Nobody’s calling them weed sprayers any more: racers in the UTV classes now make up almost half of the sport of off-road racing, and in the hands of the likes of Carl Ruiterman UTVs can seemingly win at will. Ruiterman took his S class Yamaha south to Nelson last month and came back with the tinware and another enduro win to his name.

“We were a bit worried about the weather forecast leading up to the Ruff’n’Tuff 250km enduro over the weekend, but weather turned out perfect. Our EH Motors Yamaha YXZ1000R was so easy to drive the 3.5hr enduro was a breeze. Won our class and won overall with a comfortable nine-minute lead,” he said.

The results board at the Ruff’n’Tuff 250 told the tale: Ruiterman won from pole in conditions that went from horrible in the morning to passably sunny at the end of the race. He led home a UTV lockout of the podium.

Though rain leading up to the event cleared on the day, much of the track remained the consistency of porridge, which caused issues for the unlimited class cars but didn’t faze the four-wheel drive UTVs at all.

In the finish list, eight of the top ten were UTVs including new class convert Mal Langley, Scott Munro, Keegan Terrell and new ORANZ president Phil Johnston. Five of the eight UTVs were S class, while the best class one car was former UTV racer Slim Slee.

Ash Kelly was an early withdrawal in his ex-Tony McCall Cougar VW. That car remains the most successful in the sport though with most class on cars now running V8 engines, its days of glory may be behind it.

Ruiterman and Munro were the only racers to complete 19 laps; Ruiterman also set fastest lap of the forest course and finished nine minutes ahead of Munro.

Interestingly, there’s a north-south class split too. Up north, the U-class grids are consistently the biggest in the sport; S class entries sputter along at 4-5.

In the south, the situation is reversed, there are a few U class cars in the entry lists and a lot of S class.