Rain delays Superstock champs
Drivers will have to wait another night to find who holds the 52nd New Zealand Superstock title after persistent rain forced yesterday’s finals to be delayed until today.
But when racing does get underway, it will be Palmerston North’s title to lose.
In front of one of the biggest crowds seen outside the annual February Teams’ Champs, local drivers dominated on Monday night and half the 26-car finals field will carry the Palmerston North ‘P’.
With the second and third heats usually ending up as team’s races with drivers attempting to aid a fellow competitor from the same track onto the title it will be interesting to see who of the massive number of Palmerston North drivers that may be out of the title running works for.
In contrast to the big Palmerston North presence in the finals there will be 10 tracks represented tonight but no other track has more than two starters.
Hawke’s Bay will have Jason Long and Thomas Stanaway with Gisborne having Gavin Taniwha and Ethan Rees, although Peter Rees was a shock omission. Rees won the first heat easily then had a flat tyre in the second heat which wrecked his chances.
Palmerston North’s top drivers all qualified for the superstock finals with the usual contenders Peter Bengston, Scott Joblin, Jordan Dare, Wayne Hemi and Adam Joblin all at or near the top of their groups. Former national champion
Simon Joblin looked to top his group but had a problem but his win and fourth in the first two heats and crawling around for 15th in the final heat saw him through.
The real surprise packet was former stockcar star Jayden Ward who won two of his three heats and finished fourth in the other.
Shane Mellsop has been having a breakthrough season and he topped his group showing the ability to work his way through traffic that will be a key in a big field.
The next best five drivers in each of the five groups will race for the 26th and final place in the opening race tonight with grid positions determined by their final group points.
There were a few good rollovers with the biggest being Chad Ace who rolled back onto his wheels and after the race was halted to check his roll cage and replace the three safety posts that were demolished. Incredibly once Aces’s car was passed safe to continue on working his way into 11th place which saw him qualify by a single point.
Other than a few of the standout front runners Hawke’s Bay stirrer Mike Mclachlan lived up to his name, rolling Ace in the first event.
It was the final heat where Mclachlan showed his power, taking out three of those in the hunt to qualify, Scott Hewson (Rotorua) who he rolled, Keegan Levien (Wellington) and the most spectacular of them all when he fired Scott Redfern (Huntly) into the pit wall as following cars Alex Bright (Nelson) and Brendon Tye hit Redfern, before Baker clipped Tye and did a spectacularly fast flip back onto his wheels.
Graeme Barr’s run of three consecutive third placings at the New Zealand champs came to an abrupt end when he was squeezed up against the wall by Wellington’s Dale Robertson, ending up on his roof and out of the race.
Barr’s daughter Rebecca was unlucky in the second heat. When in second place she got caught up with Phil Ogle (Stratford) demolishing her front end.
One of the biggest hits came when Shaun Pearson came to a halt of the back straight and none of the officials appeared to see him waving his thumbs down to stop the race. The charging group of cars blasted down the track with one hitting Pearson full out as he faced back up the track. Pearson was taken from the track still in his car.