Meeting in the hands of the weather gods

SPEEDWAY

THE weather gods have control over whether the Gisborne Speedway Club will be able to run its big meeting tomorrow night, but at this stage it’s still on.

The club has a huge meeting planned with stockcars, production saloons, saloons and streetstocks in action, topped off with a “demolition derby” at the Eastland Group Raceway.

“We have decided to proceed with the meeting at this stage, pending the amount of rain we get overnight tonight,” said club president Clyde McGrory.

“We have 25 outside stockcars coming, and a big fleet of production saloons and saloons, so we need to let them know whether we’re racing as early as possible.”

The programme tomorrow night includes “best pairs” racing for the productions, the streetstocks and the stockcars.

Autozone have sponsored the stockcar event, Mangapapa Garage the streetstocks, and RJ and RA Building the production saloons.

The Saloon Car Champion of Champions title goes on the line tomorrow night, and that has been sponsored by Business Applications.

“We have 30 entries at last count for the Demolition Derby, which is a very good-sized field for such a spectacular event,” McGrory said.

The derby has been sponsored by Metalco Ltd.

“That will close out the programme for the night.

“We will give the 30 cars a couple of warm-up races before the derby to let the drivers dial in their cars.

“So it will be an action-packed night and all we need now is for the weather to be on our side,” McGrory said.

“We will make our final decision first thing in the morning, and fans will be able to check whether the meeting’s on via the radio, in The Herald or by looking at our Facebook page.

“The track has held well this morning after the rain overnight, so we’re hoping we don’t get too much more rain today.

“Fingers crossed.”

If the meeting proceeds, the gates will open at 5pm tomorrow and the first race will start at 6pm.