Gladiators up for challenge

READY FOR ACTION: The Gisborne Gladiators will defend their New Zealand stockcar teams title at the Eastland Group Raceway this weekend. Three of the drivers were pictured at work on one of the cars yesterday. From left are Ben Holt, Bruce Harding, James Clarke and team manager David Bacon. Absent: James Kirk and Peter and Ethan Rees. The whole team come together today to fine-tune their cars and themselves ahead of the gruelling championships. Picture by Liam Clayton

THE Gisborne Gladiators face a tough challenge this weekend to successfully defend again their New Zealand stockcar teams title but, in the words of durable team captain Peter Rees, “They are up for it!”

The Gladiators team members are Rees, his son Ethan, James Kirk and Bruce Harding from the victorious 2016 team, and newcomers Ben Holt and James Clarke. Gisborne Speedway Club president Grant MacGregor is looking forward to the spectacle.

“We have some new blood in there this year with James (Clarke) and Ben, but they have both been racing very well and we have got to build the team,” he said.

“With the vast experience and hitting power of Peter, Bruce’s great ability to hold up the opposition, the speed and agility of both Ethan and James (Kirk), and the enthusiasm of the two new boys, I think it is a well-balanced line-up. They will miss the X factor that Asher Rees brought to the team in the past two seasons, but they are certainly a team who can win the New Zealand championship again.”

MacGregor said the track was looking magnificent ahead of the racing on Friday and Saturday night.

“Weather-wise, this has been the best possible week for our track preparations.”

Thirteen teams will vie for the title with a hard-hitting round of preliminary team-on-team races tomorrow night to set up the quarterfinals, semifinals and final on Saturday night. Teams will represent tracks from Auckland, Waikato, Kihikihi, Rotorua, Tauranga, Hawke’s Bay, Palmerston North, Stratford, Whanganui, Wellington, Nelson and Christchurch.

Gisborne were unbeaten in qualifying last year and demolished the Tasman Thunder from Nelson in the final. Ethan Rees said he and his father were looking forward to the weekend.

“I think we can do it again, with a bit of luck and dedication,” he said.

His father was picking a tougher night for the Gladiators on the first night.

“You have got to get into the top eight on points on Friday night to qualify for the finals on Saturday,” Peter Rees said. “So we will need a little bit of luck and we will have to change our strategy a little to ensure we get more cars over the line. But I think we have a good team to do it.”

Team manager David Bacon said they had good gear and good drivers, and some luck would help.

“The trick is you have to make your own luck,” he said. “We are very happy with our team preparations and everyone’s ready to race.”

The newbies out there for Gisborne this weekend will be pumped for it.

“The nerves are starting to kick in a bit and working on the cars is helping keep us calm,” Ben Holt said. “It feels like I have achieved something to have been picked for this team. That was quite a big moment for me.”

James Clarke also said it felt awesome to be in the Gladiators.

“It going to be a pretty good feeling racing with a whole bunch of other good guys and I am looking forward to it,” he said. “Everyone is looking forward to the challenge.”

The support programme this weekend will feature more than 14 vintage stock cars from around the country racing twice each night.

“They are without mufflers so you get to experience that true stockcar ‘vibration’ as they charge around the track,” MacGregor said.