First victory for Anzacs at demolition derby

In an impressive effort by Palmerston North Speedway track manager Bryan Puklowski his crew, they did the impossible by running a two-night meeting in one night and completing 35 races, as well as a fireworks display, in four hours.

After the opening qualifying night was rained off on Friday the Robertson Holden Speedway promoters decided to run the 23-team Peter Barry Memorial Teams Champs, the Manawatu minisprint title as well as sprintcars and Stockcars on Saturday night.

In the biggest derby teams event held, the 23 teams raced twice, with the top two teams meeting in the final and the next two racing for third and fourth.

The qualifying heats saw some good tactical racing, but also the demise of pre-race favourites and twice previous title holders Dad’s Army.

Cheyanne Reed led them to a massive 195-point victory over the Wellington Terminators first up, but they then came unstuck against the Manglers.

David Haycock, who was thumped into the wall by Dad’s Army’s David Reed, kept going to take the win and take his team into a surprise race for third place against regular heavyweight Team Kaos, where Haycock won the race and third place for the Manglers.

The Grid Bombers topped qualifying with two 165-point wins, while the other finalist was the Anzacs, a regular of the Peter Barry Memorial and made up of drivers who come from Australia, as well as New Zealand drivers.

With Anzac Day next week it was probably the right result to see Australian visitor Clint Lyford lead the Anzac team to a tight win and their first title.

Darren Mckay led the race for Grid Bombers until he was wiped out by an Anzac blocker.

Eugene Robbemond rolled Australian Caleb Churchward, but despite the carnage it wasn’t enough to propel the Grid Bombers to the title.

With national champion Christian Hermansen absent after his big rollover last week, the Manawatu minisprint title appeared double national champion Jamie Larsen’s to lose.

Larsen eventually took the 15-lap title race, but would have been thankful when Stratford flyer Shaun Dickie’s car expired in front of him. The always fast Dickie, who often suffers incidents in races, and Larsen were both on the front row for the final, but Dickie had set the fastest times in the two reverse grid qualifying races.

The consistent Karl Mcgill finished second, with Stratford newcomer Lydia Dickinson third after an impressive heat win.

Chris Uhlenberg and Kendall Savage won the two sprintcar races with Stephen Taylor who started well behind the field finishing second in both races.

While Jackson Booth and Kyle Taylor won the stockcar races with North Island runner-up Matt Webb and Hamish Mcleod finishing second.