Rain washes away a night of racing
The crowd at Palmerston North Speedway may have seen only four races before rain ended the night, but they were treated to a spectacular rollover when Superstock driver Scott McIntosh did a complete flip back onto his wheels.
The cancellation was a disappointing end to what promised to be a good evening’s racing with a rare visit from the Super-modifieds, as well as the Manawatū Stockcar title up for grabs.
Unfortunately the occasional light shower, which had no effect on the racing, turned into a 20-minute deluge, which left track manager Bryan Puklowski no hope of drying the track for the meeting to continue.
It may have only been a small field for the Superstocks but young Palmerston North Panthers team member David Lowe showed he can keep up with the country’s top drivers.
Off pole Lowe led a Rees trifecta of Peter, followed by sons Ethan and New Zealand champion Asher.
A tight first half of the race between the four disappeared when the shower arrived with Lowe driving away from those behind.
Peter Rees finished second followed by Ethan and Asher.
McIntosh, who waved to an applauding crowd, was all right after his very quick flip, but will be gutted with what was a racing incident as he clipped Gareth Edwards and looked to have done serious damage to his car.
The first final heat of the Manawatū Stockcar champs was completed with Seth Hodge securing the win from the muchimproved Aaron Watson and Alex Maude.
Once the meeting was cancelled it meant there would be a full re-run at a later date. That would have pleased Taylor Lampp, Ricky Garth and Jaden Hall who all failed to finish the race.
Tony Hislop and Aidan Foothead continued their impressive season-long form in the sidecars with a big win, after a fast start, over Kieran Payne and Sam Carter.
Stratford’s Jason Kalin showed the Super Modified field a clean pair of heels, winning comfortably from Huntly’s Brad Lane and Stratford’s Newton Gordge.
In the Youth Ministocks Tyler Schicker
finished ahead of Harrison Cheetham and Riki-Lee Kauri.
The two Palmerston North teams for the Stockcar Teams’ Invasion next week have been named.
The Pumas are William Humphries, Daniel Burmeister, Taylor Lampp, Kyle Rowe and Quentin Hammond. Hamish McLeod is the reserve driver.
The second team is Aaron Watson, Matt Phippen and three tanks driven by Brendon Learmonth, Sam Prescott and Wayne Vercoe. Reserve: Lucas Hey.