The only international off-road race in New Zealand and the largest (and many say best) in the Southern Hemisphere, the Asset Finance Taupo 1000, is also the toughest. 
It is a race of two halves with two days racing on the 53 km course to complete a total of 1007kms’.  As Event Manager Tony Saelman said at the drivers’ briefing “the race is not won on the first lap.  Statistics show that only 50 percent finish and the aim is to be in that 50%.”
The course was a new one of forestry tracks and metalled roads which competitors had to complete 10 laps on Saturday and nine on Sunday to do the full 1,000 km. 
There were slow twisty parts on narrow tracks plus a high speed run down the metalled road and with rain the track was very slippery on Saturday morning.
For several of the 73 competitors practice was tough enough with a couple rolling their vehicles on the short sprint course and this was before the qualifying sprints on Friday afternoon. 
After the sprint results were in Australian Tom Dixon held pole closely followed Daniel Powell, Neville Smith and Raana Horan in his new Nissan Titan Class 8 thunder truck all separated by a total of 4.1 seconds.
Due to the slippery conditions the recovery crews were kept extremely busy as competitors forgot Tony Saelman’s advice.  On the forestry section several vehicles had problems getting stuck, especially on one tight 130 degree uphill corner.
Checkpoint 5 was a jump across a metal road on to a dirt forestry track which had lots of water from overnight rain. 
This caused problems with lack of traction for many as they tried to get the power back on.  Roly Dixon was the first to spin ending up facing the wrong way across the track and stalling the engine.  Initially the engine wouldn’t restart but eventually it did and he was on his way again before the next competitor came over the brow.
For Rookie Paul Eayrs of Paraparaumu his race was over before he had completed 30 km when he rolled the Nissan Safari on the first lap damaging the rear suspension.
For another Taupo 1000 rookie Carter Strang of Winton it was proving to be a good steady run.  Carter ended up in the driver’s seat of the Roger McKay Nissan after Roger broke his shoulder in a motorcycle fall in the preceding weeks.  
Carter Strang and Grant Guy eventually came home third in the Thunder Truck Class eighth and 12th overall.
After the sprints I was speaking to Lyndsay Dowler and Steve Lowery and said I would be at checkpoint 5 so do something spectacular for the camera. 
Unfortunately my previous day’s comments to Lyndsay put the photographers curse on the triple 8 car. 
On his second lap the car was slightly off line to the right and the roughest part of the jump and the car went high into the air and came down very heavily on the front followed by several rolls and a pirouette (or two) the car finished up facing the wrong way on its side in the middle of the track. 
Thankfully both were OK but their weekend finished before they had really got started.
Anthony Hewitt was racing his rather large Dodge Ram and it was jokingly said that he would be a moving road block. 
However it was more an immoveable road block when he broke the left front suspension on a down section that became known as “Chrysler Hill”.  Due to the size of the vehicle and location eventually the entire field was held up until the vehicle could be winched off the track enough to allow the race to continue.
Graham Steadman and William Thompson rolled the Toyota damaging the roll cage. 
They eventually managed to get back to the pits and get repairs done and continue racing the next day - when the also rolled yet again.  Buy the end of the race the vehicle was rather battered and missing most of the front panels but managed fifth in class
The international teams were having a rough time.  Both Roly and Tom Dixon had problems and were going to pull out of the race. 
However in true sportsmanship the New Zealanders wouldn’t allow this and using Kiwi ingenuity repaired the vehicles overnight for them.
David Jamieson blew the engine after leading the production class 2 all day while English woman Angela Lord and Merrin Brimmer (NZ) in the Suzuki Vitara quietly plodded on with only minor issues and finished Saturday in 58th place. 
Her problems were compounded on Sunday when the battery went flat and the engine died mid course.  She continued later in the day when fellow team member John Gray and Hugh Brimmer took a spare battery out allowing them to carry on.
After all the hectic events of Saturday Sunday’s racing was more subdued with only 55 of the original field of 73 able to continue.  Fatigue began to set in and for most they just wanted to finish. 
After Saturday Raana Horan was holding fourth place overall and planned to improve on this but was forced to retire on the first lap with gearbox problems.
 It was still a battle for the front with the lead changing several times. 
Overnight leader Clive Thornton was quickly overtaken by Neville Smith and Andrew Hawkeswood and they diced for position all day. 
It was a close battle with the Whakatane based Thornton taking line and overall honours by two minutes.  The battle for third and forth was even more dramatic as both Malcolm Langley and Paul Smith both suffered flat tyres on the last lap. 

Paul Smith opted to stop and change it in the hope he could stay ahead of Langley who was continuing on the rim alone.  Langley, who waved to all the marshals every time he passed them, took overall third honours by three seconds once the times from the previous day were taken into account. 
Gary Scott (Gunna) in the class 4 Pajero ran a steady race to take 1st in class four laps ahead of Glen Turvey and Natasha and Jardyne Lammers.

Results
Overall
1 Clive Thornton
2 Neville Smith/Andrew Hawkeswood
3 Malcolm Langley
4 Paul Smith
5 Rene Sciarone
6  Devlin Hill/Rob Ryan
7 Lofty Harrington/Steve Franklin
8 Warren Jeffrey/Don Morgan
9 Troy Tuffnell/Shawn Dickens
10 Nigel Newlands/Barry Free

Class 1
1 Clive Thornton
2 Neville Smith/Andrew Hawkeswood
3 Paul Smith
Class 2
1 Nigel Newlands/Barry Free
2 Michael Hay/Scott Hay
3 Craig Patterson/Brian Garrett

Class 3
1 Malcolm Langley
2 Rene Sciarone
3 Devlin Hill/Rob Ryan
Class 4
1 Gary Scott
2 Glen Turvey
3 Natasha Lammers/Jardyne Lammers

Class 5
1 Darren Rollinson
2 Stephen Green
3 Jim Cato/Debbie Hoyland
Class 6
1 Chris Haldane
2 Craig Mulholland/Dean Mulholland
3 Klem Christiansen/Mike Connor

Class 8
1 Lofty Harrington/Steve Franklin
2 Gary Baker
3 Carter Strang/Grant Guy

Class 9
1 Simeon Gilbert
 
Challenger (Class C)
1 Troy Tuffnell/Shawn Dickens
2 Geoff Matich/Robert Campbell
3 Lou Pilkington/Craig Halligan