Track manager pins his hopes on a fine break

After the deluge of rain all week Bryan Puklowski will be praying the fine weather predicted for this weekend eventuates.

The North Island stockcar championships is scheduled for Robertson Holden Speedway in Palmerston North, beginning with qualifying tonight and the finals on Saturday night.

Track manager Puklowski has been overloaded this season with numerous rainouts and the first attempt at running the North Island championships on January 20 and 21 saw the final 32 cars get through qualifying, but the finals were abandoned because of rain.

Unlike the New Zealand superstocks, which were also affected by rain for the finals but were then run within 14 days, the North Island stockcar finals aren’t within that window, causing a total re-run, even with drivers needing to re-enter.

Despite the enormous amount of rain this week, Puklowski said the meeting will be good to go, although one suspects it won’t take a lot of rain today to stop racing.

With more than 100 drivers and teams braving the remnants of Cyclone Debbie, qualifying is sure to be as tightly fought as it was in January.

Unlike the six groups then, the drivers have been split into four groups of 25 entrants.

The groups look evenly split with the red group headed by national champion Josh Prentice, who used to race in Palmerston North, but has won his national title racing from Wellington.

Prentice has been in dynamic form this season, loves the Palmerston North track and is sure to start as favourite.

Others in the red group with strong chances of reaching the final include Jayden Steiner, Callum Flavell (both Rotorua), Josh Lockett (Wellington), Bevan Phillips, Tyler Walker and Josh Hancock (Stratford), Gerry Linklater (Wanganui) and Matt Nielsen (Mount Maunganui).

Kyle Lampp, Bryn Liddell, who has had an impressive debut season in superstocks, Kyle Taylor and Matt Webb are the best of the Manawatu hopes.

Josh Walsh (Stratford) was class in finishing third at the national finals and will be a big threat, with Taylor Lampp, former multiple national champion Dale Robertson (both Wellington), Logan Peat (Auckland) and Francis Potaka (Wanganui) all strong chances of progressing.

The Palmerston North charge is led by Stu Sowry, Matt Phippen and Brendon Tye.

The strength of the Wellington contingent is clear with Paul Gaskin heading the green group along with team-mate Todd Mclachlan.

Auckland’s Keegan Orr looks the strongest of the visitors, with Palmerston North drivers having a great chance of getting multiple competitors into the finals.

Luke Miers, Justin Cunningham, Todd O’donnell, Tony Norman and Hamish Mcleod have all been in good form this season.

The blue group looks the most even, with Scott Mcintosh (Wanganui), Kyle Lane (Wellington) and Mark Woods (Stratford) the best visitors, while Mount Maunganui’s Caitlyn Hayward is another to have gone well in Palmerston North when competing. Youngster David Lowe will be pleased the championship is being re-run after missing the finals in January, despite being one of the real rising stars in Palmerston North.

Rob Mason, Neil Coley, Alec Wilson, Cameron Renwick, and Jay Knight are all locals with the speed to challenge for a podium if they get through qualifying.

Racing will begin at 6pm both nights, with sidecars, dependant on the track surface holding up, ministocks and superstocks also racing.