A taste of disappointment

We were all packed. The Giti Tyres Chev Prolite was all washed and loaded in the box trailer. Ready for a thrash in the excellent Nelson Forests at the Ruff’n’Tuff enduro.

Only one thing was stopping us – or not stopping us actually. The Chev Silverado we tow with has developed a lack of brakes.

Not ideal when towing a race truck and trailer that all-up gets up to around the legal maximum for smaller utes like Ranger or Amarok.

So at home we sat, watching online.

Although Nelson is a course chock-full of fast rally-style roads that suit the big unlimited-class trucks, it was not a weekend for class eight glory. Nor class one, class two or even class three.

Nope, the first six positions at the end of racing on Sunday were all filled by S class and U class UTVs.

Poor old Noah Hutchison has brought his championship-leading Yamaha class two down aiming to stock up points for his title bid only to have a front-end ball joint fail after a handful of laps.

Was cool to see Paul Preston bring the family's V8 truck north for a run; likewise Shayne Huxtable came down from Hawkes Bay in his stunning class 8 truck.

The top positions went to John Butler (first overall), Tim Culling (second overall) and Tony Terrell (third overall). That’s an S class UTV followed home by a class two UTV and a U class UTV.

There were three S class entries and ten U class entries along with two class two entries – the latter being a new class created to accommodate the current Yamaha turbocharged rocket ships plus anything that might come out of the USA in the future. The U class presence was the biggest entry of any class. First female home was Kenna Baker – sixth, and also in a U class UTV.

There was a pretty decent entry – 35 racers – which is a reflection of the course itself and also of the organising crew. Nelson’s one of the smallest clubs in the sport, but they sure know how to put on an event.

- Images by Morgan Dumelow