Off to a roaring start

CRASH START TO SEASON: Opening night of the last speedway season featured this crash. Superstock drivers James Mallia (99G) and Peter Rees (2NZ) walked away unscathed. The crash happened in the fourth race in the first round of the MTF Superstocks Points Dash, when the cars came into hard contact near pit corner. The Rees car flipped on to its side and Mallia’s car came to rest against the safety fence at a 60-degree angle, nose down and wheels up. The race was stopped with three laps to go. File picture by Liam Clayton

SPEEDWAY

SUPERSTOCK and stockcar action will get the speedway season off to a roaring start at the Eastland Group Raceway tomorrow night.

More than 60 of those cars are expected from across the North Island.

The MTF Finance Superstock Points Dash has attracted 18 superstocks, including the legendary Peter Rees and his sons Ethan and Asher.

There will be 35 cars on the starting grid in the stockcar class tomorrow night.

Gisborne Speedway Club president Clyde McGrory said the club decided to move the opening meeting forward because of the three meetings lost with the arrival of Covid-19.

The club has traditionally started its season around Guy Fawkes weekend in early November.

“We moved this meeting forward to give the competitors the chance to race earlier and we’re one of the first tracks to open this season,” McGrory said.

The meeting had attracted solid fields in all classes, he said.

“We’re all really excited about it. The track looks great. Over the winter we put a lot of work into it. It’s had a lot of new metal put on it and it’s been rotary-hoed.

“We believe it will be faster than last year.

“During practice this week we’ve had more drivers than ever on the track preparing for the season.”

The superstocks will run over four heats on Saturday night.

“We’re really looking forward to coming back to Gisborne,” Peter Rees said.

“We get really appreciated by the club and the fans.

“That banked track is a real attraction; it’s really fast.”

The support programme tomorrow night includes sidecars, TQ midgets, production saloons and youth ministocks. The side-chair class will feature the return of Toby Lardelli, who will be back out on the track with his son Dylan as his swinger.

It will be a 28-race programme and to accommodate all of those races the meeting will start at 5pm. The gates to the speedway will open from 4pm.