Ageless legends turn back clock
The crowd that came to watch some of the legends of stockcars racing on Saturday night got more than they expected, as some drivers reverted back to their smashing past.
With the veteran drivers split into two tiers, those who retired before 2000 and the more current drivers who retired before 2012, the top seven from the recently retired drivers raced against the current stars.
The big battle came in the first tiers two race, when two old foes from the 1980s, Dave Evans and Evan Mooney, scrapped for five laps at the head of the field with former great Palmerston North Panthers star Evans first being nudged into the wall by Mooney, a star of the Wanganui Warriors.
The battle kept going, before Mooney was thumped wide by Evans, who went on to a narrow win, with the crowd giving both drivers a rousing ovation.
Mooney got his own back in the second race, winning comfortably, while Evans cruised around in sixth place after starting at the rear of the field.
Other top placings went to Mark Dixon, Russell Joblin, Bones Burton and John Cunningham.
Former tank commander Bryan Anderson was unlucky to not to win the opening event as he spun out with two laps remaining while in the lead.
In the champion of champion final, Brendon Rowlands (Stratford) won from former Huntly star Dave Roigard, with brothers Scott and Adam Joblin next. The highlight was Peter Bengston driving Scott Miers’ tank.
Bengston anchored himself at the rear of the field, continually taking out the race leader with his typical blocking skill.
Rowlands benefited from Bengston taking out Mark Osbourne (Rotorua), Nick Fowler and Brett Nicholls. With the current stars not driving their own cars, Nicholls had the last laugh, despite not finishing the race with Rowlands driving his car.
Osbourne and recently retired Craig Humphries won the tier one qualifying races with Roigard, Ross Thurston, Fowler and Roigard picking up minor placings. After qualifying and three final races, Brendon Tye, with three consistent drives inside the top four, picked up his first Manawatu stockcar title, beating home the promising Luke Miers.
In a runoff for third, heat one winner Taylor Lampp (Wellington) beat Brandon Symes driving the car formerly owned by William Humphries.
In one of the slowest ever runoffs, the first lap took almost five minutes before Lampp flew away to a good win. Andy Mccabe won two of the superstock races, with Adam Joblin in Chev Taniwha’s car taking the feature.
The impressive Kerry Podjursky picked up two second placings, with Scott Mcintosh grabbing third in the feature with an impressive drive in his new car.
The two standout sidecar duos were the class acts of their groups before John Hannan and Bryce Rose won the feature ahead of Russel Stuart and Andrew Parker.