After a few near misses last season, 4NZ Redback Racing of Ash Tonkin & Dyon Ross finally take their maiden win to kick off the 50th Lucas Oils NZ 4×4 Trials Series!
The Hawkes Bay 4WD Club hosted the season opener down in the Central Hawkes Bay, with proceeds going towards the local Ongaonga Volunteer Fire Brigade. The site was located a few kilometres inland from the road, as the was course set out in a dried-up riverbed formed many moons ago. A unique site to the world of trials, being largely “flat” with only one large hill at the far end of the course providing elevation, as most of the stages made use of the many contours within the ground.
Teams were warned of how dry the land was during Drivers Briefing, with drier events often meaning harder ground that is easier to cause breakages. Nevertheless, it only took one stage for many to make a trip back to the pits!
Most unfortunate was Wayne & Tayla Weatherly in their Nitro Custom, which was making its way downhill when the fly-by-wire throttle cut out causing an end to their day. A similar fault which caught out previous owner Neville Mather whilst fighting for the title in 2022.
Borrowing a truck for his first event behind the wheel was Matt Sterling & Korey St Clare, who managed to break a rear suspension arm followed with the rear shock and driveshaft on the first stage! Armed with plenty of spares the crew got going again to finish the morning. Late in the afternoon the spare driveshaft would break causing the team to finish the day in front-wheel-drive.
Daniel Howat & Cole Stockler were also caught out with unforeseen drama, breaking the left rear brake calliper mount. With no spare mounts, the boys had to make do with three-brakes and one fiddle to tackle the rest of the day in the stock standard Suzuki.
By the end of the morning three would be out for the day, with the afternoon taking a further two. Andy Canning & John Boylett would be the biggest casualty, with the team from Nelson running 4th at midday in the fight for 2nd only being 2 points adrift! A broken rear axle and bent housing saw them unable to repair the Howat buggy.
In C Class Shayne Towers & Tony Hadland took their first win since Whakatane last season, also sneaking in the Top 10 for the first time since 2023! The 402c Racing team had been running 7th outright in the morning, with defending champs Caleb Adlam & Jarrod Moss 50 points back to sit 11th overall. John Hawken & Haare O’Brien would take afternoon honours by 3 points to claim 3rd in C Class, trailing Adlam & Moss by 70 points.
Ash Tonkin & Dyon Ross would lead the morning for D Class by a staggering 100-point buffer to the chasing pack! Scott Dickson would lead the three in the mix, with 2NZ Sam Thomsen jumping in alongside with brother & usual co-driver Michael out with injury. 1NZ Scott Biggs & Phil Walton would be a point behind, followed by Andy Canning & John Boylett. Mitch Caldow & Jamie Elms would be a further 20 points back to round out the morning’s Top 5.
Biggs & Walton would take out the afternoon by 40-points, however it was not enough to overthrow Tonkin & Ross’ lead from the morning as the team from the Coromandel wrapped it up with 50-points to spare, as the defending champs claimed second.
It also marks the 2nd win for Nitro #2, when Derek Smyth & Paul Chapman took their first win in the then called Thunder back in 2020!
A sharp afternoon score by Caldow & Elms would see them leapfrog Dickson & Thomsen to third by a healthy margin.
Taking 5th was Brent Ward & Mickey Ward, climbing back from 8th in the morning to claim 5th in the afternoon as well in the highest placed Homebuilt.
Chris Gifford & Shaun Joblin would finish 6th, followed by Dave McKie & Reece McKie back together again after a topsy-turvey last season.
Kevin Hermansen & Nick Hamilton would place 8th in their return with The Gambler, gaining ground in an improved afternoon result.
Jarred Biggs & Fleche Crawford claimed 9th in Hot Wheels, since repaired after engine troubles at the National Final last season.
10th in D Class and 11th Overall would go to Phil Cameron & Todd Charman in their Nitro Custom.
Making a comeback to Super Production was Paul Taylor & Danielle Taylor with F Class Toyota Prado. To finish 1st, first you must finish, as the father-daughter combination from the Eastern Bay brought it home whilst managing to finish ahead of a K Class buggy in the afternoon!
The first Production vehicle in three years and the first Production Suzuki in 20, Daniel Howat & Cole Stockler managed to survive the day after a few trips back to the pits as the strapped together Suzuki SJ410 held itself together. With the truck still yet to be finished, the boys from Wellington will return for Round 3.
In the Modified Class, John Sheridan & Matt Willson would finally take a K Class win with their LS1 powered Homebuilt. After a representable morning coming ahead of three Super Mod’s, persistent stalling issues in the afternoon would cause them grief leaving them a few hundred points further back than expected! Nevertheless, the Wairarapa team start the season with a win.
The next round takes place near Huntly at the same location as last season’s opening round, on November 30th.
