Speedway: A season finale with a bang

1NZ driver Brad Lane will make the journey to Oceanview Speedway tonight. Photo / Sportsweb Photography

Fast Lane Spares Oceanview Family Speedway is set to conclude its 50th-anniversary season with a bang.

Saturday marks the final meeting for the season, and with nine championships still to be decided and big fields entered in all classes, an action-packed night is expected.

Topping the bill is the superstock class, where the West Coast Superstock title will be decided.

Each heat will double as a memorial race, as the late Noel Kensington, George Podjursky and Craig Heibner are remembered for their respective contributions to the sport in Whanganui.

A field of close to 20 cars will face the starter, and it is dominated by local competitors.

Trent James, Kaelin Mooney, Dylan Marshall, Max Holloway and Gerry Linklater have all had success in second-tier national events this season, but Zane Dykstra topped them all with a fourth-place finish at the North Island Superstocks in Stratford last weekend, his best effort at a Speedway NZ championship.

Former 2NZ and 3NZ driver Scott Joblin tops the list of visitors in what is shaping up to be the most even West Coast Superstocks field in many seasons.

Close to 30 stockcars have entered the Charlie Berntsen Trophy event, celebrating the life of the former Wanganui Stockcar and Speedway Club patron and former New Zealand Stockcar Champion.

A big contingent of Palmerston North drivers has entered, but this is one championship the locals rate above all others, and they will do everything they can to keep the unique Charlie Trophy at Oceanview.

For the first time in many years, the modified class will race for a West Coast championship.

The short-wheelbase modifieds, with their V8 engines of up to 400 cubic inches and massive wings providing downforce, will turn on a spectacular show on the notoriously tight Oceanview circuit.

Among the entrants are current 1NZ driver Brad Lane, and Stratford veteran Newton Gordge.

Lane has won the New Zealand title in two of the last three seasons, while Gordge has been around the sport forever - recording his first podium finish in the New Zealand championship in the 1983-84 season!

The sidecar, production saloon and youth mini-stock classes all feature memorial events.

The sidecars will be racing for the Karl Barritt Memorial, remembering the young swinger who lost his life in a racing accident in Auckland in 2005.

This event always attracts a strong field, and local riders Aaron and Bryce Rose will be keen to regain the trophy they last won in the 2020-21 season.

However, they will face strong competition from father-and-daughter team Glen and Emma Murray, and the veteran Kieran “Wingnut” Payne and Sam Carter, who finished second and third respectively in the recent North Island Sidecars at Oceanview.

A small but select field of production saloons will grid up for the Ray Purdy Memorial, with Brent Hackett, Ray Jaggard and Jason Pointon looking the most likely contenders.

It’s the opposite for the Heiby Memorial Youth Ministocks - more than 50 cars have entered, giving Wanganui Stockcar and Speedway Club officials a few headaches.

Drivers from all over the lower half of the North Island will be on-hand to chase up another sought-after trophy, in memory of Craig Heibner, who was a mentor to many young competitors prior to his premature death in 2009.

The adult mini-stocks and classic stockcars will round out the programme, and as has become traditional at this meeting, fireworks will light up the sky over Oceanview to mark the end of the season.

Racing starts at the earlier time of 4pm, with the public gates opening at 3pm.

If the weather intervenes today, the meeting will run tomorrow (Sunday) at 3pm.