A big weekend

Two days, up to 1000km of racing. An entry list studded with top racers. All based in the tiny town of Kurow and raced on farms just outside the town.

The course features the biggest jump in the sport, a launch that gives the driver time to recite the alphabet in mid-air.

The pits feature excellent showers and some massive furnaces that provide a warm social atmosphere each evening. Those burners have an appetite for car tyres, wood and the occasional road cone. Smaller versions are set up to cook Otago club members’ dinners.

All the action takes place August 22-25 and there’s a grid edging past 40 cars. Best of luck to all those racing, including John Butler, Jason and Dyson Delahunty, Dave Ballantine, Neville Greedus, Ryan Kennedy, Sareena Paterson, Kenna Baker with Trista Baker beside her and Asher Morgan with Max Midgely, Steve Pacey, Keegan Terrell, and my truck class rival Dale Strong.

So after the 1000, what’s next for racers in 2025? The 2025 national championship final round, to be hosted by the Waikato club at TECT Park in the hills behind Tauranga.

Carl Ruiterman went the distance last year and lifted the outright champion’s trophy. He’s on a roll: Carl won in 2022, 2023 and 2024. He’s aiming to do it again. Driving his self-tuned, self-prepared Yamaha YXZ1000R UTV, he has amassed 216 points across three rounds of the 2025 championship: the Counties round at Manukau, the Taranaki club round on their purpose-built track and then the Nelson club’s enduro race. Three wins from three starts for maximum points and a better strike rate than any other competitor. His nearest rival in S class is Jayden Cassidy on 154, followed by the VERY experienced Dave Templeman on 134.

Carl was previously a top drifter, and has dabbled in a range of other motorsport disciplines. He raced motocross for three years and broke his elbow while racing, so then decided to modify and tune a Nissan Skyline specifically for drag racing. He won the C2 class during the 2005/2006 Night Speed Dragwars. After this he teamed up with E&H Motors (where he is currently a manager) to build a serious drift car.

Once the car was complete and Carl more experienced, he began to achieve top results, culminating in his first-round win at the first round of 2007. He went on to win a further round and with his consistency throughout the season was crowned 'Drift King' 2007. He's also drifted an S14 Nissan Silvia and a Subaru WRX.

There are only a few names can boast a long unbroken string of championship titles like the one Carl’s building. All up he has four overall titles so far; Tony McCall has won five, three of them in a row. The rest of the winners mainly muster two title wins at best.

So Carl can match Tony’s stack of trophies this year when it all kicks off down at TECT Park at Labour Weekend.

Offroad racing needs success stories like this.

If a racer rates themselves with a chance at the title, they need to invest in the right machinery and bring their “A” game every time they race. Like Carl does. Like Daynom Templeman does. Like Slim Slee does.