Wheel meet again in March

The North Island stockcar championship, which was abandoned on Saturday night, will likely be re-run in March.

Persistent rain on Saturday afternoon and a terrible weather forecast for yesterday and today left the Robertson Holden Speedway team little option but to abandon the meeting completely.

Promoter Bruce Robertson said ongoing rain, which has plagued them right from the beginning of the season in October, has caused plenty of problems, but this is the first occasion a major meeting has been wiped out.

The New Zealand superstock championships had been seriously affected by rain as well, with the 26 finalists having to return a week later when Robertson and track manager Bryan Puklowski created an entire meeting for the Friday night before the Global Challenge was raced on the Saturday night.

Robertson said they didn’t make the decision to abandon the meeting lightly and had sought official weather information.

‘‘We phoned the Met Service and they said the weather for Sunday and Monday was even worse,’’ Robertson said. ‘‘We didn’t want to just hold teams here for two days in the hope it might be fine.’’

With the Teams Champs set down for February 4 and 5, then the Warriors rugby league team playing at CET Arena on February 19, there were no dates in February.

‘‘We’ve been looking at possible dates in March, but Speedway NZ need to confirm the date before we announce anything.’’

‘‘But because the rules state a SNZ championship must be completed within 14 days, it means we have to start the entire process again from entry to qualifying and finals again.’’

Robertson admitted he was hoping the weather would finally play its part in a fortnight’s time when the country’s biggest speedway event takes place.

A bumper crowd of 16,000 are expected.

Seating for the ENZED national teams champs is almost sold out, as more areas than ever before are put up for pre-sale.

Any rainouts causing more than one night’s postponement would be more of a problem for Puklowski’s team than the North Island stockcars that only attracted a small crowd.

The dominance of the Palmerston North superstock drivers continued on Saturday night in Rotorua at the World 240 championship, with brilliant attacking driving ensuring all three podium places were filled by Palmerston North drivers.

Simon Joblin again benefited by adding the 240s title to his national championship, where Palmerston North drivers incredibly filled the first six places, with the promising Jayden Ward second and twotime winner Peter Bengston, who won the Global Challenge, third.

Joblin would be the first to admit though the greatest plaudits should go to William Humphries, who must now be one of the country’s elite attacking drivers, for both of Joblin’s wins.

At the New Zealand superstock finals in Palmerston North, Humphries took out Peter Rees and held up Ethan Rees.

At Rotorua, Humphries wiped out title challenger English stalwart Frankie Wainman junior, with Humphries’ Palmerston North Panthers team-mate Jack Miers taking out local star Scott Hewson.

Humphries is sure to be a key to the Palmerston North Panthers chances of winning the Teams Champs title.

They are unseeded after a dismal effort last year.