The six qualifiers were: Chris Cowling (3NZ) 30, Thomas Korff (16s) 28, Dan Corrin (22m) 25, Paul Managh (82m) 25, Jarrod MacBeth (908s) 23, Chris Taylor (18k) 22.
Blue group included drivers such as the defending champion Daniel Cook (7g) and the oldest saloon driver in the country - Warrick Calvert (33r) at 69. Craig Korff (8s) took heat 1 while heat 2 saw defending champion Daniel Cook (7g) win the race and take the 12 points. Heat 3 saw Geoff Webb (166h) take the win.
The six qualifiers were: Geoffrey Webb (166h) 25, Gary Marshall (24w) 23, Craig Korff (8s) 22, Daniel Cook (7g) 22, Steve Cowling (1NZ) 22, Joe Ingram (27s) 21.
The drivers that didn't qualify for the finals had another chance on Saturday night, with the two drivers crossing first and second in the repechage automatically advancing to the finals.
Chris Betts (78r) and Bodie Abrahamson (49m) took these positions after a battle which showed they both wanted to be in the finals.
The drivers who did not qualify for the North Island Saloon Champs, went on to race for the Mokau Inn Motel King of the Mountain Saloon Champs, which saw some aggressive driving with a lot of bumping and tapping leading to flat tyres and cars not finishing.
Peter Church (66r) won heat 1, with Richard Dreaver (57s) winning the second and third heats. However, a relegation from a first heat incident with Paula Hinton (25s), saw Dreaver's points reduced leaving him in fourth overall. The winner of King of the Mountain Saloon champs was Scott Lansdowne (74a) on 32 points.
The North Island Saloon Championship saw Craig Korff (8s) end up with a flat tyre in the first lap of heat one causing him to retire. This heat also saw his son Thomas (16s) spin out in the last lap which caused Russell Gorrie (51s) to spin to avoid the incident. Nigel Ross (46a) took the win with a half a track lead on the rest of the pack. Heat 2 had some spectacular driving, including Dan Corrin (22) driving the high line close to the concrete wall. He made a brilliant pass on two cars while going through turns one and two three cars wide. The heat was won by Steve Cowling (1NZ).
The final heat was going to be a tough race as all the drivers needed to get as close to the front as possible to gain those extra few points. This heat saw Geoff Webb (166h) stop in the middle of the track due to problems with his car resulting in Paul Cressy (145m) and Chris Taylor (18k) rear-ending Geoff when they were left with nowhere else to go. Dan Corrin went on to win heat 3 after some brilliant driving.
Dan Corrin was crowned the winner of the 2014/2015 North Island Saloon Championship with 53 points, Chris Cowling (3NZ) was second on 51 and his brother Steve Cowling (1NZ) was third on 50.
Supporting classes for the weekend were Minisprints, Youth and Adult Ministocks, Streetstocks, Superstocks and Stockcars and the crowd were also treated to lawn mower racing displays on Saturday night, with highly modified lawn mowers racing around an infield track. This proved to be great entertainment.
Congratulations to all of the winners and a special thanks to everyone who travelled to attend this meeting.
Stratford Speedway has the coming weekend off before four Saturday meetings in a row during March.
-Full results P28
