Motor mudlarking the greatest show in earth

By WAYNE THOMPSON

Lorraine Filmer works as a picture framer in Manurewa, but at weekends she spins the wheel of her hotted-up offroad racer in the direction of the biggest, stickiest patch of mud she can find.

Yesterday, her aim was to show the opposition a dirty pair of heels in the "mud run" event at the New Zealand 4WD Show at the Clevedon Polo Club Grounds, near Papakura.

The event meant driving about 60m in a hook-shaped trench scooped out of a swamp, deep enough to nearly engulf a bogged vehicle.

Lorraine Filmer, who is preparing for the national rally series, said she caught the bug for offroad racing six years ago.

"I had suggested it would be good to go four-wheel-driving - and next thing we had a bush truck," she said.

"I love racing - it's an adrenalin buzz, especially when you lean it over on to its side."

The sport was not an expensive one because her partner built her racer from a crashed Suzuki Escudo.

Others competing yesterday wish they could say the same.

Champion race team Tony White, of Clevedon, and Mike Graham, of Bombay, said their Nissan Patrol cost $60,000 to work up to race standard.

It started out as a $13,000 Japanese import but now boasts a hydraulic winch, adapted suspension, specialist tyres and a steel plate to protect the underbelly from rocks.



The team hope to compete in the Australian championships next year.

Show day was not only for roaring, mud-splattered racers.

Families in shiny stationwagons took up the invitation to try out slippery tracks, hill climbs and stream crossings, as did farmers, pig hunters and contractors in their less-refined utes.

Show day organiser Sam Parker, of New Zealand 4WD magazine, said he had heard there were 80,000 four-wheel-drive vehicles in the Auckland region.

Only about 10 per cent of them would go offroad. The rest were used for everyday transport, or recreation.

A professional instructor of four-wheel-driving for seven years, Pete Ritchie, observed a growing trend for city folk to want to take their vehicles offroad.

As a result, he said, more were going on "tag-alongs" with experienced drivers and clubs on trips along backcountry farm tracks.

"I've found that while this builds their confidence, it also shows them they have a lot to learn.

"More of them are making the intelligent decision to do a training course rather than risk wrecking their expensive vehicles."