Beachland's Night Of Carnage Entertains The Masses

Andrew Andrew

• RACE REPORTS

Beachland's Night Of Carnage Entertains The Masses

Beachland's Speedway

Shuttleworth Motorsport Media

Photography by Robin Simpson

Images supplied by: Christopher Scrimgour

The Fireworks display was meant to be what would steal the show at Custom Signs Beachlands Speedway in Dunedin on Saturday night as the club hosted round two of the Brian FM South Island Saloon Series, but the on track action, full of thrills and spills left the massive crowd spellbound and wanting more. While its a well known fact that us humans love destruction, and a number of us only go to events such as Speedway to see the crashes, its not so good for the teams and drivers but by heck the punters had plenty of destruction to wet their appetites at this meeting. Ryan Marsden of Christchurch went into this round as the series leader after an impressive performance the night before at Central Motor Speedway in Cromwell.Marsden would continue on where from he left off in heat one of the Saloon Series taking an impressive win in his Lovelady Mustang ahead of George Phillips of Cromwell and Ashton Osborne of Christchurch both driving Stealth's in second and third. Heat two is where the wheels all started to fall off .... literally. Christchurch's Peter Schouten would go toe to toe with Scott Williamson of Invercargill for the first couple of laps, the pair putting on a brilliant display. Schouten started to gain an advantage just before Williamson powered out of turn two, hitting a large rut which sent him to the wall and into a big roll over down the back straight.

Williamsons car suffered severe damage and the race was called off while the track was sorted.They would soon return to the track a couple of races later and minus Williamson who was understandably gutted after solid results in Cromwell at round one and being one of the top qualifiers here at Beachlands. Heat two only lasted a couple of laps before the next bit of drama unfolded, local drivers Dave McCallion and Ryan Bennett made contact on the main straight, this gave McCallion the big squeeze where he rode the wall resulting in him rolling down the fence line and across the pit gates. Behind McCallion was Cromwell's Barry Taylor who had absolutely nowhere to go but into the wall resulting in him have a violent roll over as well, both cars out of the round and the following days racing at Riverside Speedway. The race would restart with Schouten taking the lead early, both Schouten and Willie Woodhouse of Christchurch put in a great display of side by side racing for the entire heat but Schouten would be first to the checkered flag taking the win and a place on the front row of the grid for the final, Woodhouse would be second ahead of Trent Amrein of Bay Park Speedway in Tauranga third. The B Main for the Saloon series would decide who would fill the back three rows of the grid, with the heats filling the top five rows. The Flying Scotsman Stu Millar of Dunedin got off to a flyer before spinning up in front of Jason Gold his Beachlands clubmate, Gold had nowhere to go and made solid contact but did remain on track to keep up his hopes of making the final. The rest of this race was simply outstanding, six cars would make it through and five of the six cars would go wheel to wheel for the rest of the race thrilling the big crowd. Gold, along with his Beachlands clubmates Aaron Andrews, Peter Kirk, Riverside's Mark Dobson and Cromwell's Ivan Murdoch drove fast and clean and you could not separate them at all. Gold made it across the line in first followed home by Murdoch and Kirk but what happened after the flag was nothing short of breathtaking.Dobson campaigning a new car threw it down into turn one when the race had concluded but found the car kept revving sending straight into Kirk and Murdoch. Kirk hit the wall backwards at force while Murdoch goy sandwiched in the middle. Dobson's car burst into flames, rising well above the cars, Dobson getting out quickly but Murdoch was still stuck in the middle where the flames were starting to take hold. Thankfully all three drivers got out but both Kirk and Dobson would be out for the event, Murdoch would take his place in the final. After all the action in the heats and B Main no one knew what to expect in the final, however this was fast and clean. Phillips looked quick but struggled to make the car stick spinning mid race putting him well down the field and having to fight his way back through.

Up front it was series leader Marsden who took the race by the scruff of the neck and raced off to a handy lead. Schouten looked like he had second place cemented but Willie Woodhouse would find speed late in the race eventually getting past Schouten who would settle for third place, but running out of laps to catch Marsden who would take the win with Woodhouse second. Marsden banking two rounds from as many starts. The Otago Outlaws Stockcar team were set to do battle with the Canterbury Crushers who unfortunately pulled out of the event. The Outlaws however put together a second team and put one one teams race on the night, coming away with a comfortable win courtesy of Mark Taylor crossing the line first. Heat one for Stockcars saw a huge field of twenty four cars line up to do battle. There was plenty of carnage as cars worked their way through the pack but no major incidents to cause stoppages. Upfront it was Taylor who would bank the race win ahead of Beachlands clubmates Paul Simon and Nico Tuhura. Race two only lasted a couple of laps before Dunedin's Harry Greer went to the infield need his car extinguished after flames bellowed out from the underside. Simon battled hard up front with Taylor and Tuhura once more, and Central Motor Speedway driver Jack Honeybone was also looking quick. Simon would find his way to the flag first with Taylor hot on his tail second and Honeybone impressive in third spot. Race three was total carnage, Honeybone looked like a ball in a pinball machine down the back straight, he was spun then beaten from pillar to post by a number of cars resulting in him being a spectator for the rest of the race. Up front it was again Simon who was in a dominant mood showing good pace, he was being chased by Dunedin's Zac McClenaghan and Zane Tuhura all before a spectacular roll over for former All Black Liam Squire on the back straight bought the race to a stop. Squire walked away unscathed and at the restart Simon would once again take control, heading off to claim his second win of the event. McClenaghan would come home second ahead of Zara Lee Tuhura up in third. Over twenty Production Saloons converged on Beachlands Speedway and there was not shortage of drama in this field either, multiple incidents across all three races. To be fair race one was clean, well driven and fast, Dunedin's Aaron Brookland would bank a race win ahead of Scott Ritchie of Greymouth and Liam Gillies of Dunedin. Race two Gillies was in full control with a big lead, further back Dunedin's Rylee Stewart got her car up on two wheels through turns three and four, Dukes Of Hazzard style, unfortunately upon landing she shot off towards the wall making contact with Tyler Kelk ,Clay Marshall and Kaleb Marshall all of Dunedin, of the four cars only Kaleb Marshall would remain running. Gillies would go on to take the win from the restart with Ritchie second and Jon Leng of Dunedin third. Race three was the marathon, a race that would take near on twenty minutes, nineteen cars starting, just ten finishing. Every couple of laps there would be some form of incident unfolding, but the biggest was when Leng came into turn three carrying way too much speed, if he didn't hit another car it would have been into the wall for Leng. Unfortunately for Dunedin's Hayden Skilling he was the victim, being hit hard from behind causing him to go skyward and up and over in what was a spectacular crash. Once they managed to remove Skilling's car the race resumed and Olivia Glover would take the win, a well deserved one at that after she had to fend off many challengers over many restarts. Behind Glover was Clay Marshall with Nyall Brookland of Dunedin third. Youth Saloons also had their fair share of action across the evening. The first race Dunedin driver Brooke Soper was just too fast, getting to the front of the field and racing off to bank win number one of the event. In second was Max Kemp and third Deikin Borthwick both of Dunedin. Soper pulled out much of the same in race three with another outstanding drive, the only wobble when she got crossed up coming out of turn two, Soper came out unscathed but the cars behind all went nose to tail putting Riverside driver Joshua Richardson out of the race with damage after being hit by Kemp who had nowhere to go. Soper would race off from the restart to claim her second win of the night, second was Madi Stewart and third Maia Johnston both of Dunedin. Race three and it was great to see Richardson all fixed up and back in the action, however this was short lived when this time Kate Howard of Dunedin came unstuck causing Richardson and Ashley Bennett of Dunedin to collide, again Richardson parked up with damage. Out front Riverside driver Zoe Menpes was looking fast leading a pretty fierce pack, unfortunately for Menpes she too came unstuck causing Soper, Johnston and Jayden Cron of Dunedin all to make contact. The race would restart and this time Stewart got out front and would remain untouched, going on to win race three ahead of Cayden Race of Riverside and Johnston up to third. The final grade to race was Streetstock, and as always they were entertaining, and at some stages brutal. Race one, clean, tidy and fast, Riverside veteran Steve Dryden takes the win ahead of New Zealand Champ Darrell "Hoon" Richards in second and Ben Jenkins of Dunedin third. Race two was multiple stoppages, eight of the field of twenty cars were parked up on the infield at the conclusion of the race, plenty of good entertaining tap and spins with the odd big hit thrown in for good measure. The winner of race two was Braden Adams of Dunedin with clubmates Jenkins in second and Kelly Campbell in third. Race three and Adams impressive result in heat two would soon be all forgotten about when he was fired into the wall in yet another spectacular rollover. The race was stopped with Beachland's club President Matt Stewart in control. At the restart Stewart had a half a lap lead but Dryden was working his magic from well down the order, lap after lap closing in on the leader. With just one lap to run Dryden was within three car lengths of the leader but it would be too little too late for Dryden with Stewart getting across the stripe half a car length ahead of Dryden with Mitch Lavender of Dunedin in third place.

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