Driving his single-seater race car, Asher Morgan has taken a clean sweep in the final regional round of the 2024 CT Civil New Zealand Off-road Racing Championship.

Racing at the Dalton’s Tect Park off-road raceway on Saturday 7 September, Morgan proved able to win from any grid position, winning class five for race cars with engines up to 1.3 litres and extending his championship points lead to take maximum points to the national final in Auckland next month.

A total of 52 entries contested the event, including Donn Attwood, who finished second behind Daynom Templeman in the unlimited class one heats.

Not so lucky was Manukau’s Tony McCall, whose BSL Chev race car finished second in the first heat for the unlimited class but then retired with a misfiring engine.

Defending national champion Carl Ruiterman took a clean sweep of heats for modified UTVs in his Yamaha, maximising his points tally for the final round.

The unlimited truck class was hard fought, with seasoned racer Gary Baker bringing out his American Pro4 race truck and Richard Crabb having his first outing in Paul Hackett’s massive truck.

Crabb won the class.

Unlimited truck class leader Nick Leahy made a last-minute decision to enter, put in a spectacular series of drives against the more powerful American-build trucks of Baker and Crabb and was rewarded with second overall. Baker finished third in the class.

Ash Carlyle was also in contention for a podium in the class but spun in the final heat.

Class three for race cars with engines up to 1.6 litres was won by Jared Nagle after Aiden Hall’s fast single seater struck mechanical problems.

In the Challenger VW class, Emma McKinstry took the win ahead of Sareena Paterson and Dave Maggs. Paterson did double duty, also racing her recently-bought unlimited class car in the event’s separate ‘club’ class.

The UTV classes saw some of the toughest racing of the day. Neill Coutts battled through all four heats, closely pursued by Shane McWatt and Scott Mitchell, who finished second and third respectively.

The S class for modified UTVs had attracted seven entries, though the in-heat battles occurred behind Carl Ruiterman, who was in a class of his own.

In the Kiwitruck classes, Jack Rice won J class and Vincent Joy took out M class for more modified vehicles with a motorcycle engines and gearboxes. In total, there were nine Kiwitrucks racing, the best turnout all year.