Second-generation off-road racer Owen Chang claimed the 2014 national championship at his home round at West Melton in November last year.
The son of local off-road legend Bryan Chang, 27-year-old Owen won his national class title with four class wins and one third placing over two days of racing, in doing so becoming the youngest class eight (unlimited race truck) champion in the history of the sport.
On the way he survived a frightening near-rollover in the GT Radial Ford Falcon during Saturday’s short course heats and completed a full seven laps of the 15 km endurance course on Sunday before the organisers declared the race at that distance on safety grounds.
“Saturday was fantastic, the short course at West Melton is great to race on and the truck really handles the jumps very well. Sunday was quite scary because it was really dusty. You had to go as hard as you could but we really couldn’t see anything except when the wind dragged the dust away from the road. The organisers made the right decision when they pulled the pin,” he said afterward.
The year-long championship campaign has been supported by dad Bryan – who built the truck and is a class 9 champion in his own right – and a close-knit group of mates who have helped prepare the truck.
The GT Radial Ford Falcon was the first to be built to American Prolite design blueprints, is the only four-cylinder class 8 truck and remains one of the few Prolites in New Zealand that retains a second seat for a navigator.
Competing against the fastest trucks in New Zealand, Chang first won the southern regional title across three rounds in April, June and August, which brought him to the final with a maximum 72 points and 20 bonus points for running in all three rounds.
Then in the short course racing at West Melton in November, Chang was up against the leading championship contenders from throughout New Zealand including Justin Leonard who won the northern regional title in his V8 Chev Silverado, Michael Cox of Rotorua in his American built ‘Prolite’ Toyota Hilux V8 and Gavin Storer of Christchurch in his 4.0-litre V6 engined four-wheel-drive Prolite Hilux.
The GT Radial truck consistently beat the more powerful trucks off the start, meaning Chang was able to simply drive away from his rivals over ensuing laps in each heat.
His drop from first to third in one heat was after being tapped twice from behind by Mike Cox and then spinning the Falcon ute across the dividing tyre wall.
“The truck tipped up on two wheels and could have gone over, but I just kept the accelerator on the floor and steered it through then spun her round to go back onto the track,” he said afterward.
Chang’s win marks only the second time a truck-class competitor has been national champion. Andrew Thomasen was the first, taking the title in 2007 in his four-wheel-drive Toyota Tundra V8.
2014 New Zealand Off-road Racing Championship
Top 20 overall
1. Owen Chang (Chch) champion and winner class 8
2. Ben Thomasen (BoP) winner UTV class
3. Ash Kelly (Nel) winner class 1
By Mark Baker
