We’ve had Carl Ruiterman, Noah Hutchison and now John Butler is the latest UTV racer to take the championship points lead.

He grabbed the lead at Otago club’s round of the championship, setting up an interesting battle over the final regional round. Up to that event, Tony McCall had led the championship, and he still holds top points in class one.

The south’s the place to be for the final rounds of the 2026 national championship, for sure. In the north, championship racing ended with the classic Woodhill 100 over King’s Birthday at the end of May.

So, on to West Melton. Canterbury is running it as a ‘twinned’ one-day short course event, with points on offer for the championship and trophies available for the stand-alone New Zealand Stadium Championship.

After Kurow I found the Giti Chev had a broken engine mount, which caused all sorts of glitches on the day. So with that sorted, it's all go for the West Melton short course. Paul Preston is coming too, so the truck class will be a highlight for the day. Something close to half the entries so far are from Otago club.

The club’s dedicated track at West Melton is definitely more fun than the catchment forest that surrounds it, which is often used for endurance races but is very rocky and ruins gear.

Raana Horan had an experience of that back in the day, belting out of the forest at 180km/h in ‘Big Black’, his locally-built Nissan Titan 4WD ute and braking for a tee junction only to find his brake lines had been flattened by rocks pelting the underside of the truck. Sweaty-palm moment only resolved by using a firebreak as an escape road and slowing the truck on gear downshifts.

Championship hopefuls will get a sample of that when the national final returns to West Melton a few weeks after the regional round.

Two days full of offroad racing action, short course and enduro, all based at West Melton

Now, this might be the earliest the sport has ever revealed dates for the next round of the championship. We might be just past the mid-point of the 2026 championship, but ORANZ has confirmed all seven rounds of the 2027 national championship along with the stand-alone hanger-on titles.

That’s impressive, because it not only gives clubs plenty of time to plan their events, it gives drivers time to plot their season and spectators time to work out where to watch the sport.

The year begins with stand – alone national title races: the New Zealand Offroad Grand Prix is – as always – on at the Counties club’s track out near the airport, set for February 20. That event is always a good watch, and it starts the championship year.

Next up, Waikato club kicks off the championship itself with short course racing at the club’s TECT Park track on 6 March.

Anzac Weekend sees Palmerston North club running both a championship round and the stand – alone New Zealand Short Course title event on 25 April.

The third round for 2027 is a sort course event run by Canterbury club. This is undoubtedly their long-running Mainland Challenge event, though the official ORANZ web page doesn’t say so.

June is of course enduro month, with the Woodhill 100 happening over King’s Birthday weekend, and then there’s a Nelson enduro 20 days later at the end of the month.

Otago’s Dirtfest enduro rounds out the regional race action over 28-29 August.

The final round in 2027 comes to Auckland, though venues for short course and enduro are not yet confirmed.