Morison Takes Second National Clubsport Title

Morison Takes Second National Clubsport Title

Cameron Morison of Invercargill has won the Motorsport New Zealand National Clubsport Championship for the second time in three years.
The 2016 Championship was held in Invercargill last weekend over three disciplines beginning with a Motorkhana on a sealed surface at Teretonga Park on Saturday morning featuring technical challenges with an emphasis on car control on tight courses set out with cones. That afternoon a Bent Sprint followed with a high speed event on seal with fast, flowing corners featuring sections of the Teretonga track. The championship concluded with an Autocross, a medium speed event held on gravel, at Southern Aggregates quarry over a 2km course on Sunday.

Due to the wide range of event styles the overall winning driver and vehicle needed to be versatile and not too specialised. The types of vehicles entered were production based with a range of modifications but large budgets are not required to build a competitive vehicle.

Morison won the Motorkhana in his Nissan Pulsar from Cantabrians Karl Celeste in a Mini and Neil Gardner in a Lotus 7 Series 3 Replica while he also won the Bent Sprint from fellow Invercargill drivers Stacy Lines in a Leitch Super Sprint and NZ Touring Car star Liam MacDonald in a Nissan NX Coupe. He also finished third in the Autocross behind Tom Bond of Dunedin (Subaru Impreza WRX) and Brendon Mitchell of Winton (Toyota Levin).

At the conclusion of competition Morison had compiled 298.46 points with Gardner second on 286.92 and MacDonald third on 285.13. It was Morison’s second National Title after winning his first in Waimate two years ago and he admitted to being “very pleased,” with the result.

Liam MacDonald won the Junior Title from fellow Southlanders Ben Kelly and Matt Lines while Morison, Stacy Lines and Andrew Lawrie of Invercargill combined to win the Teams Title. Rachel Lawrie of Invercargill also took the Ladies Title.

Thirty competitors contested the championship with eight from the North Island including defending champion Paul Walbran who travelled with his family from Auckland with their MG Midget to compete.

Morison has been competing in Clubsport events since 2011 and this was his fourth National Championship and second title. He has owned the Nissan Pulsar for three years and it has gone through various stages of development, much of it since last year’s championship in Auckland where he finished fourth after the car showed some weakness on high speed events. Morison was also the Chairman of the organising committee of the event but acknowledged a great team of helpers who allowed the event to run like clockwork while he competed.

Southern Wings, E Hayes & Sons, Stresscrete Southland and Magoo Auto have supported Morison’s efforts.

Morison now plans to go back to the North Island next year to defend the title although which club will be hosting the event is still unknown at present. In the meantime he will be kept busy with involvement in dozens of clubsport events around the local area with the region's clubs.

ENDS

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