It’s going to be flat out for Taranaki sprint car champs
Sprint cars will make their one and only appearance of the season in Taranaki when they race at Stratford Speedway tomorrow night to contest the Taranaki champs.
The class is one of only two truly international speedway car classes and are the fastest vehicle that can be found on a speedway track in New Zealand, producing up to 900 horsepower from their methanol fuelled V8 engines.
They have an incredible power to weight ratio, weighing in at around 650kg and are fitted with a huge wing on top that provides the required down force to help the drivers get through the turns and keep the cars on the ground.
Popular Wellington driver Stephen Taylor will be back to defend the title that he won last season and he heads the list of nine quality competitors that have been assembled for the event.
Joining Taylor on the track will be several Taranaki based competitors along with others from Kihikihi, Hawke’s Bay and Palmerston North.
Stuart Rose, Tony Uhlenberg, Wade Savage and Kendall Savage are four drivers from Taranaki that will be keen on a win. Rose knows his way around the Stratford track having competed there for several seasons in a modified prior to moving to the sprint car grade.
Likewise, Kendall Savage has raced a number of seasons in the minisprint class locally and he has only just jumped into the driver’s seat in the more powerful sprint car class this season. Don’t expect that to slow him down.
Both Wade Savage and Tony Uhlenberg are also familiar with the track.
Raymond Griffen from Kihikihi is a class act and he will be one to keep an eye on and a threat for the win.
Greg Pickerill is a name that some of the older generation will remember, having turned many laps on the track back when he raced a modified more than a few years ago while former stockcar driver Zac Harris from Palmerston North and Mark Alexander from Hawke’s Bay complete the line-up.
The night for the class will begin with warm up/hot laps before the competitor’s race two ten lap heats from which their finishing positions will determine the starting order of the 15-lap, winner take all feature.
The Taranaki Stockcar Club organisers are still attempting to squeeze in all the events from the rain soaked season before the last meeting at the end of April.
The biggest field of super stocks to hit the track this season will compete for the John and Gary Adamson memorials.
A squad of four Kihikihi Saloon drivers will join nine local competitors on the track to race for the Sam Korff Memorial. Like the Superstocks, this is also the biggest field the class will front with this season and racing is expected to close as competitors compete for the sought after trophy.
A field of 24 youth ministocks will race in the City of New Plymouth Classic, the class’s last event of the season.