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Opening night a success

Jarrod MacBeth

The Taranaki Stockcar Club organising committee were rewarded for their foresight in moving the opening night of the speedway season to avoid a clash with the rugby final when a plentiful crowd filled the venue on Sunday night and a large number of race cars filled the pits.  The unsettled weather in the morning left some wondering if the right call had been made but by mid-afternoon the sky cleared and the wind died down, leaving near perfect conditions for racing.

Three classes were racing for their first titles of the season, the City of New Plymouth Classic for Stockcars, Saloons and Superstocks.

Palmerston North contracted driver Jay Knight won the first race of the night in the Stockcar class, stealing victory from local driver Todd Duthie who jumped into the lead at the drop of the green flag.  Handling issues caused Duthie to lose the lead to Knight from which he never looked back, despite an obvious over heating problem with his car in the closing laps of the race.  Bevan Phillips was in early season top form and won the City of New Plymouth Classic after beating Duthie in a four lap run off.  Phillips finished in second place behind Knight in race one, sixth in race two and won race three while Duthie place third in race one, second in race two and fourth in race three to match Phillips on points.  Phillips pushed Duthie to the infield before sprinting away to claim the title in the four lap run off.  Tyler Walker celebrated his 21^st birthday with a night of racing and was rewarded with third place in the classic, along with a couple of race wins.

Rotorua competitor Tony Fabish was the fastest of the twenty car field of Superstocks that were on hand and won the Classic by one point from local competitor Paul Johnson.  The large field weren’t afraid to use their bumpers and there was plenty of pushing and shoving happening on the track. Fabish won the first race, finished second in race two and avoided the attempts of Carl Shearer to halt him in race three to take the victory.  Palmerston North contracted competitor and current New Zealand ranked number three, Graeme Barr claimed third place, two points adrift of Johnson.

Saloon competitor Russell Gorrie saw both the best and worst sides of racing.  Gorrie won the first race of the season for the V8 powered cars after beating Joe Ingram into the lead from a front row start before rolling his car on the opening lap of race two.  His racer only suffered superficial damage and he did make it back on to the track for race three.  Thomas Korff won the Classic in the class where racing was very close.  Korff placed eighth in race one, fourth in race two and then won race three to claim victory and take the trophy off the hands of his father, Craig, who was the defending champion.  Both John Young and Ash Cook were tied on points for second, just one point behind Korff.  A coin toss settled the issue with Young taking second place over Cook.  Legendary racer Blondie Chamberlain, who is building a Super Saloon to contest the New Zealand Championship in Wellington later in the season, drove Craig Korff’s car in the bonus race that was added to the race program.  Chamberlain lasted just two laps before contacting with the wall and damaging the borrowed car.

Current New Zealand ranked number three Chris Shingleton cleaned up in the eight car Streetstock field, winning all three races.  John Young was the best of the rest, claiming two second’s and a third place while in the supporting Adult Ministock races Blair Uhlenberg won two and Conrad Hall won the other.

Tony Fabish won the SUperstock City of New Plymouth Classic at the Opening Meeting of the season.