With the Woodhill 100 cancelled due to storm damage the final round of this year’s ORANZ northern series was held on a sodden Sunday June 03 on the Makarau short track just up the road. Story and photo by Mark Baker
It was the championship round most suited to one of the big unlimited-class four-wheel-drive trucks equipped with some super-aggressive 35-inch mudders and a bellowing V8 engine. Yet the driver who arguably got the most out of the event was Tauranga’s Mark Goldstone driving of the smallest, a VW 1600-powered single-seater buggy.
A coating of greasy mud 50-75mm thick topped the long straights and sculpted corners of the ATR club’s permanent race track at Makarau (north of Kaukapakapa Ed). Muddy water sheeted across the track and fast-moving rain clouds scudded across the sky. In other words a perfect environment for a big truck, a terraformed track with mud to throw at other competitors and the crowd.
But where were the trucks? Nick Hall left the property before racing started, but also had a family bereavement weighing on his mind. In any case, the south Auckland racer had done enough to win the 4WD Bits unlimited truck class title.
There were no class four (modified) trucks and no class six (challenge) entries.
A Rookie saves the day
Truck/4WD pride was saved, for the first time this year, by a class two (production) entrant: Damon Gilberd is new to the sport, and was making his debut at Makarau.
Once he got the feel of how his short wheelbase Mitsubishi Pajero would run on the slimy – but drying – surface, the rookie offroader had a ball. In the process, he also won class two for the event and the northern region.
Meanwhile, as Ferdinand Porsche’s simple flat four engine design creeps slowly toward its hundredth birthday, it was a single-seater race car using an evolved version of the ‘dak-dak’ that won the day, and in the process crowned another driver new to the sport.
Clean???sweep
Driving one of the fastest Challenger VW cars in the sport, Tauranga’s Mark Goldstone has won Challenger class for vehicles with 1.6 litre VW flat four engines at every round of the northern region competition and proved the value of persistence up against the massed might of the UTV or ‘side by side’ class cars and the unlimited class race cars and four-wheel-drives..
As the more powerful cars struggled with the lack of grip, Goldstone took his tiny single-seater to a clean sweep of wins in his class. His closest rival, Karl Burbage, was unable to match Goldstone’s pace, his troubles not helped when his car’s engine began to fail.
Goldstone scored a perfect 72 points for the weekend, as did Tony McCall (unlimited class one).
Strength in UTV numbers
In terms of four-wheel-drives, the 12-strong showing in the JG Civil UTV classes helped salvage some honour.
Carl Ruiterman won U class for standard race cars in his Yamaha while in S class for modified UTVs, defending champion Ben Thomasen (Polaris) fought all day with Joel Giddy (Yamaha), with the latter trailing Thomasen home on the day by a matter of three points but winning the S class for the series.
In the Kiwitruck youth categories Jackson Savage won J class on the day, with Lincoln Whiddett winning the class for the series. Harry Hodgson won M class for trucks with motorcycle power units and gearboxes.
RESULTS
Northern region, 2018 ORANZ New Zealand Offroad Racing Championship (*= class champion)
1. C87 Mark Goldstone 210*
2. 367 Jarrod Marwood 203*
3. U22 Carl Ruiterman 200*
4. 157 Tony McCall 198*
5. NZ3 Joel Giddy 196*
6. 726 Jack Hellier 190*
7. NZ1 Ben Thomasen 185
8= 517 Nick Magness 183*
8= 333 Brendon Old 183
*10th S17 Nathan Moore 167
To read the full story in the August 2018 issue of NZ4WD go to Zinio.com (July 13) or purchase your own hard copy at the Adrenalin store.
