Speedway: Local teams snares victory

Jarrod MacBeth

Photo: Stratford Sharks driver Dylan Smith heads off on the victory lap with team manager Anthony Washer after the team beat the Canterbury Cobras in the final. Photo by Cookies Motorsport Photography

The inaugural Pick A Part West Coast Streetstock teams champs was run at Five Star Liquor Stratford Speedway on Saturday night with four teams taking to the track in the quest for glory and victory.

The teams were Rotorua Ratbags, Temarua Terrors (Wellintgon), Canterbury Cobras and the local team the Stratford Sharks.

Once the Cobras entered the event, it was almost a forgone conclusion as to who the winners would be. South Island Streetstocks race hard, they race fast, and they do plenty of teams racing which meant they would be very hard to beat.

However, the Stratford Sharks showed true grit and determination and also raced like seasoned campaigners to overcome all obstacles and win the event. The Sharks had a great first race against the Temarua Terrors, taking a comfortable win and securing positions one and two in the race before losing to the Ratbags in their second race.

They did however fill positions two through five which gave them the largest combined points haul of the night and secured their place in the final against the Cobras. In the final, the Sharks were going well against the Cobras but once the Canterbury blockers latched onto race leader for the Sharks Dillan Smith, and held him up for a long time it wasn’t looking good for the local team.

Some superb blocking from the Sharks Shaun Hall and Jared Pryce held up the Cobras runners long enough though for Chris Deveraux (Sharks) and Smith to gain the lead back in the closing stages of the race and take a delightful win and a trip straight to the top step of the podium. The Rotorua Ratbags were third overall behind the Cobras.

Bradley Korff was once again the dominating force in the Saloon car racing, winning the Sam Korff Memorial which was run over two heats by a one-point margin after placing first in race one and winning race two.

Thomas Korff ran away from the field to win race one but couldn’t really make any forward ground in race two and had to settle for second overall ahead of his father Craig. Bradley Korff also won the Plews Memorial which was a one race deal, after starting from grid two and leading the race form start to finish. Thomas Korff was again second while Palmerston North race Jonathan Mason was able to stop the second Korff trifecta of the night when he finished third after a solid drive.

A near full field of Stockcars raced for the Warren Lowry Stirrers Memorial. Races were won by Ryan Nolly, Bevan Phillips and Mark Woods. There were a number of race stoppages due to on track action that included cars being put up the wall and some decent hits throughout the field. Bryce Jensen was awarded the stirrers prize for his on-track antics.

Superstocks and Youth Ministocks also raced on the night with Superstock races being won by William Hughes (2) and Brad Uhlenberg while Ministock races were won by Angus Mulholland, Quinn Turner, Blake Luscombe and Lainey Hancock.