World of Stocks

World of Stocks
Paradise Valley, Rotorua








Hard to believe, but yet ANOTHER meeting affected by rain! My plan had been to miss qualifying night and just head over for the finals which is pretty much what has happened over the last few seasons. The heavy downpour on Friday meant my plans changed and not being able to stay on for Sundays finals just summed up my spectating season this year. Some speedway is better than none so I headed for Paradise Valley not expecting the world to be set on fire going by the last few 'World of Stocks' qualifying nights but was pleasantly surprised by the action that was served up. Perhaps the difference was the inclusion of 12e Zac Thompson who basically spent the night stirring up trouble in the bright yellow flat chassis that was at the centre of most incidents in his group. 83h Steve Gray also added to the dramas and is fast becoming a stirrer of note with a tank that can actually go fast when needed. One of the other standouts was 24m Karl Daniel also in a tank that was deceptively fast and only narrowly missed out of qualifying after a runoff but would be given the wildcard to get through.

When the dust had settled, the field of 60+ entrants had been narrowed down to 12 qualifiers, 4 from each group with a last chance repercharge adding another one, and the wildcard entry of course joining the 14 already confirmed starters. The results for finals night can be found on the Rotorua website here with 8r Scott Fredrikson finally landing a big title, so often missing out with little support when he was registered to Baypark. It appears the Rotorua drivers really did band together on this occasion which is sometimes not the norm. This was the fifth running of the World of Stocks title I believe, and its future seems assured with a good mix of action and good hard racing. It has been an expensive few weeks for stockcar drivers with the amount of meetings they are expected to travel to for what is essentially a budget class. I did have a fear that after four or five weeks of titles in a row that the field would be depleted, but luckily it wasnt the case. Just from a spectating point of view, I know the amount of Fridays I need to take off work to get to these titles and wonder how many high profile meetings a class like this can sustain before the bubble bursts, just food for thought. Also (small gripe warning) what happened to the awesome programmes that were coming out of Rotorua? Maybe a cost cutting measure but I miss those AWS graphics...

Finally, Peter Ress may not have made the podium for this title but he did take out the BOP Superstock title on Saturday night despite a great effort from 37r Ken Hunter to take him out in the third heat. Has any driver ever had a season as spectacularly successful as Rees is having this year? Its almost a privilege to watch him drive. So a qualifying night that I didn't think would offer up too much excitement presented Rees at his best and the much vaunted Zac Thompson from Blenheim living up to the hype that we in the North Island have heard so much about.

8r Scott Fredrickson 80pts
95r Dale Stewart 76pts
17b Aaron Iremonger 69pts
71w Benji Sneddon 67pts
2nz Peter Rees 63pts

Related links:
2010 review here
2009 review here