Carnage Reigns At South Island Sprintcar Title

Andrew Andrew

• RACE REPORTS

Carnage Reigns At South Island Sprintcar Title

Central Motor Speedway

Shuttleworth Motorsport Media

Photography by Suzy Walker

Images supplied by: Christopher Scrimgour

*(Disclaimer - results are as per what I saw while commentating, they may have changed officially. No publication is to use my article for their own use without prior permission) The day could not have got off to a worse start for the team at Central Motor Speedway with a burst water main flooding the main straight just hours before the Bermuda Pools South Island Sprintcar Championship was set to take place. Much to the clubs credit they worked constantly to bring the track back to life just in time for the Sprintcars to roll out for their time trials, the usual baking Cromwell sun was hidden behind low cloud making drying the track just that bit more difficult. Eighteen cars from across the South Island entered the event, and pre event favorites were the likes of three time South Island Champion Jamie "The Duffman" Duff of Christchurch, "Slammin" Sam O'Callaghan of Nelson and Jayden Dodge of Cromwell, along with a string of very talented drivers who on any given day could threaten for this Championship. Time trials were run first, and what looked to be a greasy track surface would usually mean a disadvantage for the first few cars to run, but out of the box O'Callaghan set a blistering time that would remain unbeaten through the time trial. Second was Duff with Cromwell's Mathew Anderson in third, this would give O'Callaghan plenty of confidence heading into the heat races and ensure he was in the best spot to claim a Championship that he has placed second in the last two times it had been run. With the field split into three groups from the time trial results heat one would see groups A and B do battle. The race only made it to turn two before the first yellow flag was in play, a spin by Duff who started on the second row of the grid bringing out the caution. Duff managed to restart but would now have to work his magic from the rear of the field.

If one of the event favorites spinning early wasn't enough to shake up the title early, time trial winner O'Callaghan would be the next casualty with the sole Nelson entry heading to the infield with mechanical dramas, really changing the complexion of this race early. Once the race got underway once more it was Jason Scott of Cromwell, who has won this event five times in a row, just a few seasons back who took control of the race. Scott wound back the years looking fast as he managed a well driven race win to finish ahead of Dodge with Cromwell rookie Adam Evans impressive in third spot. Duff would manage to work his way through the field to sixth. Heat two was another chance for Duff to consolidate some decent points to get him to the pointy end of the grid for the twenty five lap feature. This race was a fast paced affair with the only caution coming after Shanarrah Stronach of Cromwell spinning in turn two early. Christchurch driver Matt "The Flying Farmer" Honeywell was in sublime form out front, sounding out his intentions as a contender for the South Island Championship. Honeywell drove a patient race up front with pressure from both Duff and Dodge behind him, but their own battle for the minor placings would give Honeywell some breathing space allowing him to take the heat win, Duff did enough for second while Dodge took third. Heat three was groups C and A, and the return of O'Callaghan who really needed to bag as many points as he could with a race one DNF. Starting from the front row was Steve "The Gasman" Duff of Christchurch who would go toe to toe with local driver Josh "Young Buck" Buchanan for a number of laps, Duff would eventually break the shackles and race to the lead, taking victory by just over two and a half seconds, which is a decent margin in the Sprintcar world. Buchanan managed to hold off O'Callaghan for second, the third placing for O'Callaghan seeing him start outside the top ten for the feature final.Now if we cast our minds back to the start of this article you will recall the burst water pipe, well they say things go in threes, unfortunately for the Central Motor Speedway club this happened to be the case, just prior to the feature race taking place the generator that runs the track lights decided it didn't want to start, just as the sun was fading away, this put a fair amount of urgency on the field to get out and get the race run while there was still daylight available.The next drama was the stone flicking up and smashing the lap scorers window, causing the lap scoring team to evacuate their room, but the show must go on and it did. As the cars got started and gridded up you could feel the excitement in the air, there was a real buzz as this would be one of the first Speedway New Zealand Championships run in the last two seasons due to Covid. The green flag dropped and straight away it was Honeywell who grabbed the early advantage, racing off to a handy lead and looking super fast.

Honeywell would start to pull a margin and in no time have lapped traffic in his sights, unfortunately for him when he approached turn three Stronach has gone over just in front of the leader and Honeyell would clip her car resulting in top wing damage. Honey well would restart and take his place back at the front of the grid with Dodge and the Duff brothers both on his tail. At the restart Dodge got the jump on Honeywell and grabbed the race lead, this would only be short lived as Dodge would soon slow on the main straight, eventually stopping in turn two, bringing out the second caution of the feature race. Dodge would be sent to the infield for the rest of the race ending his chances, as daylight was fading fast at Central Motor Speedway. Honeywell was the next to come unstuck, the Cantabrians night going from bad to worse as he spun in turn two as the track was starting to create a lot of dust, making visibility very hard for the drivers. Honeywell was in third place prior to the spin. The race soon took shape once more, O'Callaghan was starting to work his way through the pack, moving well inside the top ten, and passing cars like they were sitting idle. It was at this point where everything started to fall apart for a number of drivers. Evans fell victim to the dusty conditions, a car spinning in front of him, leaving nowhere for the young Cromwell driver to go but up and over ending what was a fairly good outing for the youngster. At this point officials were discussing the lighting situation, or lack of. There was only eight laps to run and not a lot of cars left, surely we could get to the end of this Championship cleanly, unfortunately not. Riverside's Jack Brown was the next car to fall victim on turn two, running midpack Brown was also tipped upside down bringing out yet another stoppage, at the other end of the track O'Callaghan was up to fifth and looking fast, a caution was exactly what he needed to catch the Duff brothers, Buchanan and a fast finishing Caleb Baughan of Christchurch, but unfortunately for O'Callaghan he clipped another car while slowing down for the caution, causing him also to flip. Once the carnage was cleared from all ends of the track it would be a sprint race to the end, hopefully without anymore dramas. Officials were again questioning the light and toyed with the idea of calling the race early, but to their credit they let the cars run. When the green flag dropped Jamie Duff raced Steve Duff side by side into turn one, Baughan made a ballsy move which allowed him to slip underneath Steve Duff and into second, but this move allowed Jamie Duff to pull a lead on the chasers. Behind the top three Buchanan had fallen back and Nigel Colvin of Cromwell was now in fourth but would run out of laps to catch the fast three up front. Duff would keep extending his lead and put in a patient, well driven drive to claim the Bermuda Pools South Island Sprintcar Championship, Baughan claimed a solid second place with Steve Duff taking the last spot on the podium in third. Streetstocks were an invited grade to Central Motor Speedway and would run three heats as well as a fun red light - change direction race at the end of the night. For the best part the racing was very clean with minimal stoppages across all the races, race one saw the Dunedin trio of Mitch Lavender, Jareb Verdoner and Ben Jenkins comfortably take the top three spots. Race two and just the one stoppage when Beachland's driver Cory Campbell bought out the red flag after a spin in turn two. Up front it was again Lavender who was dominant with his second race win, Verdoner again second with Dunedin's Brian Nicolaou third. Race three and again, fast clean racing but this time Verdoner was sick of playing the bridesmaid and would get his way to the front of the pack and claim his first race win of the event, Jenkins would follow Verdoner home for second with Lavender third. Production Saloons were running round one of the Invercargill Tractor Servicing and Repairs Production Tri Series with the Central Otago Chargers, Riverside Rats and Beachlands Young Guns all set to do battle over three rounds hosted by each participating club. The Central Otago team looked strong on paper and didn't take long to apply their dominance in heat one. Rookie driver Jack Taylor of Cromwell took his first ever race win with a start from the front of the pack in race one, despite Beachlands drivers Kaleb Marshall and Tyler Kelk finishing second and third respectively, the Central Otago Chargers placed the rest of their cars well within the top ten with a solid points advantage after just one heat. Heat two was pretty much more of the same, unfortunately for the Beachlands Young Guns they lost two cars to the infield with both Aaron Brookland and Lucy Greer having to park up, the Brookland stoppage bringing out a restart. News wasn't good for the Riverside Rats either with one of their front running cars Laura Heads losing a rear bumper and heading to the infield also, The Rats had already lost a key member of their team Blake Hamilton to Covid just prior to the event. Cromwells James Woods would take a simple enough race win to extend his teams points lead with Brad McTaggart also of Cromwell second and Kelk third for the Young Guns. Woods would repeat the dose in race three, clearing off early and negotiating lapped traffic to take his second win of the day and put Central Otago into a very strong position after the first round. Kelk and Marshall managed to claw back some valuable points for the Young Guns with second and third. This result left the Central Otago Crushers leading, the Beachlands Young Guns second with the Riverside Rats needing to work hard to get back in the contest in third. A smaller than usual field of Six Shooters were on track in support of the South Island Sprintcar Champs but even with numbers down they put on some of the best racing of the night. Newcomer to the grade, Riverside's Hayden Graves struggled with turn two, twice spinning up, the first time managing to keep going but the second time bringing out the yellow flag, Graves would rejoin at the back of the field. Up front Cromwell's Emma Gordon who was the most experienced driver in the field was unchallenged and took a race win ahead of Cromwell clubmates Blair Smith in second and Brian Ellison third. Race two was somewhat of an upset, Cromwell's Sophie Wills in her first season has looked fast at previous events, but a smaller filed tonight gave her the confidence to really challenge the opposition. Wills took the lead and despite Graves throwing everything at her she held on to take her first ever win in her very short Speedway career. Graves held on to grab second place while Smith was again consistent in third place. Race three and Wills was beaming with confidence from her earlier win in the second race, this time battling with Gavin Read of Riverside who was quick in this heat, ensuring any mistake made by Wills would be taken advantage of. Behind Read Graves was pushing hard before spinning up in turn three bringing out a caution. Wills would remain unchallenged at the restart to take her second win in as many races, Reed came home in second with Smith third. The final grade to run was Youth Ministocks, and again a small field entered. With just Cromwell drivers entered it once again looked as if Clay Dawson would be the man to beat, Dawson has demolished his opposition so far this season but tonight he didn't get things all his own way. While Dawson did take the race win in heat one he was made to work hard by clubmate Zak Phillips. Phillips looked fast the entire race, leading at certain points but Dawson sat patiently and would take the lead back off Phillips. Phillips managed to get home for a well deserved second placing with Cooper Arkell in third. Race two and again Dawson, Phillips and Arkell drove an intense race up front, the trio swapping positions lap after lap before a stoppage when Dylan Jones rolled in the entry to turn four. At the restart Phillips got the advantage he was looking for and raced off to bag his first win of the season, Dawson second and Arkell again third. Race three was another exciting race, not only was it Dawson, Arkell and Phillips battling hard up front, this time around the Craig siblings Bayley and Byren really put on a show and threatened the faster cars up front. The only caution in this race came when Mikayla Colvin spun up in turn three, bringing out a restart. Phillips looked like he would take out another race win with only a small amount of laps remaining, but Dawson worked his magic late in the race making a move for the lead that would see him take out the final Youth Ministock race, Phillips second with Arkell third. Overall results for Youth Ministocks were Phillips being given the first place trophy, Arkell second and Baylee Craig third after Dawson's car was excluded, pending an investigation. Youth Ministocks also teamed up with Streetstocks in triples with Phillips and his Streetstock pairing of Bailey Gillum and Verdoner taking the win. Central Motor Speedway will return to the track on December 30th with the Christmas Championship.

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