There was plenty of mud-plugging action and roll-overs at the BOP 4WD Club's penultimate round of the National 4x4 Trials Championship held near Te Puke on Saturday.
The venue adjacent to the Rangiuru School provided a mixture of both technical and power obstacles to test the 70 competitors in vehiclesranging from production models through to purpose-built V8 specials with over-size tyres and sophisticated four-wheel steering systems.
After tackling 34 hazards, the overall win and Class D SuperModified honours went to Mark Thorburn from the Counties 4x4 Club in South Auckland driving a "Cowper truck" with a highly modified Chev V8 engine.
Thorburn became the fourth different round winner in the first five events of the keenly contested national series. He had the lowest points penalty in both the morning and afternoon circuits of the course to take the win ahead of Wanganui's Derek Smyth, who moved ahead of young Wellington driver Mitch Seymour during the afternoon tests.
Among the drivers failing to finish the course was defending national champ Dan Cowper (Wanganui) who drowned his engine in the third afternoon test after completing the morning in third position.
Thorburn's win has tightened the overall points rankings with Cowper, Smyth and Seymour now separated by just one point going into the final hosted by the Thames 4WD Club near Miranda over Easter weekend.
The BOP 4WD Club hopes to stage another national championship round in two years' time.
