Sidecar nationals postponed to tomorrow

IT'S A DIRTY JOB . . . but someone has to do it. Ethan Cook got little racing in but managed to make a mess of his saloon car before last night's speedway meeting was called off early because of rain. The meeting will go ahead tomorrow weather-permitting.Picture by Liam Clayton

THE weather got the better of Gisborne Speedway Club last night in the qualifying rounds of the New Zealand sidecar championships.

The event has been shifted to tomorrow afternoon at Eastland Group Raceway.

The club had just started last night's programme with two support races when the heavens opened up and made the track too wet to race on.

A line-up of 30 of the top sidecar combinations in the country are in Gisborne for the Stubbs Contractors-sponsored titles.

“The track was perfect for racing mid-afternoon yesterday but when that rain came it made the track too difficult for racing,” said club president Clyde McGrory.

“It's obviously very frustrating and extremely disappointing, but there is nothing we can do about the weather.”

McGrory said with the prospect of further heavy rain today it was decided this morning to postpone all racing today, to tomorrow.

“We will hold scrutineering for the bikes again at 10am at the track, and then start the race programme at 1pm.

“The weather forecast is a bit better for tomorrow so fingers crossed.”

There will be a three-hour race programme from 1pm, with qualifying for the 30 bikes to find a finals line-up of 16.

The riders will have an hour's rest and the sidecar finals will go ahead from around 5.30pm.

“We will have saloons racing in the support programme and will run rounds 3 and 4 of the Eastland TQ Masters series, along with other classes.”

McGrory said all speedway patrons who attended last night were issued with rain-out passes and will be able to return to the track tomorrow at no cost.

“The gates will open from 12 and we will welcome all fans for what should be an exciting afternoon and evening of hard racing.”