Darren Johnston Wins New Zealand Nationals!

0 April 14, 2011, 10:28 a.m.

Main Photo: Darren Johnston Wins New Zealand Nationals!

Darren's Race Report:

The 2011 Electric Offroad Nationals were held in the sunny Hawkes Bay on the East Coast of New Zealand's North Island over the weekend of April 1st - 3rd. There were approximately 125 entries which is very good by New Zealand standards.

I have recently moved to Australia but would take the 7hr plane flight back to my homeland knowing there would be good competition and fun times. I arrived early on Friday morning for practice and there was already a lot of people there. It was good to meet up with my old friends. The track looked very good; technical with a lot of elevation change and some jumps in difficult positions. After running my cars in practice it was obvious the track was going to stay very very slippery all weekend as well. In fact it was probably the slickest track I have ever run on.

I made some small changes in practice to the X Factory X - 6² 2WD mod and the X Factory X - 60 Truck mod and they were pretty good. Qualifying was on Saturday and the rocket round system was being used so only one round counted. Qualifying went ok but I was never quite on top of my driving and ended up 2nd in Truck Mod, 2nd in 2WD mod and 5th in 4WD mod. After a long night wrenching and changing a few more things it was finals day. I was quietly confident and knew I could do better than qualifying.