Local man Greg Winn put on a master class in off-road racing as he stormed back from a first lap wrong-slot to win this year’s Ruff ‘n Tuff 250 enduro at Nelson.
A few weeks after taking out the enduro at Christchurch’s Mainland Challenge, Nelson’s Greg Winn also took victory at the second southern round, the 2019 Youngs Automotive Ruff’n’Tuff 250.
A one-day endurance race in the production pine forests south-west of Nelson, this was home territory for the big southerner and he clawed back from an opening-lap crash that stopped the race to overtake the whole field.
He now leads the southern regional championship by one point from Taranaki class three driver Brendon Old, 108-107. The top three finishers on the day were all Nelson drivers.
Driving his Scorpion Chev V8 race car, Winn survived a first-lap crash and subsequent slow roll-over that was part of a multi-car incident which forced organisers to red flag the race and restart for a revised distance of 220 km.
The crashes happened two kilometres from the start at a fast and deceptive ‘y’ intersection where the left turn led into a skid clearing. Leading cars including Winn and northern racer Shaun Russell went left, ran through the road closure tape and either went off the road or in Winn’s case up a steep bank. The bright orange Scorpion ran up against a log and slowly tipped over – damage limited to a wing mirror, one of the car’s race number plates and possibly Winn’s dignity.
Most of those affected were able to regain the road and return to the pits in time to restart. The race had been stopped before a lap was completed, and organisers declared a restart from parc ferme, line astern, meaning Winn could get back to the pits, check the car over and rejoin from pit lane.
Winn then carved his way through the field, ran down the leaders and was named winner on corrected time in a faultless drive.
A very good run
“It was a very good run, and I was very happy with the drivers out there, they all got out of the way without holding us up which made the big push safer,” he said.
Winn’s fellow Nelsonian, Nevil Basalaj, actually crossed the line first in his Jimco Chev V6, but was second once the time classification had been added to elapsed race time.
Veteran racer Ash Kelly, making his comeback in a Cougar VW single-seater with a 2.8-litre flat four engine, was third overall. The top three positions all went to unlimited-class race cars.
Fellow Nelson driver Dan Fisher had led the race but went out when a CV joint failed. Race organiser Darrin Thomason was competing in his new unlimited class Toyota truck, and said he could smell hot CV grease when Fisher overtook him on one of the fast sections.
Flat tyres caused many racers problems. The faster sections of the course were linked by narrow ridge tracks leading into valleys and studded with pine tree stumps that could catch a front or rear wheel and pop a tyre or even tear off a wheel.
A UTV fourth O/A!
First non-unlimited class racer to finish was a UTV: Scott Munro had started 19th and charged all the way to fourth in his standard-class UTV. JG Civil UTV category sponsor Joel Giddy won the UTV S class for modified cars and set the fastest lap of the event, a 14:34.420 on his ninth lap of the 20 km circuit. He finished sixth overall, one place behind JG Civil U winner Scott Munro.
South Otago’s Paul Preston ran home first in the 4WD Bits truck classes; he now takes over the unlimited truck class lead from Christchurch driver Bryan Chang 98-80. Northern racer Richie Ryder had brought his quick Toyota Hilux south for the race and captured class four despite a high speed excursion on lap four of eleven.
There were no starters or finishers in 4WD Bits class two for production four wheel drives, meaning the winner of the class at the opening round, Ron Crosby, retains his class points lead.
A total of 39 cars had started the main race; 30 completed enough laps to be classified finishers.v
