The main feature this week at Max Motors Family Speedway in our eyes would have to be the Stock the Stocky Appeal for the Salvation Army New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga Territory where generous spectators donated 1000 much needed cans of food. Perhaps if the weather had not been quite so iffy during the earlier part of the day or not quite as cold as it was we may have seen even more cans and spectators than we did.
The drawcard on the programme was The Capital Pools and Spas Ultimate Stockcar Knockout;The knockout started with a qualifying race to weed out those cars that would not make the Quarter-finals but natural attrition did the job and 23 cars lined for the rest of the races. Quarter final one saw three Palmerston North cars 667p Hamish McLeod, 772p Kyle Lampp and 258p Neville Harrod take the semi-final spots. The second Quarter-final had 5 cars front up to do battle with 992w Taylor Lampp, 669w Brendon Tye and 5w being driven by the reigning Knockout champ Josh Patterson moving on to the next round. Quarter-final three saw 89w Dale Robertson fly home ahead of 6w Paul Gaskin and 55w Todd McLachlan for semi-final spots. In the fourth Quarter-final we saw someone embrace the ethos of the event when 12w James Martin went on the brakes, crawled the pole line and ensured his Palmerston North opposite 12p Jackson Booth did not make the cut, leaving the way open for 19w Noel Bewley, 72w Josh O’Keefe and 66w Liam Sullivan to move on.
667p Hamish McLeod won the first semi final with a drag race from 669w Brendon Tye and 992w Taylor Lampp, and The next semi saw 89w Dale Robertson, 19w Noel Bewley and 6w Paul Gaskin take the final spots. In the final the lone P car, 667p Hamish McLeod was always going to have an uphill battle against five local drivers and after taking the 992w Taylor Lampp to the wall and proceeded to have a swipe at the leader but missing – it left 89w Dale Robertson to take the title with 669w Brendon Tye and 6w Paul Gaskin completing the podium.
To finish off the night for the Capital Pools and Spas Stockcars there was an All-in race which produced some great action thanks to the efforts of 15w Hayden Thomas who crawled the pole line in order to have a running battle with 882p Brandon Jurgeleit and 66w Liam Sullivan who battled it out with 74w Corey Small. Oh by the way 52w Josh Lockett took the chequered flag.
The main feature was ably supported by the Friday Homes Superstocks who opened the meeting with a doozy of a wall ride by 54w Mike Pye courtesy of crowd favourite 321w Hilton Parker. 24w Grant Littlewood won the race from 7w Shane Davis and 16w Dave Hughes. Their next race had plenty of action and close racing again fuelled by the 321w Hilton Parker. Gaining the lead when the front runner 16w Dave Hughes spun he was soon passed by 7w Shane Davis but the old school way of regaining the lead is good enough for Hilton Parker and he spun the 7w out of the way hard enough to remove its bonnet and went on to take the chequered flag. 24w Grant Littlewood took 2nd place and first-time visitor to Te Marua 47b Zach Glenny taking 3rd place. Their final race 7w Shane Davis made up for his disappointment by taking a convincing win from 47b Zach Glenny and 24w Grant Littlewood.
The C & M Transport Modifieds fronted with a small field that saw the return of Michael Burt on track for the first time this season. They produced some good, close racing with 57w Ben Cawthra winning the first race, 11w Wayne Eveleigh the second and the 57w car winning the third race which shows how brave Ben Cawthra really is, allowing Blair McPhee to take the driver’s seat.
The Moving Company Saloons produced no surprises with 3nz Matt Eckersley taking all three wins with the minor places shared between 242w Martin Halcrow, 98w with both Tony Cardno and Rodney Green as pilots, 57p Calvin Honore and 124w Danielle Halcrow who missed the second race due to damage sustained when her father rammed into the back of her car.
The CDC Concrete Drilling and Cutting Streetstocks, although down on numbers, produced plenty of action. One addition to the field was 67w Adrian Hume, who has just graduated from Youth Ministocks. Birthday Boy 77w Daniel Bouzaid continued to entertain with his ballet on track, pirouetting with the best of them every race. Winners on the night were 19w Daniel Fergusson who took two wins and 29w Robert Jackson but the stirrer of the night would have to go to 9w Aaron Wilton.
