KEY POINTS:
Christchurch's Wayne Moriarty is coming to the Nelson round of the 2008 Asset Finance Offroad Racing Championship with one aim: to wrest the overall title lead away from the North Island.
The Nelson endurance event will cover 172.8km in a forest outside Nelson on Saturday on a 19.2km lap that is described by organisers as "very fast, but with a few traps for the unwary".
It is the third round of the championship, the second to be held in the South Island, and is sponsored by Autoworld Richmond and Richmond Wood and Coal.
At the South Island's first round, held near Christchurch in March, Moriarty dominated both days of racing to take a joint early lead in the championship with North Island racer Maurice Bain.
With a comfortable lead in the South Island points, Moriarty says he is determined to topple Bain from the outright points lead and take charge of the championship title battle.
Two weeks ago at a rainy Hawke's Bay round, Bain extended his championship lead with a gritty drive that gave him the class win on the last lap by out-braking long-time rival Nigel Newlands flat-out in top gear on one of Gwavas Forest's main logging roads.
Though a production-class truck was never likely to take the outright win at Gwavas against the might of the fast unlimited and Super 1600 class cars, the class victory gave him enough points to retain the overall lead in the championship as the North Island's faster crews surged through to take outright positions.
Bain now has 122 points, his outright dominance whittled to just four points by youngster Nick Hall, who won the Workshop Super 1300 class at Gwavas and has 118 points.
Third on points - and a direct class rival for Moriarty - is Albany racer Richard Crabb in his innovative mid-engined race car.
There's more than championship points at stake this weekend.
Nelson racers will be out to defend their racing reputations against the Christchurch and Otago teams, and the event is also the South Island's chance to draw level once more and potentially take over the outright championship points battle and the class-by-class advantage.
The championship points battle will be fought out between Wayne Moriarty and his long-time Super 1600 class rival Dennis Andreassend, whose car sales company Autoworld Richmond is one of the event sponsors.
Moriarty must finish in front of Andreassend - no easy task on Andreassend's home turf - and says he's well prepared for the battle.
He has freshened the high-revving Toyota engine in his car since the Mainland Challenge and carried out a preventive maintenance programme on the car to ensure it's in top condition for race day.
Though some competitors use hand-cut "prickle" rear tyres to maximise traction, Moriarty will use BF Goodrich's race-bred All Terrain tyres.
"We were hitting 180km/h on the fast parts of this course last year, so having a tyre that is predictable in those conditions is essential."
Leading the local entries are the father-son two-car team of Dennis and Haydn Andreassend - the latter in only his second offroad race in the Workshop Super 1300 class. It will be Andreassend junior's first ever forest race.
Also lining up to defend Nelson's offroad racing heritage are Neville Taylor (Camco production truck class), Darrin Thomason (Camco sport truck class), Kerry Thomason (Camco ThunderTruck class), Gordon Adamson (Leader Products Super 1600 class) and Race Shock Specialists unlimited class competitors Clayton Burrow and Ashley Kelly.
In addition to Moriarty, the Christchurch contingent includes Neil Stuart (Camco production truck class), Dave Manze and Simon Smith (Camco sport truck class), Bryan Chang and Mark French (Camco ThunderTruck class), Scott Campbell (VW Shoppe Challenger class), Bruce Rolls and Ryan Densem (The Workshop Super 1300 class) and Race Shock Specialists unlimited class competitor Daniel Powell in his wild new Jimco Nissan V6 turbo.
Making the longest trip to compete will be the Queenstown and Dunedin-based crews of Mathew Pratt (VW Shoppe Challenger class), Chris Morrell and Donald McMillan (both racing in The Workshop Super 1300 class) and Race Shock Specialists unlimited class competitors Dave Ballantyne and Jason Brooks.
Based in the Golden Downs Forest, organiser Clayton Burrow says this year's track features fast undulating roads among tall, established trees, giving a changing track surface throughout.
"Most drivers should be able to go flat-out in top gear at several parts of the track - driver's bravery permitting!"
