Shattered engine ends title defence

FAREWELL TO TROPHIES: Paul Barnes and Hamish Auret will not be able to defend their national 4x4 title because of engine troubles.PHOTO/SUPPLIED

WHANGANUI'S defending national 4x4 champion Hamish Auret is gutted to have to withdraw from the series after the engine failure at the third round in Opotiki two weeks ago cannot be fixed in time for the remaining rounds.

Auret had won round two and was sitting just behind Whanganui 4x4 truck builder Dan Cowper and Auckland's Scott Briggs on the points table.

He and co-driver Paul Barnes had the engine die in their Pirtek Wanganui 7000cc LS7 Corvette after completing four hillside hazards in Opotiki.

Auret said once they got home and pulled the motor apart, they found major problems down the bottom end.

"The crank needs grinding and we need to replace a lot of stuff that we can probably only get from the States - it is a 7000L Corvette motor.

"The season's over for us because we have already used our disposable round.

"We will get it fixed, but the timeframe to do that by round four next weekend is too short.

"It's pretty gutting for this to happen in the season we are defending our title."

The next round is in Counties, followed by Masterton just two weeks later.

In the points, drivers can drop off their worst result from the final tally.

Auret said he wanted to get the truck back up and running by the time of Cowper's private Extreme 4x4 Challenge, held on his farm property in Turakina in early April.

Last year was the inaugural competition, which was covered by TV3's CRC Motorsport. Auret said this year the TV company will film the action again.