Motor Sport
“Racing” Ray Stewart of Cromwell left The Riverside Speedway crowned as the new Southland Super Saloon Champion, and earned himself a tidy pay packet for his efforts.
Cando Fishing, Dixon Transport and Cleanways 2003 Ltd all chimed in and placed a $10,000 prize pool up for grabs for the championship which attracted some of Super Saloons big names to travel South.
Pre race favorite Richie Taylor of Christchurch didnt waste any time making his intentions felt early with a commanding heat one win, Taylor was pushed hard in race one by Craig Phillips, before the local driver spun, causing a six car pile up, thankfully with no considerable damage to anyone.
At the restart Taylor drove off to win comfortably from Invercargill’s Campbell McManaway and Cromwell’s Daryl Ainsley.
Ainsley got off to a great start in race two only for mechanical issues to to finish his day, this handed the lead to Ricky Boulton of Dunedin who would head off a fast finishing Stewart and Taylor for second and third.
This gave Taylor pole position for the feature final, the winner of this race would be crowned Southland Champion, as the race went green it was Stewart who got the jump and led into turn one, both Stewart and Taylor pulled away from the pack, Boulton settled into third.
Mid race Taylor tried multiple moves to sneak past Stewart but the man from Cromwell held his nerve and pulled a gap which he held to the end of the feature to claim the Southland Championship, Taylor settled for second with Boulton third. The first of the locals home was Phillips in fourth, the crowd pumped with the display put on by the high horse powered methanol monsters.
It was one way traffic in the Southland Stockcar Championship with Peter Knight untouched, winning three from three races to claim the crown, Glen Fraser was second overall, with Chris Kergozou on debut in the grade third.
Other race winners for the weekend were Dylan Mountney who took two wins, and Tam Clements one, in Production Saloons, Hayden Graves, Jacob McIntyre and Corban Reed picked up wins in Youth Saloons, the later celebrating his first ever win, while race wins in Streetstocks went the way of Steve Dryden with two wins and Dan Black with one.
