Milestone Homes Top of the South Speedway’s planned feature was affected by the recent Kaikoura earthquake, but the Stock Car Stirrer certainly made up for it on Saturday night.
The Palmerston North Panthers Super Stock team were due to race the Nelson Tigers for the Challenge Cup, but due to ferry sailings being disrupted there was no guarantee that the team could get across and back in time, so it has been postponed.
It was decided by the Club to run the Stockcar Stirrer competition and donate a portion of the gate fee to help in the earthquake recovery.
The Youth Ministocks were running their blind pairs competition with the Street stocks running ‘hit to pass,’ and round 1 of the T.Q Club Championships along with the Mark Thorn Memorial for Sidecars.
The stirring got underway immediately in the stockcar grade, Thunder captain Michael Paynter 8n signalled his intentions early, waiting for the lead cars to come back around.
His first target was Thunders selector Tony Frost, who managed to escape Paynter’s bumper, but it was soon over for the 8n car, sitting infield with both right side tyres deflated.
The next race was just as short as he was left parked up the wall courtesy of a Troy Currie hit, Frost and Brad Neiman had a close tussle in race two, the experience of Frost getting the job done when Brad attacked too early and got spun up in the last lap.
The overall stirrer went to Dwayne Westley.
The Youth Ministock blind pairs means that you didn’t know who your partner was until racing was completed, Hamish Carter’s forward vision in the first heat won him the race after the lead cars got caught up with lap cars, he stayed wide to take the win.
He claimed heat two, but ran two wheels over the pole line off the start of heat three to be relegated three spots after the race.
Overall best pairs went to Sophie Rangi and Wade Sweeting.
The street stock winner was Cody McCarrison after plenty of action in the “Hit to Pass” competition.
Round one of the T.Q’s went to Alicia McLauchlan, Jayden Corkill picked up the extra race win with a dominant display while Scott Madden had the wild ride of the night, rolling his car along the wall.
The extra Super stock race endured a wee battle between Jared Gray and Trevor Lineham, with Jared’s car losing the right front wheel off the car.
Adie Drake and Kieran Satherley won the sidecar memorial with two wins and a second.
The next meeting sees the South Island Stockcar Title on the line and War of the Wings, on December 3 when the summer action heats up.
