Te Puke racing draw card

Te Puke is the centre of Bay of Plenty motorsport action this weekend with the penultimate round of the 2011-12 National 4x4 Trials championship and a double-header of kart and motorcycle racing.

Saturday's 4x4 event is based at the Rangiuru School with spectator access to a number of hazards that will test the skills of drivers and the abilities of their machinery.

"The venue is ideally formed for spectator benefit and the BOP4WD Club and Rangiuru School invite everyone to come along to watch the top drivers in NZ compete in this thrilling and highly competitive sport," said Neville Dunton, vice-president of the BOP4WD Club and NZFWDA national competitions officer.

Vehicles in action will range from production models fitted with roll cages and safety equipment through to purpose-built competition machines with high-powered V8 engines and sophisticated suspension and transmission technology.

So far this season, national rounds have been held in New Plymouth, Cambridge, Wanganui and Wellington. Following the BOP event, the final of this year's series will be staged near Paeroa over Easter weekend.

Close competition has seen three different overall winners in the four rounds held to date.

Last season's champion Dan Cowper (Wanganui) won the opening round while Mitch Seymour from Wellington won the Cambridge and Wanganui events. Seymour is driving a new truck this season which has been designed and built by Howatt Engineering in the Hutt Valley which is claimed to produce over 700-horsepower.

After two second placings earlier in the year, Derek Smyth (Wanganui) won the most recent round at Whitemans Valley near Wellington.

A course comprising 30 obstacles - 15 attempted in the morning and the remainder in the afternoon - has been plotted at the Rangiuru Rd. The Rangiuru School uses gate sales and income from food and drink stalls to raise money for various school projects. The event starts at 8.30am.

Also on Saturday, Te Puke's Fagans Valley Raceway combines round two of the 2012 BOP Kart Club points series with the special attraction of broadsliding Supermotard motorcycle racing.

The meeting has a late-start "twilight" format with racing expected to start about 1pm.