Motor Sport
The thought of twenty two, 900 horsepower monsters tearing up The Rock Riverside Speedway on Friday night was enough to coax out the hearty Southland petrol heads with a good crowd rolling up in chilly wet conditions.
Eventually when the rain settled the sun shone down on the Hydraulink War Of The Wings Sprintcar Series, the first time in a number of years that the club had hosted a field of Sprintcars packed with this sort of talent.
Series leader Connor Rangi of Nelson did enough throughout the heat races to earn a spot on the front row of the grid for the twenty five lap feature final, he was joined on the front row by Cromwell driver Mathew Anderson who was a heat winner and certainly looked to be the man to beat.
Defending series champion Jamie Duff of Christchurch qualified fastest, suffered mechanical issues throughout heat one, but made amends in heat three with a solid win putting him up the order to sixth for the final.
In the final it was Anderson who got off to a solid start stretching the legs early only to be bought back to the pack with local driver Daniel McKinnel spinning while making light contact with Cromwells Aaron Cleavland, this put Cleavland out while McKinnel rejoined the pack.
At the restart it was Rangi the series leader who got the jump and Duff who sat on his back wheel for a number of laps, Duff was impressive up on the high line, at one stage looking like he would make the pass but once again a yellow flag bought the pack back together stopping Duffs momentum.
This time the restart was once again a benefit to Rangi who stormed off to a handy lead, Duff fought hard once again only to be held up by lapped traffic, this handed the race win to Rangi with Duff second and Cromwells Daniel Anderson winning a tense battle for third.
These results would soon be overturned by the officials with Rangi deemed to have run over the poleline handing the race win to Duff, Anderson second and Christchurch driver Allan Chapman third while Rangi was relegated to fourth place.
Youth Saloon Southland Championship was also up for grabs, and provided some of the best racing of the evening, Jacob McIntyre battled hard and scored a well deserved Championship win, second was Luke Malloy while a race win elevated Anastazea Ladbrook up to third.
Modified Sprints welcomed drivers from Dunedin and Christchurch but local driver Vaughan Marshall once again showed off his freakish skills to win the feature race by a handy margin over Clayton Phillips from Christchurch second and Michael Jackson of Invercargill third.
Wrap up By Daryl Shuttleworth
Photos: Corbyn Shuttleworth