Grand Finale Meeting, May 3rd
Kihikihi Speedway
A few photos from the final meeting of the season for me, a Saturday night event at Kihikihi Speedway, which was a whole new experience. Great fields and lots of action made this one a classic and hopefully something the club will be able to do a lot more of next season, only problem being the lack of co-ordinating calendars with the Northern clubs. It's something that came up a few times this year with Waikaraka, Huntly, Rotorua and Baypark sometimes all running on the same night followed by a weekend with no racing! Adding Kihikihi to the Saturday night mix might water things down even more and it is time these clubs sat down and worked out some sort of plan.
The new lighting did the trick and the dreaded end of season cold weather was pretty mild. Stockcars numbered about 34 cars split into mixed groups over four heats with all drivers competing in 3 of the 4 heats, while Superstocks dragged out a decent field of 19, Saloons reached double figures too. Midgets and Minisprints rounded out an excellent programme. 22m Les Hepworth took the honours for Stockcars winning the King Country title after sitting in about 5th place after 3 of the 4 heats had been completed. 88h Justin Hutchby had run his 3 races sitting on 67 points, 2 pts ahead of 38m James Hamilton and they could only watch from the sidelines as they slipped down the leaderboard with Hepworth, 27h Brett Aitken, 81r Damian Orr and 52r Mike Herbert rounding out the podium places. Herbert winning a runoff for third from Orr.
Popular Rotorua driver Bryce Steiner managed to dominate a pretty classy field of Superstocks, finishing with a 1st, 3rd and 2nd. Baypark's Kerry Remnant had the 19m flying in one of his best performances this season, getting home ahead of 16b Steve Jude in the Silver Bullet, who finished third overall.
