Fibreglass Wars

North Island Saloon Title
December 29/30, Waikaraka Park








I had a premonition that there would be major damage and much sharing of fibreglass, hence the heading above but in the end it was a lot cleaner racing once the first heats for each group were out of the way. I had spent two days in Rotorua waiting for the rain to clear for the North Island Modified title before giving up and heading back to Auckland, so being in the pits pre-meeting in full sunshine was a great feeling. In fact the buzz in the pits was great and lets hope the beginning of a decent run of weather perhaps.

Group 1 Qualifying:
Three heats for each group with the top six qualifying for the finals. Race one had a complete restart after 78h Dave Fisher was out of place on the green flag and then much jockeying for position before a lap four incident where 69k Mike Wilson lost control on the front straight, spinning and then spearing into 75m Michelle Wymer sending her into the wall bringing on the yellows. Everybody pretty much hunkered down for the rest of the race, 16s Thomas Korff taking the heat win. Wymer was a no show for the second heat but the race was a huge highlights reel for 43h Aaron Tonks who despite being miles ahead of the pack was giving it death! 1nz Jeff Barron spent the whole race drifting backwards and out of contention. With about 2 laps to go 69k Wilson had his steering collapse just before turn one and hit the wall with 272m Chris Cowling lucky to avoid joining him. Tonks easily took the win ahead of 78h Fisher and 49h Abrahamson. Heat three and all eyes once again on Aaron Tonks who from a rear grid start spent the entire race on the outside line passing cars at will. Awesome to watch. 11a Lynn Yates holding him off long enough for Cowling to take the win. 1nz Barron, 75m Wymer and 24w Gary Marshall surprise non-qualifiers.

272m Chris Cowling 34pts
43h Aaron Tonks 32pts
16s Thomas Korff 28pts
49h Bodie Abrahamson 27pts
96s Nigel Perrett 24pts
11a Lynn Yates 24pts

Group 2 Qualifying:
Similar to Group 1, an incident or two in the opening laps where 46a Nigel Ross was slow to take off on the green flag and 51m Tony Heuvel rear ended him, 74a Scott Lansdowne also involved. 51m looked to be heading to the infield when the damaged spoiler fell off and then joined the complete restart field. Upon the restart, something went majorly wrong with title favourite 2nz Brent McClymont and the entire field had to avoid the grid 2 starter. Unfortunately for 77k Rossco Cresswell, a spin by 79m Mike Griffiths also involving 18m Chris Taylor damaged the 77k car, Cresswell having to retire. The rest of the heat was pretty straight forward except for a costly spin for 74a Lansdowne but 274m Dan Corrin made mincemeat of the field taking an easy win ahead of 46a Ross, 6a Torrey and 66a Church. Heat two had a great battle between 51m Heuvel and 74a Lansdowne with the Bay Park driver taking a well earned win. 25h Rhys Clements had some steering issues and cost 79m Griffiths a number of spots in a turn 2 incident. McClymont scored good points finishing 4th. Heat three was going to be interesting with McClymont needing a big finish from a rear grid start and some contact with 6a Doug Torrey early on didn't help but he would make a number of late passes finishing 6th but falling short of qualifying. 18m Chris Taylor taking a win ahead of 79m Griffiths and with 66a Peter Church finishing 4th all three would require a runoff for the last qualifying position, 79m Griffiths taking the win.

46a Nigel Ross 31pts
11m Kevin Moore 28pts
274m Dan Corrin 28pts
51m Tony Heuvel 26pts
74a Scott Lansdowne 25pts
79m Mike Griffiths 23pts

Group 3 Qualifying:
This group only had 12 cars but seemed to have the most action. 48a Phil Towgood has had an interesting past couple of meetings here at WP and it continued with the whole rear shell of his car coming off after hitting the turn 4 wall while taking the high line in heat 1. Yellows were brought on to remove the body panel but he was able to continue finishing 7th. 51s Russell Gorrie also had dramas hitting the 77g car on turn 2 early in the race but both finishing although well down the pack. 271m Steve Cowling continuing a great night for the ITM cars with a win. Heat two was devoid of dramas and featured a great battle between 21h Williams and 8s Craig Korff with the Stratford driver taking the honours. Heat three had a coming together for 51s and 3nz Paul Cressy, both continued, Cressy would end up finishing 4th not gathering enough points to qualify. 48a Towgood lead from start to finish collecting valuable points and qualification. Williams another strong showing and a 2nd place ahead of 77g Cook. Notable non-qualifiers were 3nz Cressy, 29b Steve Martin and 75a Craig Duthie.

21h Steve Williams 32pts
14m Brett Kaye 30pts
271m Steve Cowling 30pts
48a Phil Towgood 29pts
8s Craig Korff 28pts
77g Daniel Cook 26pts

Two more spots are up for grabs tonight with a last chance heat which usually means carnage! The support programme for last night included Mini Stocks and Stockcars with a few visitors from Huntly in the mix, the stockies put on a great display. 99a Brian Campbell's performance in the feature was a stunner. Emerging from the pits without a wing usually only means one thing and he was out to stir it up big time. He had a go at most cars and finished off a great night of viewing. Lets hope tonight isn't rained out and we can crown a new North Island Saloon champion. If last night was anything to go by, Tonks, Williams and the Cowling cars should figure in the podium positions.

Stockcar Teams Update 5

Photo courtesy of Dan Nagle

Results:

Nov 3, Greenstone Park

Greymouth Grizzlies def Tasman Thunder

Nov 10, Stratford Speedway

Manawatu Steelers def Stratford Stormers

Nov 11, Eastern States Speedway, Blenheim

Eastern States Titans def Ken's Cowboys

Nov 16, Huntly Speedway Night 1

Wanganui Vulcans def Meeanee Maulers

Waikato Raiders def Gisborne Gladiators

Rotorua Rascals def Auckland Alleycats

Manawatu Steelers def Kihikihi Crusaders

Waikato Raiders def Meeanee Maulers

Wanganui Vulcans def Gisborne Gladiators

Manawatu Steelers def Rotorua Rascals

Auckland Alleycats def Kihikihi Crusaders

Nov 16, Woodford Glen Speedway

Eastern States Titans def Ken's Cowboys

Canterbury Crushers def North Island Invitation

Eastern States Titans def North Island Invitation

Ken's Cowboys def Canterbury Crushers

Nov 17, TeMarua Speedway Wellington 

Welllington Young Guns def Tasman Thunder

Nov 18, Huntly Speedway Night 2

Rotorua Rascals def Gisborne Gladiators

Meeanee Maulers def Kihikihi Crusaders

Manawatu Steelers def Wanganui Vulcans

Auckland Alleycats def Waikato Raiders

Manawatu Steelers def Auckland Alleycats

Gisborne Gladiators def Kihikihi Crusaders

Meeanee Maulers def Rotorua Rascals

Wanganui Vulcans def Waikato Raiders

Dec 1, Arena Manawatu

Palmerston North Teams Invasion

Palmerston North Pumas def Stratford Stormers

Manawatu Minors def Wanganui Vulcans

Manawatu Steelers def Wellington Young Guns

Manawatu Minors def Palmerston North Pumas

Wanganui Vulcans def Wellington Young Guns

Manawatu Steelers def Stratford Stormers

Palmerston North Pumas def Wanganui Vulcans

Manawatu Steelers def Manawatu Minors

Dec 13, Greenstone Park
Greymouth Grizzlies def Tasman Thunder

Rees Shield Challenge 3

Dec 15, Waikaraka Park

Auckland Alleycats def Stratford Stormers

2011/12 Season Final table HERE  Winners Waikato Raiders

2010/11 Season Final table HERE  Winners Palmerston North Pumas

WP Christmas Meeting

Auckland Saloon and Streetstock Titles

December 15, Waikaraka Park

Thirteen Saloons and nine Streetstocks made up the fields of the two feature classes and really that's a pretty small pool of talent to draw on for entertainment and doesn't really give their respective titles much value as something to win, similar to last weeks Waikato Superstock title. Never mind, in my vow to be more positive and write nice things, both classes still managed to provide good racing and in the case of the Saloon's second heat, a bizarre final lap with two rollovers. The other classes of interest were the new Six Shooters and the Rees Shield up for grabs with the Stratford Stormers mounting a challenge in the Stockcar class.

Rees Shield Auckland Alleycats v Stratford Stormers

Auckland's third defence of the shield and Stratford had a fairly strong team on paper but after the warm up laps they had lost 409s Justin Robinson with a broken axle. 838a Steve Gavin sat out for the Alleycats. Lonergan and Fox got the jump on the field chased by 406s Hayden Barker. 408s Shane Kells and 333a Hayden Cossey assumed blocking roles and for a large percentage of the race the two Auckland flyers did enough to avoid the attempts by the Stormers block men to get them. Towards the end of the race though, things had tightened up and when Lonergan's power steering failed and he was struggling to come out of turn two, 407s Daniel Nagle managed to block and hold him up, fortunately for Auckland, Fox avoided the two Stormers cars now holding Lonergan up and despite a final attack by Kells, Fox came home for the win ahead of Lonergan who still managed to finish. Stratford filled the next three places 407s, 406s and 408s. Cossey the only other car to finish. It would appear the Meeanee Maulers are next to challenge for the shield.

In the other Stockcar heats standout driver had to be 23a Tony Baldwin, although he never made it out for heat two, he easily managed the biggests hits of the night. 11a Matthew Shutte feeling the force of a monster hit in heat one making a huge hole in the wall and in heat three he ended the race long battle between 95a Gary Lonergan and 2nz Bernie Fox by spinning Lonergan in turn 1 and then pile driving Fox into the turn 3 wall sending huge amounts of cement flying. Fox retaliated but got pinged for hitting a stationery car ending the carnage. 41a Carl Urlich took out the feature race. Other wins went to 168h Billy Neill and easily the fastest car on the night 34a Mark Wearing. After Baldwin's antics I think they will be calling the Kowhai Guys to repair the wall! Only two Stratford cars managed to make it out for the heats and a few Auckland cars were away at the U23's meeting but still a respectable field of about 17 stockcars.

Not much to report on the Streetstocks, the commentator said "Streetstocks are back in force" which would appear to be upsell in the extreme. Numbers started at 9 and dropped to about 7 by the final heat which became a Rotorua versus Auckland battle, 24a Jono Lauder took the spoils. Craig Anderson won heats 2 and 3 but a DNF in heat 1 cost him the title. Not many more Saloons were in attendance but 13 of them did have a good number of real contenders and heat one was a battle between 77g Dan Cook and 48a Phil Towgood. Towgood winning and I gotta say this guy must have a muscular right arm from constantly having to wave the chequered flag! His good luck was pretty much going to end there though after an incident filled second heat. 66a Peter Church and Towgood spent a number of laps dueling mid pack with a bit of rough stuff thrown in, 49h Bodie Abrahamson was well out ahead and took a great win but crossing the finish line Towgood piled into the wall and took a massive ride up the wall into turn one while at the same time heat two second place getter 97a Robin Thomas rolled about 5 feet short of the finish line. It was a spectacular finish and certainly woke the crowd up! 77g also had a dnf throwing the title wide open. Only 10 cars fronted for the third heat and 46a Nigel Ross saved his best drive of the night for this heat and took a fairly easy win ahead of 74a Scott Lansdowne the other main title hope, 49h Abrahamson, could only manage a 7th place but it was still enough to get him 3rd overall.

Superstocks and a new class called Six Shooters rounded out the racing. 10 Superstocks fronted all registered to Auckland which is a huge turnaround on previous seasons and the biggest surprise was 4a Neil McCoard in the ex-Headington car. They were giving it a shakedown in preparation for 97uk Murray Harrison who arrives next week and will campaign the car at a series of meetings. It had the original body from when Neil took 3rd place at the New Zealand title in Gisborne and I have to say he still has those silky skills and drove it like he hadn't been away at all. The plan was to race off the back but a 3rd and 2nd place in the two heats he raced, means his racing didn't quite go to plan! 115a Darren Short took two good wins and 5a Brad Ridland the feature. The Six Shooters (10 in attendance) weren't too shabby and definitely better than a number of classes running at WP. Given that the numbers will increase I think they will be a good addition to the ranks so long as they replace something else, not added to the already large number of classes racing.

A little ripper...

Waikato Superstock Title, Waikato Sprintcars, 
George Hazelton / Alex Gillan Memorial Stockcars
Huntly Speedway, December 8, 2012



With not much else happening in the upper North Island this meeting should have had bumper fields but the two major classes featured, Superstocks and Sprintcars both contesting their respective Waikato titles failed to gather more than 8 entries, Sprintcars managing only 6. Despite that, and for whatever reason drivers chose not to run, Huntly served up a little ripper of a meeting and I'm pleased to say the Stockcars were the reason punters would have gone home very happy with their $15 investment.

The Superstocks and Sprintcars put on some good fast racing specially James Dahm in the 6m, but the titles seem a little devalued with fields of this size and the Waikato Superstock title carries a lot of prestige I would have thought. Anyway the Supersaloons managed to provide a whole reel of highlights themselves (good and bad ones), Lance Jennings won the Kevin Bates Memorial for heat three while 98h Greg Powell took the overall title, easily the most spectacular driver of the night.

The Stockcars running for the combined George Hazelton (overall points) and Alex Gillan (Heat 3) Memorials, three heats of mostly local cars (26 entries) served up some great racing and plenty of good old fashioned contact. Heat one set the tone from the green with 81h Rod Smythe being spun on the opening corner and dropped to last place. 53h Matt Hazelton lead out from there but this heat would see a stream of leaders removed, spun or bashed out of contention. Visitor 9a Cam Kenworthy provided the first big moment with a well timed walling and roll of the 27h car of Brett Aiken before ploughing into the stationery 34h Anton Leek who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Red lights and Ali Van Amsterdam was leading from 441h Andy Weir, 53h Hazelton, 37h Ben Caldwell, 36h Mark Caldwell and 168h Billy Neill. The long awaited return of the awesome looking 12h tank of Lionel Halse was mixing it up and took out 17k Ben Patrick in turn 4. 7k Dave Moore's stirring slowed up with a puncture before 48h Scott Gallop spun the leader Van Amsterdam, then 168h Neill and finally 9a Kenworthy on the same lap! 88h Justin Hutchby not one to miss out on the fun spun the new leader Wier handing the lead to the 36h Caldwell car. On the final lap almost every car in the leading group was tagged including 49h Tony Van Lieshout, 51h and 168h. As Malcolm Sines said, and I have to agree, "pull the chequered flag back in and let them keep going!"
36h, 53h, 55h, 51h, 86h, 37h, 441h, 49h, 81h, 63h

Heat 2 was all about 88h Justin Hutchby who went into complete stirring mode, focusing on Andy Weir and Rod Smythe in the first few laps before deciding anyone was worth a hit. The battle continued for 12h v 17k but the reds were brought on for 9a after 48h Gallop sent him heavily into the turn 4 wall wrecking the front right steering. Gallop also managed to spin 49h, but it was 55h Neville Hazelton leading and running a rather charmed race as the chaos reigned around him. Weir got some revenge on Gallop before 17k joined the battle and 49h Van Lieshout narrowly avoided becoming Gallop's final victim on the run for home avoiding a huge lunge from the 48h.
55h, 168h, 86h, 37h, 49h, 36h, 17k, 13h, 441h, 95h
Points after two brutal heats had 55h Hazelton on 50pts, 36h Mark Caldwell on 47pts, 86h Kris Allen 46pts, 37h Ben Caldwell 44pts and 49h Van Leishout rounding out the top 5.

Heat 3 49h Tony Van Leishout was 5th on points and lead early in the final heat but it was 86h Allen first to fall out of contention, Kenworthy the destroyer, next Hutchby removed the 49h and 55h Hazelton took over the lead and potentially the title if he could avoid trouble and that's exactly what he did. Kenworthy's next target was 37h Caldwell and 168h Neill got caught up in the mix. Hazelton's last test was avoiding a big meelee of cars on the last lap with 7k Moore in the middle of it all, which he did and took both titles winning heat three and overall points. An emotional Hazelton said he had been trying to win the George Hazelton title for years and couldnt believe he had finally done it, a well deserved win in a car that is unbelievably fast and strong AND for sale for 10k, amazing it hasn't sold. Both Hutchby and Gallop would have been worthy winners of the Stirrers Trophy, my money was on the 48h.  Alex Gillan Memorial: 55h, 27h, 81h, 36, 441h, 49h, 168h, 17k, 86h, 95h

Overall (George Hazelton Memorial)
55h  Neville Hazelton 76pts
36h  Mark Caldwell 70pts
86h  Kris Allen 64pts
49h  Tony Van Lieshout 62pts
441h Andy Weir 60pts