Winners and losers at Teams’ Champs
Two returning teams – the Great Britain Lions and the Waikato Wanderers – will meet in an interesting match-up in the second race of qualifying night at a soldout ENZED Dewtec Teams’ Champs at the Robertson Prestige International Speedway on Saturday.
With 14 teams entered, there are no groups, meaning not only winning each of the two races a team has is important, but also collecting points for second to fifth.
The top four overall on points will make the Sunday semifinals while the next four highest will have the chance of racing for third overall.
The Wanderers, who have veteran Robbie Mabey in their team, have a tough second race against hot-favourite Gisborne Giants led by father and son Peter and Ethan Rees, while the Lions meet the Auckland Allstars, who could be the surprise packet of the Teams’ Champs.
The Giants meet the Manawatu Mustangs led by Rebecca Barr and included in their team is Maddie Wise who has raced for the Hawke’s Bay Hawkeyes and the Wanganui Warriors previously.
An intriguing race will be that between the Allstars, who have former national champion Randal Tarrant back, and the Warriors with the exciting Kaelin Mooney and Gerry Linklater. The Warriors will also need to get past defending champions the Rotorua Rebels who return with most of the team that raced brilliantly together to take the title. The Rebels first come up against the Mustangs.
The Hawkeyes’ open qualifying against the Baypark Busters is led by Kerry Remnant, who continues to set records of longevity, and Ross Ashby.
The Busters’ second race is against the Palmerston North Panthers who have Daniel Burmeister debuting and are led by Jack Miers.
The Panthers’ opening race is against the under-rated Stratford Scrappers who have been one of the most improved teams in recent seasons.
The Wellington Wildcats, who have a strong team on paper, have a difficult draw facing two seeded teams – the Canterbury Glen Eagles with Jayden Ward and Harley Robb in their team, and the Kihikihi Kings with national champion Asher Rees.
The Kings meet the Hawkeyes first up, while the Glen Eagles face the Scrappers in their second race in a race that could well decide a semifinal spot.
Hawke’s Bay Hawkeyes
vBaypark
Busters, Waikato Wanderers v British Lions, Palmerston North Panthers v Stratford Scrappers, Auckland Allstars v Wanganui Warriors, Canterbury Glen Eagles v Wellington Wildcats, Rotorua Rebels v Manawatu Mustangs, Kihikihi Kings v Hawke's Bay Hawkeyes, Gisborne Giants v Waikato Wanderers, Baypark Busters v Palmerston North Panthers, British Lions v Auckland Allstars, Stratford Scrappers v Canterbury Glen Eagles, Wanganui Warriors v Rotorua Rebels, Wellington Wildcats v Kihikihi Kings, Manawatu Mustangs v Gisborne Giants
Great Britain Lions: 5GB Charlie Sworder, 410GB Niels Tesselaar, 418GB Jelle Tesselaar, 515GB Frankie Wainman, 555GB Frankie JJ Wainman.
Canterbury Gleneagles: 25C Lloyd Jennings, 557C Darryl Wallace, 808C Scott Tennant, 971C Jayden Ward, 991C Harley Robb.
Stratford Scrappers: 28S Blair Uhlenberg, 61S Zane Riddick, 82S Hamish Booker, 99S Blayke Adamson, 133S Tyler Walker, 6th Carl Shearer.
Wellington Wildcats: 5W Keegan