The big show is coming to TECT Park

Sensational. Two weeks out from the event, the Daltons-backed final round of the 2025 CT Civil New Zealand Offroad Racing Championship has attracted 52 entries.

Given the tendency of racers to leave things late, that could top 60 cars by race time.

This is the event where Carl Ruiterman can score his fourth national title in a row. If he can do it, he’ll be the first ever to win four titles in a row. He’s made a clean sweep in S class for modified UTVs this year, inning every time he’s raced and amassing 216 points to lead the championship. He’s had some competition too – 16 S class cars have contested the championship this year. In 2024 there were 18 S class cars in the championship as Carl scored his national championship hat-trick of wins.

At Labour weekend, he grids up as part of an S class grouping that is currently six strong: Carl, Noah Hutchison, Cam Paton, Jayden James/Michael Cassidy, John Butler and seasoned campaigner Dave Templeman. I expect a few more will join the show over the next fortnight.

U class for stock UTVs is strong this year. The championship has attracted 15 cars, and there are six entered for Labour Weekend. Again, I expect a few more will join the show over the next fortnight.

Meanwhile, Daynom Templeman in class one is second on points with 212. He’s been up against 15 other unlimited cars in 2025 and there were 16 in the class last year.

Interestingly, both Carl and Daynom have competed in drifting in the past, though Daynom was originally 'born into' offroad racing.

Third equal on points are class five racer Aaron Hogg-Medlock and U-class UTV racer Neil Coutts, both with 200 points. Neil and Aaron have both entered already; Aaron is currently the only class 5 racer for the event so should manage to clean-sweep his Saturday short course heats!

The biggest field so far, and likely to remain so into Labour Weekend, is class 3.

Meanwhile there’s some juggling of classes happening.

Class 5 and Challenger are to be merged, which may create the prospect of a new ‘mega 5’ – a stadium chassis with a Challenger engine. Light weight, big VW torque, all wheel independent suspension. Phew. People sitting on competitive class three chassis get ready, your cars just became very valuable.

Based on the current class 5 and Challenger entries at the final, that’ll result in fully stocked grids of…er…two cars this time next year.