He’s been class champion, dominated the Super 1300 class and now Papakura offroad racer Nick Hall has leapt into the outright championship lead in the Mickey Thompson Champs with a perfect weekend at the latest round, held near Himatangi near Palmerston North in the Horowhenua.

Hall, driving an American-built single-seater race car with a race-tuned 1.3-litre engine, dominated the in-class heats on Saturday of Easter weekend then worked his way up from a start position of sixth to take the lead in Sunday’s 150 km endurance race.  He now holds a narrow six point lead in the 2011 Mickey Thompson New Zealand Offroad Racing Championship.

Racing against the biggest and most competitive turnout of Super 1300 cars in the 2011 championship to date, Hall was able to dominate from any start position in the three in-class heats despite landing in the fence off the start in the third heat.  When another racer moved to the outside off the start line, Hall was unable to avoid the rear of the other car, and both tangled with farm fencing alongside the track.  Fortunately, organisers ruled the race should be restarted and Hall carved through the field to once more win. (more…)

West Auckland offroad racer Donn Attwood crossed the finish line in the recent 160 km endurance offroad race at Manukau in absolute agony.

He had driven most of the race distance with crippling cramps in both his legs, and had to be helped from the car at race end.

But the result that awaited him was well worth the pain: he has won both the final race of the 2010 Asset Finance New Zealand Offroad Racing Championship and the outright title itself.

Attwood, who won the first round of this year’s championship but has not had winning form since, had qualified outside the top ten for the race.  Several unlimited-class trucks and race cars qualified ahead of him along with two racers driving fast Super 1600 cars similar to his: local racer Warren Rogers in sixth spot and Wayne Moriarty of Christchurch in seventh.

South Head’s Raana Horan, third on points for the championship, had qualified on pole.  He had dominated the top five shootout, lining up on the front row of the grid in his supercharged Nissan Titan V8 alongside Neville Smith’s Cougar Honda Turbo.  Behind them were Nick Leahy in his diminutive but fast Cougar Challenger VW and Clim Lammers in his Nissan turbo-powered class one car.

But at the rolling start of the enduro, as Smith and Horan fought over the outright lead, Attwood forced his way into contention with a determined first lap, accelerating from 12^th overall to sixth in one lap and then settling into a steady rhythm.

“I was aiming to stay in touch with the leaders and see what happened.  From fifth in the points table I knew the title was probably a long shot, but stranger things have happened and it’s important to conserve your car through a long fast race like this so you can capitalise on any opportunities that you get.”

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