Speedway: Thunder forecast for Oceanview in Whanganui

Kaelin Mooney has shown excellent early-season form and will be among the Superstock Thunder frontrunners.

There will be thunder at Fast Lane Spares Oceanview Speedway on Saturday night but it has nothing to do with the weather.

The first round of the inaugural Superstock Thunder series takes top billing in Whanganui.

An initiative of the Bay Park, Gisborne and Whanganui tracks, Superstock Thunder is a three-round series with a meeting at each track between Saturday, November 2, and mid-December.

It is designed to give superstock drivers at the three tracks some solid competition leading into the championship season which begins with the Superstock Grand Prix in Christchurch in early January, followed by the New Zealand Superstock Championship a week later in Nelson.

The North Island superstock title will be decided at Gisborne at the end of February.

It is also an opportunity for each of the tracks to promote a night of top-quality superstock racing early in the new season.

A strong field of 20-plus cars is expected at Oceanview on Saturday night, including good contingents from Bay Park and Gisborne.

Veterans Ross Ashby and Kerry Remnant stand out in the Bay Park list with Ashby, in his distinctive self-built 38M Tank and Remnant, starting his 30th season in the class in a brand-new 19M chassis.

They will be joined by three Baypark Busters drivers from 2024 – 5M Elias Dykstra, 18M Joseph Carter and 99M Todd Hemingway.

At the New Zealand Superstock Grand Prix in December last year, 81G James Clark made a big impact, taking out points leader Zane Dykstra a couple of laps from home, allowing clubmate Regan Penn to win the title.

Brothers Brodie and Tyler James (87G and 89G) are full of promise and 77G Sam Hughes is a tough competitor.

Dylan Marshall (57V) and Kaelin Mooney (26V) each won a heat on opening night two weeks ago while 3NZ Zane Dykstra was not far off the pace.

Marshall’s brother Ryan (15V) has not raced a lot at Oceanview but comes with a reputation as a hard charger. Matt Buckley is getting to grips with the 94V machine and regular competitors Gerry Linklater (98V), Mark Johnston (78V), Scott Duncan (23V) and Bradley Kendall (12V) know their way around the tight Oceanview track.

The opening round of Superstock Thunder is sponsored by Matt Buckley’s Get Glazed Joinery Maintenance and will feature three 12-lap heats.

Points will accumulate over the three rounds and drivers who compete in all three rounds will be in the running for a pay day at Gisborne in mid-December.

Supporting the superstocks will be a good field of minisprints in the Oceanview round of the Oval Superstocks Tour.

Sixteen cars have entered, with 3NZ Nathan Jeffries the early favourite after an impressive opening meeting where he and teammate Glen McCutcheon (81P) were in red-hot form.

Veteran Cameron Hurley (82S) will keep them honest, and one driver to watch this season is Ethan Linklater (98V) running a minisprint after ageing out of youth ministocks.

Good early-season fields of stockcars and youth and adult ministocks will provide excellent racing, and the ever-popular classic stockcars complete the programme.

The public gates open at 4.30pm for a 6pm start for an all-action night of racing at the Oval by the Ocean.