Stratford Speedway: plenty of thrills at race meet

Streetstocks raced hard all night on Saturday at Stratford Speedway and entertained the crowd with their antics. Photo/ Michael Espiner.

The third race meeting of the season took place at Stratford Speedway under threatening skies on Saturday night.

To the relief of the drivers, organisers and the hardy spectators that were on hand, the rain stayed away until the racing had finished.

Six classes were racing, including the Midgets making their first appearance of the season and racing for their City of New Plymouth Classic along with the Streetstocks and Youth Ministocks while Saloons raced for their Heritage Shield.

Twelve Midgets took to the track for their three races with seasoned campaigner Duane Hickman showing good speed at the drop of the green to win the first race from a grid two start.

Duane followed that with a second place in race two and another win in race three to win the City of New Plymouth Classic by six points from newcomer to the class, Dylan Waite.

Dylan, who has formerly raced Ministocks and Minisprints hasn't raced for a couple of seasons and Saturday was his first time racing a Midget, picking up the win in race two. Palmerston North driver Neville McNabb was third.

A large field of 18 Streetstocks battled all night long to find the winner of their City of New Plymouth Classic.

Veteran racer John Young showed that he can still foot it with the best of them and won two races. That, along with an eight place in the other, gave him overall victory by five points from Wayne Barron while Cheyanne Reed finished just one point behind Barron in third place.

After close racing all night, Craig Korff emerged as the winner of the Saloon Heritage Shield. Korff recorded two third places and a win on his way to victory.

Current New Zealand Champion Thomas Korff placed second, just one point behind his father while Blake Hooper, who was making his first appearance of the season was third.

Cody Ogle was able to step back to a familiar place on the podium - the top step. Ogle, who is the current Taranaki Youth Ministock Champ, completed three clean races to beat home 25 others and win the Youth Ministock City of New Plymouth Classic after winning two races and finishing fourth in the other. Caleb Coxhead was second and Rotorua driver Mitch Fabish third.

In the support class racing, Stockcar races were won by William Hughes, Barry Podjursky and Bevan Phillips while Minisprint drivers to carry the chequered flag were Campbell Stewart, Cameron Hurley and Lydia Dickinson.

Speedway takes a break for a couple of weeks now with the next meeting scheduled for December 12 and will feature the ITM Stratford West Coast Stockcar Teams Champs.