The New Zealand Off-road Racing Short Course championships are held annually at the Waikato Winter Show at the Claudlands Showgrounds where ORANZ competitors battle through brackets of classes racing on a tight course to decide the New Zealand Short Course Champion.

The track is small, held on the grass in front of the grandstand at the show ground,s with several man-made jumps and hairpin corners.  Rain leading up to and on the morning of race day meant the track was very slippery and challenging to say the least, but this also helped to provide spectacular racing for the few show visitors and the spectators in the stands.

Most of the classes were represented including the beginners class 7, the smaller than Challenge class vehicles with stock 1200cc engines and VW transaxles.  Ideal for the younger ones to get involved as it introduces those aged 12 years and upwards to the sport. 

The best of the action, though, had to be the truck classes including the Thunder Trucks of Clive George and Raana Horan bracketed together for their races with the likes of Anthony Hewitt in his Dodge Ram and Glen Turvey in the Commodore-powered Toyota. 

Clive George has opted to use Simex tyres while Raana Horan had his Maxxis Trepidors and seemed to lack traction in the early races when rain made the track rather difficult.  We later learned that Raana had 36psi in the tyres which wouldn’t have helped. 

It seemed the slightly smaller, lighter and more powerful vehicle of Clive George was getting the better of Raana’s larger and heavier Nissan Titan, especially when Raana missed a corner a couple of times.

On the hairpin Raana was turning the vehicle before the corner and sliding into the bend backwards with full power on, impressive driving skills to say the least.

Meantime it was a David and Goliath battle for Class 2 honours between Anthony Hewitt in the Dodge and Craig Patterson in the Toyota Surf. 

In class 4 the V6-powered Toyota out-matched the Subaru ute, especially once the Subaru ended up broken and only 2WD. 

Glen Turvey then also broke a front diff or CV which locked up his front wheels as his final bracket race drew to a close.  Not about to give up he managed to get moving again only to lock up again on the next corner but again was able to back up and continue to the chequered flag.

There were few incidents on course during each of the races but significant ones were when the class 3 buggy of Dale Shannon blew its engine and caught fire.  The West Crew marshals were quickly onto it and had the fire out before too much damage was done.

When it was time for the final bracketed race Clive George was undergoing repairs in the pits which meant no competition for Raana in the Thunder Truck class 8. 

Rather than take the easy points and outright win Raana chose to sit the race out while his crew helped Clive repair the vehicle for the all-in final feature race.  A win is not a win unless won fair and square on the race track?

The final feature was an all-comers race where all cars were racing on the small tight straight at once.  The start for the various classes would be staggered around the track with the faster vehicles basically having to do a full lap before starting.

It was amazing how all these vehicles managed to race on such a small and tight course without tangling with each other.  It must have been rather intimidating to be in a small buggy surrounded by the larger trucks such as the Nissan Titan and Dodge Ram. For most of the vehicles they were lapped at least once if not twice by the Thunder Trucks of Horan and George.

After his accident at Whitianga Clive Thornton had to sit out this event but Max Thornton was out driving the car and doing very well against Paul Smith and Neville Smith in class 1.  Neville Smith took class honours with Paul Smith second. 

In class 3 buggies the battle was won by Debbie Hoyland with Nick Leahy taking out the challenge class and Ray Olsen winning class 5.

After the mud settled and the points tallied Ray Olsen came out as NZ Short Course Champion for 2010.  Second was Raana Horan with Neville Smith third.

In place of the expo

Cancellation of the 4x4 Expo at the Waikato Winter Show meant Mark Craig, Marcus Madill and the Waikato Four Wheel Drive Club had to step in, putting in long hours for which they deserve recognition for the time, effort and last minute “pull together” preparation that had fallen on them.

Waikato 4WD Club president  Marcus Madill says the club has a membership of 40-50 individuals and with “good club involvement” they were able to pull together enough resources to cover the different styles of four wheeling in New Zealand. 

From a classic Jeep model to the basic Hilux and club Trucks, to competitors’ trucks from the National Trial Series and winch challenge sectors of motor sport, all were on display.  Marcus says exhibitors came from all over - National Park, Whangarei, Hikurangi, Hawera and New Plymouth, to name a few.

Marcus would like to thank the crew, making extra mention to David and Graham at Tyreline Distribution,  for their major competition prizes - first prizeto the value of $1,000 worth of Simex or BFGoodrich tyres,  and second and thirdd prize draws for BFGoodrich Jackets. 

We were “totally blown away by their support”, said Marcus.