Speedway: Surface speeds up times

Ryan McGregor (#74) won the first TQ race to be held at Stratford Speedway in 15 years. Photo / Scotty Lamb

The hours and days of work carried out on the Stratford Speedway track surface by a team of dedicated volunteers during the week preceding the race meeting on Saturday night has paid off with competitors racing on what was without doubt the best track of the season.

The past three meetings the surface had been rough and wasn't producing fast racing. That is no longer the case and some very fast lap times were recorded by all classes that were racing.

The Taranaki Youth Ministock champs was a closely raced event. Brad Uhlenberg (#85) beat Bradley Podjursky (#89) in a run off for first place.

A nearly full field of Youth Ministock competitors raced for their Taranaki Champs. Racing was very competitive and after the three races two drivers were tied on equal points at the top of the table. Brad Uhlenberg and Bradley Podjursky took part in a four lap run-off to determine just who would take the honours this season.

After getting a slightly better start, Uhlenberg held off Podjursky for the four laps to win. Defending champion William Hughes finished in third place.

The night didn't go so well for Brandon Andrews or Ryan Houghton. Both drivers rolled their cars during the night's racing.

Drivers in the Superstock class raced for their Best Pairs event and produced good entertaining racing with plenty of action that included Phil Ogle being tipped on his side and Clint Hill parked up the wall by Andrew Lewis.

The pairing of Blair Johnson and Hamish Booker recorded consistent enough results to win. Blair Uhlenberg and Wayne Moss were second while girl racer Kelly Shearer and Andrew Lewis took third spot.

Kylee Symes won the King of the Mountain Stockcar champs by a decent four point margin from Rowan Urlich while Josh Walsh came home third. Symes has had a consistent run of second places so it was pleasing to see him move up a step on the podium.

Streetstocks raced for the Olsen Memorial and after three very fast races it was John Young who came out on top and won the event by one point from Paul Blinkhorne.

Cheyanne Reed, who has been featuring in the results fairly regularly this season, claimed the last spot on the podium when she placed third overall.

Midgets and TQs completed the race programme. Peter Huijs won the first Midget race while Greg Jones won the next two. TQs haven't raced on the Stratford oval for 15 years and it was great to see a field of 10 cars, mostly from Auckland, racing at the meeting.

Race wins went to Ryan McGregor, Ryan Barry and Chris Lane.

The next race meeting at Stratford Speedway will feature Demolition Derby Teams Racing on April 1.