Tauranga’s Ben Thomasen is celebrating his most successful motorsport weekend ever after winning both days of the punishing Polaris NZ 1000 driving one of the smallest cars in the event.
He is the first racer to win the 1000km, two day endurance race in a UTV or side by side race car. The event, which moved this year from Taupo to the south Waikato, is New Zealand’s longest and toughest off road race.
Polaris factory team driver Thomasen took pole in qualifying on Friday, won the first day outright and then put in a canny, strategic drive to win again today. He is the only driver in the 88-strong field to complete the full 1000 km distance.
The challenge of the top unlimited-class cars looked likely to be too strong for the 12 UTV racers who entered the event, but Thomasen’s decision to allow the big race cars to do battle and to watch for his own opportunities proved to be the correct one.
A time penalty for an on-track transgression on the first day and a rear puncture on lap 15 today were not enough to derail a carefully paced drive. When reports came through that he had picked up a flat tyre midway through the 15th lap many were convinced second-placed Clim Lammers or Raana Horan in his big Nissan Titan V8 would sweep through.
He drove about 10km on the flailing rubber but then found another Polaris competitor who had stopped with clutch problems and was able to borrow their spare wheel to make a fast roadside change.
“I wasn’t confident we would reach the end of the lap, much less the race, the tyre was shredded. So I was really pleased to be able to change the tyre trackside.
Continually clearing conditions meant by this afternoon, dust had overtaken thick mud as the main course challenge for competitors.
“These roads are very challenging, tight and twisty the wide open and fast and it’s easy to misjudge a corner approach in thick dust. It was blinding in some places.”
After dominating the first day, Thomasen was determined to drive his own race. The big unlimited class cars and trucks were a lap down and would need to chase him over a whole 54 km lap in roder to challenge for the lead.
Clim Lammers had taken the early lead along with Raana Horan and Tony McCall – but each struck problems as the race progressed and the momentum of Thomasen’s race was too much for the other racers.
Suspension damage delayed Lammers and then put him out; McCall stopped with fuel pump issues but was able to restart.
Aucklander James Buchanan, like Thomasen, benefited from an untroubled run and a carefully planned race strategy to step up from sixth overall after the first day in his Mitsubishi Evo powered car. He was runner-up, a lap down on Thomasen.
Local driver Steve Rowe (Putaruru) was third overall in only his second offroad race and his first run at the ‘1000’.
Raana Horan missed the finish, dropping out on lap 13 with broken steering after running as high as third ahead of multiple ‘1000’ winner Tony McCall.
The youngest driver in the race, Dyson Delahunty, was fifth in a Polaris RZR 1000
It was not a good year for internationals. American Todd LeDuc had a patchy race, missing the first day when his Cougar Honda Turbo developed an incurable transmission issue but running hard on the second day in Trevor Cooper’s Chev LSX V8 powered Jimco Champion. He started the second day from 60th place and leapt to eighth place after just two laps but then retired when the engine lost all its drive belts. Scots-born Australian Tony Quinn retired after the first day when his Holden Colorado V8 developed overheating issues.
Thomasen only needed to refuel once on each day and set fastest lap on Saturday: 41 minutes, 41 seconds. Raana Horan set fastest lap on the second day, a 40.01.
Polaris NZ 1000 – results:
1 Ben Thomasen (UTV Polaris RZ-R1000) 20 laps, 15h 37m 35.2s
2 James Buchanan (Class 1 Mitsubishi Evo) 19 laps
3 Steve Rowe (UTV Polaris RZ-R1000) 19 laps
4 Tony McCall (Class 1 BSL Terra-Chev) 19 laps
5 Dyson Delahunty (UTV Polaris RZ-R1000) 19 laps
6 Mike Small (UTV Polaris RZ-R1000) 18 laps
7 Alan Hilliam (Class 1 Porsche) 18 laps
8 Justin Leonard (Class 8 Chevrolet V8) 18 laps
9 Donald Preston (Class 8 Toyota V8) 18 laps
10 Mike Konings (Class 9 VW Baja) 18 laps
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