Kyle Rowe takes stockcar title
The King of the Arena Stockcar title turned into a team’s race between the Pumas members and everyone else with national champion Kyle Rowe coming out on top at Palmerston North on Saturday night.
The penultimate meeting of the season, held on a clear cold night, was a good meeting with the sidecars and saloons providing plenty of entertainment, while in a look back to yesteryear a big field of classic stockcars, showed there isn’t a big difference between some of the cars and today’s stockcars.
After qualifying, 32 cars started the three- heat King of the Arena at the Robertson Prestige International Speedway and such was the carnage there were only 11 cars left running when the chequered flag dropped at the end of the third heat.
Former national superstock champion William Humphries, who races in both classes these days, looked to have the title in the bag as he led the third heat, with points leader after two heats Rowe well back in the field.
Humphries’ run to the title came to an abrupt end when, going past Lucas Hey, he turned right on him and fired him into the fence, ending Humphries’ race and title hopes. During the same incident Taylor Lampp, who was three points behind Rowe, was fired into the infield, but he managed to keep going, though dropping vital places.
Stirrer of the King of the Arena, Lucas Hey (13G) fires Milton Curtis (202P) onto his roof during an action-packed third heat at Arena Manawatū.
At the end of the carnage, Rowe took the title, thanks to his helpers, with the surprise package Blake Barnett’s win in the final heat, handing him second overall close behind Rowe. Barnett was probably the star of the night as he stayed clear of all the attacking and showed he is not just a star of the future but he is right up with the best in the stockcar class now.
A runoff for third was on the cards with Lampp and the consistent Cameron Renwick level on points, but after more than 20 minutes with the referees Lampp was relegated for going over the pole to pass, giving Renwick third place.
There were some good rollovers with Milton Curtis on the end of a hit from the stirrer of the night, Hey, while Hey looked to put shots on anyone who passed him.
The Saloon King of the Arena final had a messy start with the quickest driver on the night, Calvin Honore, spinning, dropping him from pole to the back of the field, with Ashleigh King also losing a place as she rode up over another car.
Stratford’s Jarrod MacBeth benefited as he took a lead he never relinquished over the 15 laps. King though tried everything she could to take the lead, getting up the inside of MacBeth only for him to sneak back ahead as they came out of the corner together. Honore battled well to come back to third but couldn’t make up the lead the front two had.
An entertaining Sidecar Best Pairs title went north with Kihikihi’s Dave Gannon and Daryl Pearce along with Auckland’s Kenny Hammill and Daniel Bradley’s consistency over the three heats proved the difference.
It’s rare to see much contact in the Classic Stockcar class but they started the rollovers with Elvis Rowlands experiencing the lows and highs on the night. First Rowlands spun in front of the field then went over as he was hit by a closely following car. He then went and won the final race. Other wins went to Malcolm Clausen and Gary Trotter.