Motorsport: Dust in time - for its big 30th

The off-roaders will be giving it heaps in the Woodhill Forest northwest of Auckland this weekend. Photo / Supplied

The Woodhill 100 is celebrating 30 years of racing this year and the 170km one-day endurance off-road event is shaping up to be one of the best yet.

Next weekend, the fastest drivers in off-road racing will converge on the bumpy, sand tracks and fast logging roads of Woodhill Forest northwest of Auckland to contest the toughest event in the sport.

Production class national champion Anthony Hewitt, ThunderTruck points leader Gary Baker and four of the fastest BigPosters Super 1600 cars head the entry list for what will be a round of the 2010 Asset Finance New Zealand Offroad Racing National Championship.

With two rounds already run - in either island - Wayne Moriarty holds a narrow points lead in his Super 1600 class Cougar Toyota.

However, four West Auckland drivers, Donn Attwood, James Buchanan and brothers Rick and Rene Sciarone, are planning to change all that driving Super 1600 cars.

Attwood, in a two-seat RV Magnum with Toyota power, led the championship after the first North Island round after a fierce battle with teammate James Buchanan, who has stepped up to the Super 1600 class this year in an all-new Evo-bodied Cougar Suzuki.

"Stepping out of a VW Challenger into a class three is amazing. The new car just fits, first time; it feels so perfect straight out of the box that it's uncanny." said Buchanan.

"Woodhill's the race to try to win. The first round was cool, a great battle in the enduro, but this is the one trophy to get your name on."

Attwood and Buchanan are looking for a top result at Woodhill after swapping the lead in the enduro at the first North Island round, Attwood grappling with overheating and Buchanan only slowing when dust clogged his engine's air filter.

"We had a great battle at the first round and we are well placed on points for the championship. The Woodhill, being a forest race, will be a totally different challenge, but the course has some good fast sections with plenty of opportunities to overtake," said Buchanan.

The Kumeu-based Sciarone brothers will be keen to get a clear run at the front of the field and score points in the championship.

"Racing's always close and fierce in this class - at the first round there were 22 of us. We're confident of being able to get in front and push for a win," said Rick.

"All four of us are contenders for the win. The biggest thing will be getting a good grid position and staying at the front in the early laps, then trying not to take each other out as the race settles down."

Devlin Hill is also entered in the Super 1600 class in an Evo-bodied Cougar as are Simeon Gilbert, Mike Gibson and Albany driver Richard Crabb.

The Super 1600 class looks set to be the most numerous in this year's event and may well deliver the race winner this year. Alan Butler in a Super 1600 won the 2009 race and a Super 1600 driver so far has won both rounds of the championship outright.

Butler is back for another run in a newly imported US-built Millennium single-seater in class one. The Honda-powered car is the most advanced race car in the sport.

With a long wheelbase and wide track for greater stability, it could prove to be the ideal car for the Woodhill race where the suspension set-up can be even more important that outright power.

Malcolm Langley is back for another run at the Woodhill in his Mitsubishi Evo VII turbo-powered Bakersfield race car having recently won the enduro at the Whitianga.

In the same class, Clive Thornton hopes to bring his two-seater, Chevy V8, though he is unlikely to be taking the wheel himself, having fractured his back in a crash at the first round of the championship. His son, Max, is likely to take the wheel.

Waiting to take advantage of any weakness in the super-competitive buggy class are the AFWE trucks.

A truck in its 30-year history has never won Woodhill but with Raana Horan in his four-wheel-drive Nissan V8 ThunderTruck and class championship points leader Gary Baker in his Nissan Navara V8, the race has two competitors capable of circulating in the top five and snaring a win.

The production class could turn up a strong result this year as well. Traditionally, Woodhill has been too tough for the production trucks, which lack the suspension development possible in the faster, lighter buggies or the unlimited ThunderTruck class.

Organisers are not expecting any entries from the South Island this year because the race is a round of the national championship, entrants must choose whether they will race in the north or the south when they start their championship season. Racers competing for points in the south cannot also earn points in the north.

The race is this Queen's Birthday weekend with scrutineering on Saturday, June 5, at PinePac in Kumeu and the qualifying and the race itself happening on Sunday, June 6.

The new course has a total distance of 170km, each lap is 28km, and top competitors are expected to complete a lap in 20 minutes.

The race starts in the forest north of Parakai and is signposted from Kumeu village northwest on State Highway 16, turning towards South Head at the Helensville-Parakai roundabout.

Points

1. Wayne Moriarty, 72

2. Donn Attwood, 66

3. = Nick Hall and Malcolm Langley, 64

5. = Ashley Kelly and Gordon Adamson, 60

7. James Buchanan, 58

8. Dean Graham, 57

9. Paul Milne, 56

10. Andrew Thomason, 54