Vintage stuff

Huntly Teams - Night 2



On a finals night at the Huntly Stockcar Teams meeting that featured golden oldie drivers and historic stockcars, it was a team of veterans with years of experience who showed a youthful Huntly team just how to win in an exciting final that capped off a great weekend. Carlos Chestnutt, Billy Neill, Ron Tye, Neil Coley and Jason Patrick as the Manawatu Steelers took the title for 2008/09.

Runoff for 7th & 8th : Meeanee Maulers v Stratford
On track it was a fairly simple win for Stratford although they lost by protest due to an infringement (attacking from the grass) and were eventually placed 8th, Ricky Kuru and Beatle Tarrant were the only HB cars left going after 83B Hingston was dealt a major hit into the wall and problems for the 81b ended his race early. 509s expired big time at the end of the race. Lots of work to do for both these teams before the Wellington Teams meeting.

Runoff for 5th & 6th : Baypark Bulldogs v Gisborne Gladiators
Out to prove Friday night was no fluke the Gizzy boys gave their all and were leading this brutal race until 64g Sam Hughes came upon 14m Scott Gallop who took his lead and his wheel bringing on the red lights. Upon the restart only 65g Simon Allen was still mobile still giving the Bulldogs a hard time, great blocking by usual runner Scott Fredrikson finally brought the Gladiators run to an end with 15m Brent Haynes taking the win for Baypark.

Semi Final 1 : Rotorua Rascals v Waikato Raiders
This was a great race with 97h running for Huntly and 202r & 203r running behind. On lap 3 the reds came on to check on 94h Jamie Marshall-Carter after a king hit into the wall. 205r and 96h became locked and then for the rest of the race it was whether Nick Vallance for Rotorua could stop the ailing car of Tony Wootten with attack after attack, Wootten managed a hugely popular win after a meelee just before the finish line, Waikato finally make the final of their own teams event for the first time.

Semi Final 2 : Manawatu Steelers v Wanganui Vulcans
This race was basically over after turn two when Billy Neill managed to put the Vulcans runner 44v up the wall and over. He repeated the dose on 22v but the Vulcans never gave up pinning the 168p for the only time over the whole weekend. 64a Chestnutt took the win ahead of 11v and 99p. Steelers through to the final.

Runoff for 3rd & 4th : Wanganui Vulcans v Rotorua Rascals
Wanganui could only front three cars and from the get go the Rascals each took a car leaving 203r to do the running. Wanganui could do little to halt an inevitable win for Rotorua who took out 3rd place.

Final : Manawatu Steelers v Waikato Raiders
I didn't manage to write anything down for this race, it was too action packed to look away from the track. 38p Coley was out and so 17h Patrick was brought in for the final. He performed well but it was the core team of Chestnutt, Neill and Tye who showed awesome skill in every race. A change of tactics with Chestnutt not running looked ominous to begin with but Waikato failed to immobilise Neill as the Vulcans had and although a nail biter to the very end the team that deserved to win took the chequered flag. Winners : Manawatu Steelers.

It's the closest I was going to get to an Auckland victory for the weekend so I was well pleased as I sprinted to the car to avoid the Huntly carpark dust fest traffic jam! The support racing on the night would have pleased most people (on a pension) but it took an eternity to get the golden oldies racing going, but once they ran the two heats it was worth the effort I suppose. Small gripes I guess but most people will remember this weekend for great teams action and that's what we were there for. The only big question left is will we see 64a and 168a in an Alleycats team..?

Meeting rating : 8/10