Heat eight saw the class of Crosbie come to the fore, the two time New Zealand Formula Ford Champion was in a new car he had never driven, in fact he hasn’t driven a Production Saloon for well over a season, doing the majority of his racing in Six Shooters.

Crosbie would take a well driven race win ahead of Ray Jaggard of Wanganui with his clubmate Brent Hackett third.

The final heat for Friday and again it was a good clean fast race, Dunedin’s Tyler Kelk had to this point had a fairly quiet night by his standards but would produce an epic battle with Sherlock – Bailey at the front of the pack. Sherlock – Bailey looked as if he had the car to make a move on Kelk but with a lap to run Kelk placed his car nicely on track and defend his spot up front to claim the race win, Sherlock Bailey second and James Woods of Cromwell third.

The top five placings after night one of the Aotearoa Production Saloon Cup saw Martin lead then Frans, Crosbie, Westerman and Cornelius.

Night two and again some impressive battles set to unfold, a few cars not returning to the event suffering mechanical issues the night prior.

First heat of the Saturday night was fast and Cornelius continued his strong run taking a win first up, Jaggard second with Westerman third.

Heat eleven saw Sherlock Bailey given an early tap from Cromwell’s Laura Heads spinning him, Hackett would also hit Sherlock Bailey with nowhere to go, they would manage to restart but Heads would be sent to the rear of the pack for the restart.

Sherlock Bailey would then power off from the outset and take this race Kelk in second with Hackett third.

Heat twelve was straight forward, Brookland got to the front early and was faultless from there taking the win from Erskine with Greymouth’s Ian Clark third.

The final round of heats for the Aotearoa Production Saloon Cup also provided some great action, first up Westerman dominated heat thirteen, winning by a margin that would also give him pole position for the twenty lap feature final, Sherlock Bailey was second with Kelk again consistent in third place.

The heat races were clean with no cautions in the last round of races, a credit to all drivers involved in the event, the second to last heat saw an upset with Beachlands driver Ricki Pilley too good for the guns, taking a well deserved race win by almost six seconds, Cornelius was second putting him on the front row of the grid with Brookland third.

Heat fifteen the final heat saw Erskine bag his second win in as many days, giving him a solid points haul and a position on the second row, Hackett was second with Hamilton of Riverside third.

The top ten going into the twenty lap final would look like this, Westerman, Cornelius, Erskine, Brookland, Frans, Hackett, Martin, Kelk, Crosbie and Sherlock Bailey.

Four spots remained open to join the twenty four car feild and this would come via the repecharge, top four cars advance, up front Cromwell’s Steven Nicholas and Heads traded paint for the first couple of laps, the pair threatening to take each other out of a race they only needed to finish fourth or better in.

Nicholas would eventually sneak ahead of Heads both cars getting through, Riversides Blake Murdoch was third ahead of Matt Cox of Christchurch fourth.

Now as Ive reported on a number of times in this article, this event has seen some good clean fast racing, but that was all about to change, we were about to be dished up a thirty-one minute twenty lap feature final, a marathon that had everything including nine restarts, now I won’t go through these restarts one by one as we have a limited amount of page space along with a limited amount of time, and to unpack what happened in this race would blow your mind, anything from bumpers falling off, to flat tyres, to motors blowing up, to crash damage to a car going on fire because someone left a rag in the boot that fell onto the exhaust, it really had it all, but god damn it was awesome.

I think in this instance its easier to tell you some of the big names that were more than capable of winning this event, that were now parked up, we have Sherlock Bailey, Crosbie, Brookland, Hackett, Kelk, Erskine, Woods, Hamilton and Fairburn, a tonne of talent just in that lot alone.

So in the final Westerman was outstanding, leading lap upon lap until eventually during the caution periods he would have to starve off Brookland who attacked hard, Cornelius threatened most the race then Frans also threw the challenge at him.

It was Frans who would get the elbows out and get to the front of the race, there was so much biff and barging going on that at one stage I was confusing myself with a Streetstock race, Westerman was bouncing off cars, Martin was now involved and he was taking a hammering, poor Cornelius was like the ball in a pinball machine, it was mayhem but the fans loved it.

Early race leader Westerman was under attack and trying to get back to the lead as well as defend from behind, in doing this he made contact which saw him relegated after the race from fourth to sixth, the big mover late in the race being Pilley who saw the red sea open in front of him and he drove straight through it.

Frans would charge on to win the Aotearoa Production Saloon Cup with Cornelius second ahead of Pilley, fourth was Martin with Jaggard fifth.

In support races wins went the way of Kelan Keith of Christchurch who won all six races in Youth Ministocks, while in Youth Saloons Dunedin’s Max Kemp would take two wins and Cayden Race of Riverside one.