Rollovers, huge fields on opening night
"He was so excited he even came out of the rolled ministock with a big smile on his face." Peter Bengston on his son Wade
Massive fields as well as four rollovers capped an entertaining opening night’s racing for the good-sized crowd who turned up in expectation at the Palmerston North Speedway on Saturday night.
With practice during the week curtailed with the poor weather and competitors only having a brief opportunity to test their cars, it was surprising that once the flag to start a race dropped, there was no holding back.
Despite all the rain during the week making things difficult for Robertson Holden Speedway track manager Bryan Puklowski and his team to even get the fence surrounding a sodden track up, the surface was in perfect condition for racing.
First to be tipped onto their roof and after just seven laps was stockcar driver Michael Pescini in the opening stockcar race when he appeared to get crossed up in the main straight rolling himself.
In the next stockcar race, Stratford visitor and 3NZ Josh Walsh rolled onto his side in front of the grandstand, then was hit by a following car in hard-charging field close behind.
Palmerston North Panthers captain and star superstock driver Peter Bengston found it difficult to contain 13-year-old son Wade, who was debuting in the youth ministock class before the meeting began.
As they called competitors to the pre-racing drivers meeting, Wade Bengston, with a beaming smile, insisted his father hurry up to get to what was his first drivers meeting.
Peter Bengston had the last laugh though when his son became the third rollover of the season, after the chequered flag.
‘‘He races motor cross but has been keen to get into a stockcar for a long time,’’ Peter Bengston said. ‘‘He was so excited he even came out of the rolled ministock with a big smile on his face.’’
The final roll of the night went to superstock driver Ricky Dykstra, one of three brothers in the superstock class. In a typical big field rollover Dykstra was squeezed up against the grandstand wall and onto his roof.
The superstock races were spread around with Chad Ace winning the first race, followed by veteran Andy Mccabe.
The feature went to one of the new stars of the class with William Humphries holding onto beat impressive Gisborne driver Nick Valance.
A highlight of the night was seeing Peter Rees and son Ethan racing in both the stockcar and superstock classes.
Ethan Rees won the stockcar feature after earlier having the first race taken from him when he struck a car he was lapping.
Peter Rees picked up a second placing his superstock, while Shane Melsop, Chev Taniwha and his father Gavin Taniwha grabbed the minor placing in an impressive field of more than 25 starters.
The stockcar class was even more keenly fought, with a massive 37 starters.
Daniel Burmeister drove well to win the first race from Luke Miers.
The second race was won by Kyle Taylor from Roydon Winstanley, while Burmeister capped off a good night following Ethan Rees home in the feature.
Stephen Taylor won the first sprintcar race before Jamie Larsen showed he won’t be relinquishing his national title easily, taking out the second race, then winning the feature by over half a lap from Hamilton visitor Colin Pickerill.
The minisprint races were shared around with Shane Dewar, Karl Mcgill and 2NZ Dean Cooper.
The sidecar feature went to former national champion John Hannan and swinger Bryce Rose ahead of Russell Stuart and Andy Parker.
Other wins went to combinations of Tony Hislop/matt Stewart, Mike Zachan/ben Franklin as well as the Sam Carter/ Charmaine Johnston duo.