Pile-up a highlight for fans

RISING FORCE: Max Andresen up on two wheels while leading the pack of V8 saloons at Taipa Speedway's New Year meet on Saturday.

A spectacular pile up between three V8 cars driven, surprisingly, by the district's most experienced and daring racers proved the highlight for many from the New Year Meet at Taipa speedway on Saturday.

The pile-up came during the last race, the Feature Saloon All-In, traditionally regarded as the main event on the day's card, noted club commentator Carole Teixeira.

"Max 'Mad Max' Andresen overcooked a turn and got sideways, and Keith 'Bucket of Bolts' Wilson couldn't miss him so there was a two car pile-up before Roy 'Inchman' Walker arrived on the scene and given no chance to evade, ran full noise into the back of Wilson for a three car pile-up," Teixeira exclaimed, adding that none of the drivers were hurt.

"Inchman had frontal damage but drove from the track and said afterwards he didn't like that bonnet anyway."

The annual meet - previously run as a two-day extravaganza (but cancelled last year after a forecast of bad weather) - took place under sunny skies, while organisers were reportedly pleased at the spectator turnout who watched drivers from the four Northern clubs along with some from Auckland compete fiercely for the placings.

The day's most successful racer was Darren Emm from Auckland who took a hat-trick in both classes he was contesting, winning all three races in both production and ATV (quad) grades. In the former case, driving a 2NZ Nissan 300Z, Emm led the first race from start to finish, albeit closely followed by Rex 'Old Fox' Roycroft and Craig DeWaal in his new Honda Integra. De Waal got the jump to the lead in the second race but popped a tyre allowing Emm to take the lead on the second-to-last lap; the Aucklander completing his hat-trick by taking the chequered flag in the third race with DeWaal chasing hard.

"These drivers will come head to head more times, through the season, and the battles promise to be epic," Teixeira predicted, adding Emm also won three from three in the ATV (quad) grade and racing against fellow Aucklanders, Gavin Millen, and Darren Bird.

Elsewhere Myles Greenwood and Dale Spick from Dargaville took on their counterparts from Taipa and Kaikohe in close hard-fought racing in the C-grade with Greenwood finishing ahead of the pack in the first race with Taipa's Allen Hallett winning the second, and Spick emerging as winner of the third; while the aforementioned Walker, Andresen and Wilson all took a win each in the super saloon grade which also featured Taipa's Kyran Van Iperen, and Kaikohe's Nick Caldwell.

The next meet at Taipa is set down for Saturday, January 17, with a 2pm start. In other local news, neighbouring Kaikohe Speedway is holding a domestic meet this Sunday (January 11) and due to start at 1pm.