Busy night at speedway for last racing of season

Jarrod MacBeth

Photo by: Michael Espiner

With Covid restrictions having shut speedway down at the end of January and then the recent lifting of restrictions enabling events to run once again viably, it set the scene for a busy night of racing at MG Taranaki Stratford Speedway on Saturday night in what was the last race meeting of the season.

A decent crowd and full pits were on hand for a night of racing where every class would race for a trophy, or in the case of the Minisprints - two.

Stockcars, Superstocks, Saloons and Youth Ministocks all raced for their Taranaki Champs while Modifieds raced for the Rusty Kay Memorial and Minisprints raced for both the King of the Mountain champs and the Taranaki round of the Oval Superstars tour - an event that runs several rounds at different tracks.

Josh Walsh won the first Stockcar race of the night in only his second meeting in his new car, but it was William Hughes who was the most consistent driver over the three races, recoding two second places and a race win to find himself standing on the top step of the podium for the Michielsen’s Transport Taranaki Champs with a points haul of sixty-seven. Just two points behind him in second place overall was Mark Duthie who had finished fourth, second and first in his three races. Haydin Barker, who has made a recent change back to the Stockcar class after spending some time in Superstocks was third.

Superstock racing was a rather brutal affair with several on track incidents to keep the crowd entertained. Brad Uhlenberg appeared to be quite happy to use his bumper to hinder other drivers’ chances in the event which added to the excitement. At the completion of three races the points table showed Carl Shearer and Blair Uhlenberg tied at the top with Matthew Picard third. After two unsuccessful run off attempts (the rules state that the cars cannot stop during a run off, which is what happened on both attempts), Carl Shearer was announced as the winner of the Repco Taranaki Champs with Uhlenberg second and Picard third.

With close to forty Youth Ministock competitors on hand to contest the 24/7 Security Taranaki Champs, competitors were divided into four groups with each group then racing each other group, making a total of six races. At the completion of all six races the points were tallied to find the winner. Despite several visiting competitors from throughout the North Island, local racers were able to take home all three trophies. Corban Swan won the event by just one point from Cameron Campbell while Cory Symes was just one further point behind in third.

Eight Saloon Cars raced for the R&S Dreaver Contractors Taranaki Champs. Bradley Korff made a great start to his championship bid after he won the first race by a good margin from Craig Korff. Blake Hooper (pictured) won race two ahead of Jarrod MacBeth and B.Korff who’s first and third placing put him at the top of the leader board heading into race three. However, while running in second place in race three and looking likely for a podium finish, B.Korff’s car expired with a distributor issue. Blake Hooper nabbed the Taranaki Champs with a fourth place and two wins. Jarrod MacBeth, who was racing for the

first time this season was second and Craig Korff, who made it back onto the track after going up the wall in race two, was third.

The Modified class included visiting drivers from Wellington and Huntly in their starting lineup to make a good field of nine cars. Close racing all night meant a close finish for the Rusty Kay Memorial, but it was Jason Kalin who won the memorial by one point from the always quick Carl Hinton while Huntly racer Syd Fergusson was third after beating Newton Gordge and Shaun Bloeman in a three way run off.

Karl Uhlenberg was as usual in fine form in the Minisprint class. After finishing ninth in his first race on a greasy track, he placed second in race two and won race three to win the King of the Mountain Champs. Daniel Nickel was second and Donald Kuriger third. The starting grid for the Oval Superstars fifteen lap race was an inversion of the finishing order of the King of the Mountain Champs which meant in theory the fastest car would be off the back of the grid. Recent new driver to the class Jono Noonan started on grid five for this race and quickly moved up to second. After the lead car spun, Noonan claimed position one on the restart and stayed there for the duration of the race to win the Oval Superstars Tour round and his first race in the class.

MG Taranaki Stratford Speedway has now finished for the season. The new season of racing will start on October.