One meeting - 30 races

HUGE PROGRAMME: Speedway fans are in for a real treat tomorrow night as the Gisborne Speedway Club hosts its biggest race programme of the season. It promises to be non-stop action with teams events for stockcars, demolition derby and sidecars. Rob Miller and “Red” George will be part of a strong Gisborne team in the sidecar teams event. File picture

SPEEDWAY

THE Eastland Group Raceway hosts its biggest meeting of the season tomorrow night.

Thirty races will be run, ranging from demolition derby, stockcar and sidecar teams events to saloon champion of champions, youth ministock and TQ best pairs.

A demolition derby teams event returns to the track and it promises to be spectacular.

“We will have four teams of five cars competing, and they will all race each other over 12 laps to decide the finalists,” Gisborne Speedway Club president Neil Gooch said.

The three Gisborne teams will include one made up of Gooch family members. The other team will be from Whanganui.

“In the final, the winner will be the first car over the line,” Gooch said.

“We can expect plenty of big hitting. The ‘survivors’ in the top two teams get to race against each other in the final.”

Each team will be allowed one spare car to replace cars that get too badly smashed up to continue.

“It will be fast and furious,” Gooch said.

The special stockcar teams event will be contested by the Gisborne Gladiators, who finished third in the New Zealand championships, the Waikato Raiders and the Hawke’s Bay Maulers.

The Gisborne team will be Ben Holt (4G), James Clarke (29G), Jordan Fleetwood (16G), Bryce Harding (79G) and Jason Lovell (67G).

“We’ve got a good chance,” Holt said.

“We should bond pretty well together and produce a good team performance.

“We are not going to be as strong as we were at the New Zealand champs, but we need to give other guys the opportunity to strengthen the team for next season.”

The teams will race off against each other.

The saloon car champion of champions title goes on the line and 14 cars will contest it.

No doubt brothers Ethan (1NZG) and Daniel Cook (77G) will be strong contenders on their home track.

“Ethan was driving on rails in Hawke’s Bay last weekend,” Gooch said.

“He went round the outside on the high line all the time. He was brilliant and he will be a huge contender for that title.”

The youth ministock best pairs event has attracted 22 cars.

“The kids will not know who they are paired with so that will generate some fierce competition,” Gooch said.

“The TQ field should have nine or 10 cars in it from Hawke’s Bay and a couple of cars from Gisborne.”

Four sidecar teams of three bikes will contest the sidecar teams races. Sidecars from Gisborne, Palmerston North, Hawke’s Bay and Auckland will contest this event.

Gisborne’s Rob Miller and “Red” George, on 8G, will team up with Stu Priest and his swinger Callum Innes (59G), and former 1NZ Russell Stuart and Andrew Parker (46P).

“That’s a pretty strong team,” Miller said.

“Russell won the East Coast champs last weekend and we were second.

“The Auckland team will be strong and the Hawke’s Bay line-up have a couple of hard chargers.

“It’ll be a close competition.”

Gooch said the meeting start time had been brought forward an hour to accommodate all the races.

“It’s a 30-race programme, our biggest so far this season, so we will start at 6pm with the speedway gates open from 5pm.”