Action packed night at Oceanview
WHS students Jemma Barnes & Kaelin Mooney in the action at the final Speedway meeting.
It was a cool autumn night, but the action at Supercheap Auto Oceanview Family Speedway on Saturday night was anything but cold.
The biggest field of Superstocks seen at the track since the North Island Superstocks in 2012 treated the big crowd to some fantastic racing action.
First up in the Noel Kensington Memorial race, 1NZ William Humphries started on the outside of the front row, but it was the 599P car of Ron Tye which made the early running.
Humphries was content to bide his time in the opening laps, but once he took the lead, there was no stopping him.
He took a comfortable win over Wayne Hemi (591P) with Alex Bright (10N) storming home for third place.
The action level ramped up for the George Podjursky Memorial.
Kerry Podjursky (56V) was highly motivated to win the race in memory of his late father, but a first-lap incident put him back in the pack.
Midway through the race, Sjoerd Dykstra (38G) was turned sideways at the end of the front straight.
Just as the red lights came on to remove his car, son Ricky Dykstra's 28P car clipped his father's bumper and rolled.
Both father and son emerged uninjured, but their respective nights were over.
Scooter McIntosh held the lead until the very last corner, but was spun by Asher Rees (127C) and crossed the finish line backwards.
Brett Hyslop (9P) saw a gap and made a brave lunge to take the win from Rees, with McIntosh in third place.
Only three tenths of a second separated the three cars.
The final Superstock race was the Craig Heibner Memorial.
Logan Sharpe (33S) got the early jump, but a first lap spin saw Asher Rees take a lead he would not relinquish.
Hyslop finished second, while Humphries showed his class with a drive from near the back of the field through to third.
The large field of Stockcars on hand included the 1NZ car of Ethan Rees, who was largely untroubled in winning the first race from Wayne Wright (24V) and Gerry Linklater (98V).
Dion Mooney (6V) took out the second Stockcar heat from Shane Kells (87V), with Wright in third place.
The action ramped up in the feature race, with Mooney being slowed early, sending him into battle mode.
Among his targets was the 1NZ car of Rees.
Linklater, a former 1NZ himself, drove a canny race to take the win from Rees, with Mark Johnston in third place in Trevor Greig's 81V car.
The Grand Slam saw the three Rees Superstocks starting almost a lap behind the Stockcars.
Wright took the lead almost immediately, and despite his lap times being around a second-per-lap slower than the Superstocks, he held on to win by almost five seconds from Asher Rees, with Francis Potaka (52V) in third place.
Wins in the Adult Ministocks were shared between Bradley Korff (86S), Caleb Madgwick (65W) and Hailey James (92V), who took out the feature race.
Kyle Rowe (43P) took out the opening Youth Ministock race with a last-corner pass of Kaelin Mooney (26V).
Rowe was then unceremoniously tipped over in the second heat, won by Jemma Barnes (92V).
Cody Hodge (21P) took out the feature race.
In the Production Saloons Jason Pointon (71V), Jon Morrison (62V) and Grant Loveridge (7V) took out a win apiece.
At the end of the night, a very large field of Demolition Derby cars rolled out of the pits to face the starter, and chaos quickly ensured.
After a large confrontation on the back straight, the 82V car of Zeb Walker from the David Jones Motors team emerged as the winner.
That brought the curtain down on a very successful speedway season, with the crowd on Saturday being the largest seen at Oceanview for several seasons.
The turnout of visiting cars from eight different tracks across both islands, and the presence of the 1NZ cars in both the Superstock and Stockcar classes added prestige to the final meeting.
Racing will resume in October, but for now the Wanganui Stockcar and Speedway Club members, volunteers and officials will recharge their batteries over the winter break.
The Club thanks everyone who has contributed to a memorable season.
Speedway
By Tony Stuart
Wanganui Chronicle 10/4/18
