Hawke's Bay's Graham family members were toasting their ability to bounce back from setbacks after last night's prizegiving for the national offroad racing championships at Matapiro.
Todd Graham's class five car collected a fractured oil line which caught fire during yesterday's 200km endurance race at the Enzed-sponsored nationals which attracted55 starters. Fortunately Todd was handy to the pits at the time and the fire was able to be put out and after the car was repaired he continued racing to finish third in class for the weekend and also in the national series.
His brother Matt finished fourth in the same class which caters for cars with engines up to 1.3 litres at the weekend despite experiencing front suspension issues. Their father, class three (1.6 litre) competitor Dean Graham, recovered from a 20 minute delay yesterday because of repairs to front suspension parts to finish sixth for the weekend. Cane Graham, a cousin of Matt and Todd, finished sixth overall in class five, one spot behind fellow Hawke's Bay competitor Pete Tinsley. Another of the Hawke's Bay drivers to perform well was Dave Forsyth who finished seventh in class three.
Event organiser Lofty Harrington said Tauranga's UTV class driver Ben Thomasen finished the weekend with the NZ1 plate.
"It was a massive weekend. This is the first time we've held the nationals here since 2012 and the prizegiving had only just finished and the out of towners were asking when will we be hosting the nationals again," Harrington said.
"That's how good this venue is and our hosts Mark and Liz Nelson have to take a lot of the credit," he added.
Auckland's John Morgan won the final round, taking his Desert Dynamics Chev car to victory.
Morgan was close behind unlimited class leader Tony McCall, and when McCall smashed a hub in the second day's enduro he swept through to an emphatic points lead, amassing 136 for the weekend.
Thomasen, in his Polaris-backed RZR 1000 UTV, was four points behind Morgan for the weekend but his consistency throughout the series saw him secure the NZ1 plate.
