Racing generations at New Zealand’s longest enduro
Before we knew it the 2025 Giti Tyres NZ1000 was upon us, and we were flat out across stunning Kurow farmland chasing glory.
The owner of much of the course, Slim Slee, won event outright in his class one car. A strong theme at the event, though, was generational racing – kids stepping up to race their dads or race with their dads.
My son Owen partnered Slim to the race win, and their lap times were very well matched. Owen has been national champion before, and is a very savvy guy around road and race cars.
Owen and Slim fought off early challenges on day one including that of UTVC racer Tim Culling, who scored pole on day one and led the early running. The Slee/Chang pairing got past him by the end of day one and finished the race two laps clear of anyone. They were the only competitors to complete a full race distance.
Seventeen cars started the second day, some of them early withdrawals on Saturday that were able to be repaired overnight. The fastest lap on day two was by Tim Culling, though he was DNF after the opening lap.
But more about the kids, who really showed the strength of the sport in 2025.
Kenna Baker and Asher Morgan were an excellent fourth overall, second in U class. That’s significant for both of them: it is the best result by a female driver in the 30-year history of the 1000, and it was a birthday result for both young racers. They were well matched, swapping fastest laps over the two days and bringing the Yamaha UXZ home undamaged.
Kenna’s younger sister Trista was racing too, as navigator; while their dad Gary shared a drive in Wayne Spence’s car. They finished sixth overall, second S class UTV home.
Daniel Powell was making a welcome return to the sport, though not in his fast Mazda rotary engined class one car. He’s bought a U class UTV and was sharing it with his son Aston. They had a storm of niggling issues: “We did a rack, rear axle, tie rod, radius rod...and two tyres. All in separate incidents. We broke all right, just and kept going. Car is awesome.... but still sounds like an extended hippo fart.”
Daniel managed to roll the UTV entering the pits.
“I'm still confused as to how it happened. No fuel, which meant higher COG, and no power (again no fuel) to bring it down, but there wasn’t anything to bring it up on a bicycle to begin with. Especially as I'd thrown it sideways at many, many times that speed into considerably more ugly corners only minutes beforehand. My second ever roll.... although this one was more of a very slow topple.”
Meanwhile, I had young racer Jack Brownlees in the Giti Chev. Jack has raced junior categories and was mad keen to see the big race first-hand. Sareena Paterson is another young racer picking up the flag. As the race went on, we came across Sareena stuck at a water crossing and I tried to nudge her on through, but smoked the clutch in the process, which eventually forced us out.
It’s true though, times are tough. The Slee/Chang winning entry was the only class one car in the top ten, in fact UTVs were second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, ninth and tenth. If UTVs hadn’t joined the sport back in the day, there would have been just four finishers.
The ‘1000’ is the longest race in the southern hemisphere. To win it, racers must complete the same distance as the V8 Supercars do at Bathurst. Of the 24 cars that entered the race, just half of that number were bona fide finishers.
Full credit to the tiny Otago club for staying the distance with this one, and to the Slee family for making their farm available to race.
Giti Tyres NZ1000 2025 results
1st 165 Slim Slee
2nd S87 Team Maggie
3rd U45 Kadin Thomason
4th U30 Keena Baker
5th U29 Michael Green
6th S07 Wayne Spicer
7th U89 Arlene Frost
8th C70 Sareena Patterson
9th U14 Daniel Powell
10th U80 Neville Greedus
11th 394 Dave Ballantyne
12th 153 Ryan Kennedy
