Christchurch offroad racer Daniel Powell put in a spectacular and well judged drive to win the 2012 NZ Endurance Championship title, raced over 500 km and two days in forest outside Nelson.

He fought off challenges from fast unlimited-class race cars and trucks including the advanced Cougar turbo of recent Lotto winner Trevor Cooper, Auckland.

Powell led all but one of the first day’s seven laps at the Dovedale course, then led the second day’s restart, battling with Tuatapere’s Hamish Lawlor on the second day until Lawlor’s car destroyed a driveshaft hub and lost a wheel.

Powell’s main rival then became the powerful Toyota Hilux V8 of Winton racer Donald Preston, who lost time on the first day with a damaged driveshaft but challenged boldly for the lead and got past Powell at middle distance on the Sunday leg.

By driving strategically from there to race end, Powell kept Preston in sight and made sure of his win.  The result was carefully managed by his crew in the Hirequip pit lane, who used pit board communications to tell Powell his winning margin was substantially less than it actually was.

“They told me I only had an eight minute lead instead of almost 12 minutes, so I made sure I stayed in range of Donald when he got past, just to make sure,” Powell said after the race.

Qualifying for the race put Powell on pole, with Hamish Lawlor alongside on the staggered grid, Alan Butler right behind and Donald Preston close behind in his supercharged V8 Toyota Hilux.

Off the start, Lawlor was tenacious in fighting off Butler and tagging his car to the back of the Powell Jimco.  The tiny Barracuda with its motorcycle engine put Lawlor at eye level with the transmission of the big race car in front.  The race lead stayed with Powell for most of the lap, but he did not contest the place when Lawlor made a move in tight going, preferring to stay in touch and get to know the character of the long 35 km lap.

Then on the next lap he found the big Jimco had the speed to once more overtake Lawlor in the faster parts of the track and took a lead he would defend and hold for the rest of the day.

Behind these two Alan Butler and Donald Preston were locked in battle for third place and Trevor Cooper had pushed through to join the fight.  Cooper’s turbocharged Honda engine was misfiring and refusing to run cleanly, but his switch to more aggressive front tyres over the narrow rubber used by the car’s builder had brought better front-end grip and made the car more stable.

Donald Preston was not allowing the single-seaters to get away, and set fastest time of the day on the first lap, a 31.43 for the 35 km course.
Behind him as Trevor Cooper made sure of fifth, Nelson local Neville Taylor had leapt to seventh and then sixth on the road in his Chev-engined Mitsubishi Pajero.

A lap later Mike Holmes had taken the class six lead in his V8 Toyota Hilux while Preston was a comfortable third behind the duelling pair of Powell and Lawlor.
Cooper spun at a fast road intersection and was finding the Cougar still understeered, a trait he was hoping to have eliminated by changing front wheels and tyres but one which has plagued the car to some extent ever since it was built.

Racers who understand Cougar handling say ‘pushing’ is built in due to the use of the VW beam front end; the characteristic can be overcome by a forceful driving style but is exaggerated by the use of a turbo engine in the case of the Smith-built Cooper car because turbo engines have slower throttle response than the naturally aspirated four cylinder Toyota and VW engines used in other versions.

A flat tyre and the pit stop to change it aggravated the handling issue, forcing Cooper onto different and smaller front tyres.

One-on-one duels were developing throughout the field, with Simon Craig getting the best of John Strickett in Challenger VW and Glen Raymond swapping production class fastest times with Lucinda Maynard.  Holmes and Taylor were likewise 1 and 2 on the road in class six.  Race organiser Darrin Thomason was an early leader in class four for modified trucks, leading the Jeep CJ of Wellington’s Don Morgan.

John van Dyk had a late start to the race when the Toyota engine in his class 3 car refused to fire – the problem sorted by experienced racer Alan Tutt.

Andrew Johnston was making his first run in the ex-Gregg Carrington-Hogg single-seater and enjoying the chance to log decent chair-time in the agile class five car.

Trevor Cooper edged past Alan Butler and into fourth behind the Preston Hilux, aiming to stay close to the trio at the top.

His charge came to an end a lap later when he put the Cougar down a bank, only the roof of the car visible from the road.  Cooper broke a bone in his hand in the incident, but would eventually get the Cougar back on the road to complete five of the seven laps possible on the first day.

Justin Leonard of Wellington was also driving a new acquisition: an American-built class 8 race truck with a race-built Ecotec four cylinder engine and massive suspension  travel.

Though the truck didn’t post a good qualifying sprint time, he was heading up through the field and would split the class six trucks of Hughes and Taylor by the end of the day.

With Cooper’s exit on lap five a new dynamic played out among the leading bunch.  Powell was making sure of his lead, Lawlor staying close but losing time with a pit stop for fuel.  Powell made the most of his speed and fuel capacity advantages and put almost two minutes on the Lawlor Barracuda.

Alan Butler got past the Preston Hilux when it pitted to repair a smashed half shaft, but ended the day 6:10 behind Powell and with that deficit to make up on the second day in order to take the win.

Preston had lost 15 minutes on the leader but put in two fast laps at race end to finish on the lead lap and was only11.48 behind by the end of the day.

Mike Holmes came in fifth, 21.38 down on leader Powell, Leonard next just three minutes behind Hughes and Taylor just five seconds behind Leonard.

Darrin Thomason had fallen back in his Nissan Navara, allowing Don Morgan to take the class four lead. Morgan was the last  to finish on the lead lap.

Trevor Cooper was two laps down but 13th overall.

Remarkably, the whole field finished the first day and would restart the second 250 km leg the next morning.

At the restart next morning, Powell had his race strategy thought through,  He was once more on pole and had Lawlor behind him.  Lawlor faced a time gap to Powell of 1:50 and would also have to pit during the race for fuel.  Powell’s big American-built Jimco could run flag to flag on its initial fuel load.  Alan Butler in third place was 6:25 behind and would have to overtake both Lawlor and Powell to win.

Off the start Powell established a lead of several car lengths, Alan Butler was using his car’s turbo power to challenge for second place and Donald Preston was behind these two, looking for a way past on the first fast section of logging road leading into the forest.  Justin Leonard was next in his new class 8 truck, the class 6 trucks of Holmes and Taylor side by side and the class 4 Jeep of Morgan leading his rival Darrin Thomason, the latter pair slotting into sixth and seventh as the field gained speed on the fast, flowing roads.

Taylor edged ahead of Hughes to lead class six, Morgan taking the class four lead while Trevor Cooper was on a charge, blowing through the mid-field in the Cougar.

Glenn Raymond had cruised to the finish on the first day on fumes in the bottom of his fuel tank, the big Land Rover V8 barely making the finish; day two started promisingly with the ‘Landie’ once more leading out into the forest.

Simon Craig was the quicker Challenger car going into the first lap, John Strickett trailing behind.

One lap later the race rider had changed dramatically.  Donald Preston had forged through to lead, Powell staying in touch.  Alan Butler was running third and closing on the leading pair, while Trevor Cooper had risen to fourth.

Powell said though the Preston Hilux had been “all over” his mirrors, the passing move took him by surprise.

“I knew Donald was close, but he was driving very hard and on one corner he just hammered up on the inside so I let him go past.  He was going for it!”

By keeping the rear of the flying Hilux in sight and driving conservatively, Powell knew he could be sure of the win.

Preston meanwhile said he was pleased with his late race fightback on the first day, reducing  his time deficit by a third in a matter of two laps.

The big change though was Hamish Lawlor, missing when his Barracuda destroyed a wheel hub.

As the race went on, Justin Leonard was fifth and enjoying the new truck’s “armchair” ride.  Leonard says though the truck is underpowered for New Zealand’s class eight, it rewards commitment and soaks up the rough without dropping off line in corners.

Just as it seemed he was set to take a creditable fourth or even third on debut, a tricky corner near a firefighting dam caught him out and – faced with a trip into the water or a slow roll – he chose the latter.

“I was gutted. It went over so slowly, then landed upside down and we got out.”

Once the truck was recovered, he pitted to check for any structural damage then rejoined and set about making up the time he had lost.

Alan Butler had by this time also disappeared – his Millennium single-seater had broken its front suspension for the second time in two races.

“Looks as though we need to re-engineer the front uprights, it broke in a different place on the opposite side to the one that took us off at Woodhill,” Butler said after the race.

As the race entered its final laps, Preston had pulled away slightly from Powell, whose crew were keeping him up to date on the gap using pitboards from the Hirequip pit lane.  They had ‘edited’ the margin to ensure Powell didn’t relax his focus on the gap, telling him he had only eight minutes between his Jimco and the Hilux out front.

John Strickett’s Challenger had cried enough, stranding him alongside one of the numerous water crossings on the course.

Lucinda Maynard and Scott Hay had got their Toyota Land Cruiser in front of Glenn Raymond’s Land Rover, though the two were in sight of each other for most of the race and Raymond would eventually take the production class win, putting on a late-race charge.

Donald Preston had lost first one and then the other rear guards off his truck, and was forced to pit to re-affix a front guard that would also eventually work loose again.  He left it with John Strickett and recovered the guard after the race.  None of this affected the race lead, Powell simply closing in to stay in touch with the lead car and making sure of his championship win.

Preston was first across the line, Powell arriving soon after.  Mike Holmes was third on the day and Trevor Cooper made sure of fourth, knowing his first-day off would drop him down the finish order for the event.

After two days and 500 km of racing, four drivers shared the lead lap: Powell, Preston, Holmes  and Jeep driver Don Morgan.  Powell’s win had taken 7 hours 38 minutes and 19 seconds; Preston overcoming his first day mechanical issues and second-day body panel dramas to finish 7 minutes 30 seconds behind

The final word on the event belongs to Daniel Powell who posted a rave review on his Facebook page: “For those of you who missed racing this event I truly feel sorry for you. Every element of the course was carefully planned to epitomise the meaning of the word endurance. Want a break? Want a straight to check your gauges? Want to stop your head from bouncing off the cage? No chance!  Man/woman enough to work your arse off for seven to eight hours of endurance racing and come away from the event overflowing with a sense of achievement? This event is for you.  The best enduro course I have ever driven.”

Finish positions
2012 Supercheap/Rock FM NZ Endurance Championship, Nelson
Daniel Powell, Christchurch, Jimco Nissan; 1 (winner class 1)
Donald Preston, Winton, Toyota Hilux V8; 2 (winner class 8)
Mike Holmes, Blenheim, Toyota Hilux V8; 3 (winner class 6
Don Morgan, Wellington, Jeep CJ; 4 (winner class 4)
Neville Taylor, Nelson, Mitsubishi Pajero Chev; 5
Justin Leonard, Wellington, Chev Ecotec, 6
Trevor Cooper, Auckland, Cougar Honda turbo; 7
Alan Butler, Auckland, Chenowth Millennium Evo turbo, 8
Glen Raymond, Auckland, Land Rover Defender V8; 9 (winner class 2)
Lucinda Maynard, Auckland, Toyota Land Cruiser, 10
Darrin Thomason, Nelson, Nissan Navara, 11
Andrew Johnston, Christchurch, Cougar; 12 (winner class five)
Simon Craig, Nelson, Challenger VW; 13 (winner Challenger VW class)
Hamish Lawlor, Tuatapere, Barracuda Suzuki Hayabusa; 14 (winner class 10)
John van Dyk, Nelson, Ryan Toyota; 15
John Strickett, Nelson, Challenger VW, 16