Motoring
Speedway fans from all over the country flocked to Riverside Speedway in droves on Saturday night for the running of the Cleanways 2003 Ltd New Zealand Streetstock Championship, the car park area was overflowing with cars leaving a number of fans having to park outside of the grounds in what would be one of the biggest crowds seen at the local track.
The evening started with two repechage races to determine who would join the twenty four cars who had already qualified, race one looked to be going in favor of Invercargill’s Dan Black who led for a number of laps before being put into the wall by by fellow club mate Chris Kergozou. Dunedin’s Andrew Keach managed to keep his nose clean and take the victory and move through to the finals.
In repechage two it was a little more clean cut with former National Champion Stephen DeMalmanche of Rotorua leading from start to finish to book his spot in the top twenty six.
The Championship would be decided over three heats, top points scorer gets awarded the win.
In heat one it didn’t take long for the action to unfold with Dunedin’s Jareb Verdoner being put on his roof in turn two bringing the big crowd to its feet, this spelt the end to Verdoners night. At the restart it was Invercargill’s Mark Henderson who got off to a clean start and despite several attempts from his rivals to unsettle him, he managed to weave his way through the field to bank maximum points and give the locals something to get excited about. Second place went to Darrell “Hoon” Richards of Dunedin while Andrew Watson of Invercargill drove a clean race to third.
Mark Henderson’s luck would run out in heat two though as Christchurch’s Dave McSherry targeted the race one winner ensuring Henderson couldnt build too much of a gap in points on the field. Former Champion Stephen DeMalmanche was out early with mechanical woes.
Defending New Zealand Champion Trevor DeMalmanche drove a solid race to get up the field as high as second with just a couple of laps remaining, but was put to the sword by 3NZ Chris Shingleton, this led to a pile up on the back straight involving DeMalmance, Kieren Skurr of Christchurch and Dunedin’s Scott Ashton.
As the race unfolded it was Christchurch driver Toby McClenaghan who took a commanding victory but the action behind him was intense as Chris Shingleton tried to spin Wayne Melling of the Hawkes Bay leaving Melling to slide across the finish line sideway but still in second place with Shingleton third.
Going into race three, the final race it was a handy five point lead to Wayne Melling over Toby McClenaghan with Kieren Skurr third and the quiet achiever of the event Brenden Gooch of Gisborne up to fourth, eight points adrift of the leader.
As the lights turned green on race three it was Megan Henderson of Invercargill who shot off to a handy lead, Henderson is believed to be the first female driver to qualify for the finals of the New Zealand Streetstock Championship, and she certainly had the measure of her male counterparts. Megan Henderson was chased hard by Kieren Skurr and Brenden Gooch but kept her composure until midrace when the pairing slipped through with Gooch taking over the lead.
At this point we knew we would be crowning a new New Zealand Champion as Trevor DeMalmanche retired to the infield with issues, surrendering the 1NZ defense in the process.
Kieren Skurr then suffered considerable damage putting his title aspirations to rest while Wayne Melling put pressure on Brenden Gooch, by this stage of the race lapped traffic was playing its part, Gooch outsmarted a number of cars but Melling who if he had finished where he was would have won the title, got hit by a lapped car, this led to multiple attacks on the Melling and also dropped him well down the finishing order.
While the mayhem unfolded Brenen Gooch extended his lead, the major benefactor of the action in the pack was Jamie Lott of Dunedin who was only ninth on points, he managed to sneak past Megan Henderson up into second spot but would have no answer to the speed of Gooch who bought the arena to its feet with a hard fought deserved heat three win. Jamie Lott finished second with Megan Henderson third.
As Brenden Gooch pulled infield to join his rivals after an ecstatic victory lap he had no idea where he was placed in the championship, but he didn’t have to wait long until track commentator Daryl Shuttleworth delivered the news he wanted to hear that “Brenden Gooch is the new New Zealand Streetstock Champion” . Gooch celebrated by punching the air, he then grabbed the chequered flag and stood on the front of his car, took in the atmosphere and savored the moment as it sunk in what he had just achieved.
Wayne Melling threw everything at the title to gain the 2NZ on the side of his car while the surprise package was Jamie Lott who was crowned 3NZ after a faultless performance in the third heat. Local fans had plenty to cheer about too with Andrew Watson finishing fourth overall, this result sent the arena into a frenzy, and showed that Speedway is alive and well in the South and that the Southern tracks can deliver a major event as good as anywhere in the country.
Story: by Daryl Shuttleworth (Shuttleworth Motorsport Media)
Photos: by Corbyn Shuttleworth
https://whatsoninvers.nz/weekends-speedway-action-continues/