Raukawa International Raceway

Allrighty, it's going to be a busy week here, so all RC related visits will need to be Wednesday 3.30-5pm this week, so if I need to order anything it will be here for the weekend.

If you are thinking of entering, throw your entry in ASAP so I can get the programs all loaded up and running. We will have to do a little R&M on the track on Sunday morning, but let's get us entered in first so we can get to that point!!

We have a few more rally cars, a few more trucks and buggies and Juniors to enter, so rattle your dags and let's get cracking!!!

Tires are under control for those that have pre ordered them, I have a stack of used ones here, Ill bring them on Sunday help your self.!!

Right, that's this week until Wednesday, Entry link in the comments

Hulio

Well it's been quite a day coming back to earth after a great weekend of RC racing to finish off the Super5 Series for 2025/26. The highlight for me was the 17 juniors we had racing in 1 heat, chaos but heat 2 was actually really good once everyone got sorted and understood what happens.

In 2025/26 we congratulate the following Super5 Champions and thank them for their commitment to the series and allowing not only experienced, but younger and upcoming racers to test their skills and share experiences around 5 different tracks and clubs.

Juniors
1. Charlie Croad 342 2. Spencer Croad 329

2wd SCT
1. Matt Lester 348 2. Noah Dudley 332 3. Brook Lester 322

4wd SCT
1. Daniel Contreras-Rojas 395 2. Bentley Chapman 343 3. Warren Coles 335

2wd Stadium Truck
1. Corban Coles 290 2. Stephen Humphries 261 3. Noah Dudley 254

E-Buggy
1. Kasey Dawson 295 2. Corban Coles 270 3. Daniel Contreras-Rojas 251

2wd Buggy
1. Julian Hardy 295 2. Kasey Dawson 261 3. Corban Coles 240

4wd Stock Buggy
1. Corban Coles 282 2. Matt Lester 233 3. Brook Lester 216

4wd Pre96 G27 Vintage Buggy
1.Stephen Humphries 290 2. Elton Tauwhare- Lambert 250 3. Glenn Coles 250. (Tie break applied)

4wd Modified Buggy
1. Kasey Dawson 295 2. Julian Hardy 260 3. Brook Lester 238

2wd Pre96 G27 Vintage Buggy
1. Julian Hardy 290 2. Elton Tauwhare-Lambert 270 3. Matthew Evans 251

And a thanks as always to the clubs for hosting the rounds, and to We Cut Shapes for the round and series trophies for 2025/26.

And now for my second favorite part - Stats! for the 2025/26 series we are down on numbers from last year, with reasonable and logical explanations for all the variances, but still require reasonable and logical fixes to improve the situation for 2026/27 series. As I highlighted at the prizegiving, here are the suggestions I am recommending to the clubs to adopt for next year. 2 Double header weekends, Gizzy & HB plus Masterton & RIR with a single CMR round. This frees up 2 weekends across a limited season and gets the whole series done in 3 weekends. Secondly adopting the RIR race formats, R1 Random Draw, R2 Reverse Finish order R1, and R3 is points, from highest to lowest, and therefore if the pole sitter wins the final race, they win the day. (and for those that think this does not work we run this same race system here for 5 years and have fine tuned it and also it aligns with full sized motorsport more) I'm not asking for any feedback on this here, I will discuss this with the club reps, but just putting this out there for all to understand.

And now the bit I'm sure you are all waiting with baited breath for: the numbers!! 24/25 season we had 268 racers, 767 cars and ran over 22117 laps. For this season we had 208 racers, 558 cars and 14968 laps. This is a 27% reduction in cars, 22% in racers and 32% in total laps. While this is quite a chunk, the reality is that we are 5 clubs, in very different positions, in different sporting stages, and variances of this quantity do deserve a look into and to ask some questions but more importantly help and support those that would like it to improve the overall position. In no means does this mean we are in grave danger, nor that 1/10th offroad racing is in trouble, (I can nearly explain all the variances myself) but instead it does require strong leadership, strong planning and getting everyone on board with facts rather than hype.

So that's a wrap on a great 5 race meetings, I have loved every bit of it, I'll be in touch with club reps shortly regarding dates and series updates and then we will get it out for everyone to be part of the 2026/27 Super5 Series as soon as we can and once again we will celebrate all things off-road in the heart of 1/10th Off-road racing in New Zealand.

Yours in dirt off-road racing

Hulio