“I knew there was no saving it.
“When the car came to rest, my biggest concern was the fuel leaking around me and it took a while to get me out of the car.”
Fortunately he was uninjured, and was able to walk into the infield, much to the relief of the crowd, who applauded loudly as he did so.
“I was very lucky,” MacGregor said.
“The safely measures on the cars make them so safe these days.”
The race was restarted after his car was removed from the track.
MacGregor reckoned it would a fair bit of work to get the badly damaged car back racing but he hoped to be ready for the Hawke’s Bay meeting in 10 days.
The best pairs meeting lived up to expectations with thrilling racing in all classes.
As a part of the night, the Kevin McKay Memorial trophy went on the line for the first time and it was won by 9K Jason Land from Kihikihi, with 4B Bart Dudding and 74B Ryan MacGregor, both from Hawke’s Bay, the runners-up.
The late Kevin McKay was a long time supporter of the club and previous major sponsor when the track was known as Pak’nSave Speedway.
The TQ best pairs, sponsored by Sutherland Automotive, was taken out by 89G Steve Jackson and Land, ahead of Ryan and 28B Christine Bargh, with third place to 43R Julian Munro and 8G Daniel Taylor. The TQ’s put on a slick and quick show all night.
The youth ministock best pairs, sponsored by Mangapapa Garage, was won by 93B Jaelim Dudding and 59G Koby Gooch. Second-place went to 39B Aiden Dudding and 44G Corbyn Wilson with third going to 81G Vinzent MacGregor and 97G Ari Robertson.
In the production saloon best pairs, the title went to 11G Kayle Priestley and 17G Anton McKay, then 48G Seth McKay and 53G Brendan Land as 37G Blake Dear and 66G Blake Marshall picked up third.
Stockcar best pairs — sponsored by Total Fleet Solutions Automotive & Marine — 84G Haydin Barker and 742S Steven Read won it, 13G Lucas Hey and 85B Willy Stevenson were the runners-up and 17G Logan Bruce and 71G Ethan Bruce came in third.
The saloon best pairs racing, sponsored by ESM Services, continued the outstanding competition seen in that class this season and fittingly, the title winners included the hard charging Daniel Cook 77G.
He was partnered with 277B Wayne Melling from Hawke’s Bay.
In second place was 221G Bailey Curtis and 7G Rodney McIndoe, third were 14G Glen Paris and 16G Sean Robertson.
Cook produced the night’s best laptime in the final saloon race of the night, hitting 14.958 seconds.
The streetstock best pairs, sponsored by PFM, produced some helter skelter racing with 96G Matt Ireland and 87B David Adams the winners in that best pairs event.
The runners-up was 31G Bob Fraider and 6R Ricky Malcolm, followed by 14G Daniel O’Neill and 7S Darren Jefferies.
Fraider took three wins from three starts.
A special feature of the night was Flat Track Bikes, and they put on a good show.
The feature race for them was won by Blake Gillard, followed by Mark Galbraith and Josh Nijuhuis.
