Gisborne Speedway Club meeting to go off with a bang

An action-packed night beckons at Gisborne Speedway tomorrow night with a national title on the line, streetstocks going head to head for the champion of champions title and another dazzling fireworks show. Cody Gooch (6G), Pictures by Liam Clayton

There will be fireworks on the track in the streetstock champion of champions and fireworks off it when Gisborne Speedway Club holds its traditional Guy Fawkes meeting tomorrow night.

To add to the action, the New Zealand Sidecars Grand Prix title will also go on the line at Eastland Group Raceway.

Overhead conditions look set to be perfect for the club’s second meeting of the season — a fine day and night is forecast.

The fireworks meeting always draws a massive crowd and club president Sam Hughes expects the same tomorrow.

“Public Dreams from Hawke’s Bay always put on a great show for us and we once again thank Trevor Jukes and his team at Jukes Carriers for supporting an event our club members and fans really enjoy.”

The fireworks are scheduled to start at around 9pm.

Racing-wise, the Stone Transport & Hiab Streetstock Champ of Champs has drawn an excellent field of 20 cars — 10 of them from Gisborne, the rest from Hawke’s Bay, Rotorua and Whanganui.

The field, as of yesterday, was 6G (race car number) Cody Gooch, 7B Alistair Howatson, 8V Blair Ladd, 9B Phillip McNamara, 9R Chris Shingleton, 14G Daniel O’Neill, 22W Phill Bonner, 23B Nigel Potter, 26B Thomas McEwan, 31G Bob Fraider, 43G Alan Gordon, 46B Brent Redington, 61G Craig Mason, 64B Dontage Irfan. 78G Jared Ingoe, 85G David Warner, 97G Simeon Whitley, 177G Sammy Durston, 277G Hayley Durston and 858R Shane Bracken.

“The major contenders look set to be Chris Shingleton from Rotorua, Brent Redington from Hawke’s Bay and our own Cody Gooch and Jared Ingoe,” Hughes said.

“That many streetstocks on the track at one time is our best field of cars in that class for several years. It’ll be hard and fast racing for sure.”

The other major feature event tomorrow is the TradeZone Gisborne New Zealand Sidecar Grand Prix.

“We have a full field of 12 bikes, including our own Clive Ireland and his swinger Malakai Pitcher (56G), and swinger Callum Innes and his driver Russell Stuart (22G),” Hughes said.

“They’ll be tested by the likes of ex-Gisborne rider Rob Miller and his swinger Jaxon Hannan (8P), 4K David Gannon and Daryl Pearce, 6A Peter Adams and Jason Hira, 19V John Hannah and Nigel Sturgeon, 22A Glen Bagshaw and Nathaniel Parsons, 24P Stu Sowry and Damien Barson, 26B Justin Lincoln and Tim Beaver, 27B Craig Boaler and Ann Plummer, and 32P Samuel Carter and Martijn Domper.

“It should be great racing. They will all be after that title,” Hughes said.

Adams and Hira won the title the last time it was held in Gisborne in the 2017-2018 season.

Ireland and Hamish White won it in Palmerston North in the 2011-12 season, and Miller and father Deane were the champs in Whanganui the following season.

The bikes will race over five points rounds tomorrow. The top points-scorers will be crowned champions.

The support programme features youth ministocks, TQs — including Dylan MacGregor who won three-from-three last weekend — and production saloons in which Anton McKay (17G), Brendan Land (53G) and Blake Dear(37G) will resume their truel.

The saloons will be back including Daniel Cook (77G), Rodney McIndoe (7G), Sean Robertson (16G), Evan Mooney (42G) and Hamish Moore (85G), who put on a great show last Saturday night.

There will be about a dozen stockcars and superstocks in both of those classes — smaller fields than last weekend but no less entertaining.

“We were really pleased with how the programme ran last weekend,” Hughes said. “It was perfect and we will look to deliver the same sort of show tomorrow night, highlighted by the fireworks.”

Pre-sale tickets are available from Novus Glass on the corner of Cobden Street and Palmerston Road today from 9am-6pm for those who want to beat the rush at the gates tomorrow afternoon. Gates open at 4pm tomorrow and the first race is set for 6pm.