a victory for 4WD as well: on the heels of the similarly historic outright New Zealand title taken by Christchurch racer Andrew Thomason in his 4WD Toyota Tundra ThunderTruck, Bain gets his name on a major off-road racing trophy in the face of all comers and the biggest fields the sport has seen in many years. Conditions at the final round may have helped, especially in the enduro race where the weather delivered by the edge of the first “weather bomb” storm of three that lashed the country in July turned the course greasy and gritty. Though the outright win escaped Bain, he was eighth overall, second in production class and gathered sufficient points to make sure of his title. All three production class entries were four wheel drive, sending a strong message to the off-road racing fraternity. All-wheel traction and consistency are well capable of overcoming the outright speed of the more fancied buggy class entries when the going turns cold, wet and slippery. Nigel Newlands, also from Hamilton, won the production class for the enduro, finishing sixth overall in his Pajero V6. Newlands also finished third outright in the North Island championship, only rising star Nick Hall in a class 5 Super 1300 buggy able to separate the two production trucks. Wellington’s Glenn Turvey had an easy run in under-populated Camco Class Four trucks, becoming class champion without even fronting up at the Bay of Plenty round. Among the crowd-pleasing Camco class eight ThunderTrucks, the result was less obvious going into the final round. Scott Nichols had the advantage after the first round, only to see his lead destroyed at Gwavas where South Head racer Raana Horan took his mighty Nissan Safari V8 to the class win ahead of another Safari V8 raced by Roger McKay and the Nissan Navara V8 of Gary Baker. Third in class, 12th overall there put Baker in front on points, a position he set out to defend at Matata. One of an active Bay Off-roaders Club membership of four, Baker was also 25 percent of the organising committee. Though it is the smallest club in the sport, Bay Off-roaders is known for staging the best round in the championship and has access to a unique farm valley in the Matata foothills. There series sponsor and fellow club and team member Clive George brought out his mighty Toyota Tundra Chev for the first time this year, taking two wins and a second. The tussle between the all-blue Asset Finance team trucks of Baker and George were a highlight of the day, the first two heats falling to the 4WD of George while Baker’s mid-engine, rear wheel drive Nissan took the third race to seal the North Island class title. Neither of the big ThunderTrucks finished the afternoon’s enduro, Baker’s falling victim to overheating. The outright win in the 150 km endurance race instead went to Raana Horan – another victory for 4WD and the first time the former winch challenge stalwart had won outright at national championship level. His supercharged Safari runs a quad cam Nissan VH45 V8 engine driving all four wheels, and was only slowed in the later stages when his windscreen wipers failed. The big black truck’s massive torque gave it unbeatable acceleration out of slow corners, an advantage in the slippery going where many of the buggy drivers were finding grip a rare commodity. The winch truck’s windscreen was also an advantage, helping keep the crew warm and relatively dry in the persistent rain and wind. In the outright championship points battle for the class, South Islander Bryan Chang held onto third in the class with 101 points, eight points behind Horan on 109, 15 behind class points leader and new North Island champion Baker. The national truck class class and outright championship titles will be decided when the north and south meet for the first time this year at Manukau over Labour Weekend for the Iveco-backed national championship final.