Andreassend Christens New Car With Debut Win

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Andreassend Christens New Car With Debut Win

Through thick, choking dust on a fast and treacherous forest course, Nelson offroad racer Dennis Andreassend has christened his new Cougar Evo race car with a debut win and taken the lead in the 2009 championship.

The first South island round of the championship, held yesterday on the outskirts of Dunedin, pitted Andreassend, defending champion Daniel Powell and Geoff Densem in a battle for honours in the unlimited Kumeu Transport Engineering class one category.

Another Christchurch driver, Wayne Moriarty, was out to set his mark on the overall points battle in his Euroblast Cougar racing in Pine Harbour Painters Super 1600 class.

In qualifying for the 162 km endurance event, Powell took third fastest time in his Jimco Nissan turbo; Andreassend copping his time to be second fastest. Pole position and an immediate advantage going into the forest fell to Wayne Moriarty, the agile Super 1600 car edging out the more powerful class one cars.

At the race start, Moriarty established his lead and began to pull away from the class one cars battling behind him, Andreassend trying to close the gap while defending from the big Jimco behind him.

“The car was going really nicely in those opening laps, but the surface was like driving on ball bearings. I was looking for the gravel to scrub off and make a fast line but it actually didn’t improve much through the race,” said Moriarty, who ran in dust-free air at the front of the field and was extending his lead by ten or more seconds a lap on the class one cars behind him, running in clear air.

Andreassend said he was making sure of his placing in the opening laps. Running with a heavy fuel load, he wanted to stay close to Moriarty and learn the nine km lap before attacking.

Even so, he pulled a 15 second advantage over Powell in third place as the race developed.

“The when we ran into the lapped traffic, everything closed up again.”

Passing slower cars, he said, was much easier in his new car than in the Super 1600 he ran last season.

“The package is amazing. Torque, power, handling, it’s all there. The engine has had a complete rebuild and it’s very strong, we have good useful grunt from just 2000 rpm which is really important in offroad racing.”

On lap 12, Moriarty ran into trouble in a fast section of the course.

“We were in fifth gear in the big sweeping corners down the bottom, I was pushing to get through lapped traffic to keep my lead. The car was feeling really good and I was trying to work a pass on Clint Densem when his car stepped sideways,” he said.

The Euroblast Cougar’s front wheel made contact with Densem’s rear wheel and was launched off the track into the forest. It flew over one tree stump and hit a second front-on, smashing the right front suspension in what Moriarty said was one of the heaviest impacts of his career.

“We hit that stump and the car went way up in the air and then fell back. Man, I’m sore!”

Though he was able to extract the Cougar from the forest and limp back to the pits on three wheels, Moriarty was forced to retire, though he was classified a finisher, having completed 60 per cent of total race distance.

With Moriarty gone, Andreassend swept through to a lead he would hold to the chequered flag. Powell was a lap behind, having spun deep in the forest while trying to catch Andreassend.

After the race, Andreassend said he is very pleased with the result and the way the car went. A new car, new race class and a new flat four engine was a lot to get used to, he said, but the off-season preparation programme had paid dividends.

“We went from one end of the car to the other, found some wiring issues that had plagued the car when Tony McCall owned it and sorted those, replaced bearings and bushes and some cracked transmission components – and of course the new engine programme Ritchie Wormald has put together for us is outstanding.”

Another significant factor in this winning performance, he said, was a new deal the team has struck with BF Goodrich Tyres, the most successful brand in the history of the sport.

“I was some pretty freaky lines being taken by other cars out in the bush so a clean race line never really developed, but we really got the car hooking up well out of corners and it had great feedback in the fast stuff – that gives confidence and makes all the difference when trying to overtake lapped traffic in thick dust,” he said.

Overall, Andreassend rates the win a perfect first outing for the Richmond Car Sales Cougar Evo.

A second place in the Southern Lakes Transmissions Super 1300 class for son Haydn – behind the experienced Ryan Densem – sealed a successful weekend for the father-son team.

“Haydn raced very well, got a couple of hits from other drivers but stayed out of trouble and drove well to be just behind Ryan at the finish. I tried not to stress the Cougar too hard all day, it was important to just make sure of points and get settled into this new ride. Scoring a debut win and the championship points lead is fantastic, and I’m really looking forward to the rest of the season.”

ENDS

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