By Daniel Neville 

As the race season slowly draws to a close, Saturday February 24th saw the now annually run Memorial Meeting at TWS Paradise Valley Speedway take place. No weather worries and six classes on show made for a good night on the track with Superstocks, Stockcars, Streetstocks, Ministocks, Six Shooters and Production Saloons with classes except Stockcars racing for their respective championships. 

The Pro Parts Rotorua Ministock Memorial Champs launched the meeting with a 16 car field and a tidy race first up won by 98r Reeve Transom who was the home straight ahead of his nearest competition 23r Blake Fraser & 64r Riley McKeown who were second and third respectively. Heat 2 was won by the very fast and colourful 151r Campbell Hayes from another stand out car 33h Jaimee Burley with 23r Blake Fraser in the top 3 again. Heat 3 took a while to get going with a jump start prompting a restart then a 3 car collision on the first lap that saw 99r Declan Orr on his side and out of the race along with 351r Karl Vazey and 913r Byron Brown-Dixon. Things got better from then with 98r Transom taking another win with 64r McKeown second from 15r Ben Cooper. Overall Transom won the championship from Fraser with Burley driving well for third.

Pro Parts Rotorua Ministock Memorial Points

The TJC Building & Construction Ltd Memorial Superstock Champs saw a brilliant 27 cars on the grid for the first of 3 heats. A torrid first outing claimed a good number of outside tyres which saw the infield littered with cars by the time 14r AJ Axtens crossed under the flag in first place. 24r Kyle Ashton was second from 198r Mark Costello. Heat 2 was a super fast 12 lapper with plenty of push and shove throughout. The win went to 77m Luke Alderdice from 94r Dale Stewart who posted the fastest lap for the race with 96m Dylan Towler third. Heat 3 was another full on quick race with a Bay Park 1-2 as 99m Elias Dykstra winning from 96m Towler with 198m Costello third. Overall Kyle Ashton took the top step of the podium from the ever consistent Axtens second from another regular place getter Ken Hunter in third.

TJC Building & Construction Ltd Memorial Superstock Points

The David “Stumpy” Schrader Memorial Streetstocks attracted visitors from Stratford and Hawkes Bay joining the locals in the 17 car field. That number reduced slightly after numerous flat tyres caused retirements. 59r Mike King took the race with from 858r Shane Bracken with 28s Nic Smith third. Heat 2 saw some good old fashioned Streetstock racing with hits and spins all over the show. The Stratford cars of 27s Shaun Takamori and 21s Dylan Smith took some punishment with the latter chugging smoke for much of the race. At the end 848r Richard Bracken took the win from 72b Darren Melling with 12r Daniel Curran third. Heat 3 had a few missing from the grid as the earlier heats took their toll. The visiting Taranaki cars were again targets but somehow 72b Melling escaped any punishment despite the efforts of others to stop him. Points leader 12r Curran was unlucky to pick up a puncture mid race and was forced to retire. Just 7 cars finished with Melling cunningly getting home first despite the attention from the locals. Overall it was a Bracken 1-2 with Shane first from Richard in second and Stratford’s Jared Pryce completing the podium in third.

David “Stumpy” Schrader Memorial Streetstock Points

The Hayward Contracting Memorial Six Shooter Champs had 12 starter and race 1 saw 12m Grant Pedder and 87a Paul Smith get up close and personal with both okay to continue. Not long after the restart another incident involving no less than 6 car with Pedder and Smith reacquainting themselves once more. At the end it was 71m Josh McClymont who held his nerve to take the win from 79r Billy Griffiths and 28a Laurie Peterson. Heat 2 was rough for a non contact class and some hefty collisions costing a few and in particular 27a Ian Blackman who had a sorry looking car by the end. 28a Peterson took the win with 79r Griffiths second again and 17r Luke Westbury third. Heat 3 saw 7m Roydon White skip out to a good lead which he held to the end for maximum points, 17r Westbury took second from the 87r of Smith. The podium was decided by run offs with Luke Westbury seeing off Billy Griffiths for first and Laurie Peterson beating Josh McClymont in the 4 lap dash for third.

Hayward Contracting Memorial Six Shooter Points

The Driveline Automotive Memorial Production Saloons had just the 8 cars and a first up and familiar win fir 63r Peter Cradock with 25h Dylan Shearer and 95r Craig Jones third. Heat 2 saw more tyres go as 21r Melville Horn and 13r Justin Driver falling victims to airless radials. 95r Jones improved on heat 1 with the win from 31h Mark Levin with 63r Cradock third. Heat 3 saw another great drive from 63r Cradock who held off 95r Jones and 25h Shearer to get the win. Overall Jones won the championship by 2 points from Cradock with Shearman a further 2 back in third.

Driveline Automotive Memorial Production Saloon Points

The yellow Ministock group had just 12 entries with the race 1 win going the way of 13r Benjamin Ramage after a tight tussle with 19r Hamish May. Race 2 was girls all the way as 61r Kellie Yorke won from 92r Kelly-Anne Pinder with 114r Anna Robinson third. Race 3 was taken out in style by 13r Rammage from the much improved 192r Pinder with 19r May home third.  

The Stockcars that weren’t away in Gisborne for the North Island champs came out for a play with a nice 21 cars up for race one. After a handful of red light stoppages it was former NZ Streetstock champion 87r Chris Shingleton who took the win from 144r Stephen Pattle who stole second from third placed 189r Milla Theobald on the final lap. Heat 2 was a little less damaging with the win going to 513r Callum Flavell with 144r Pattle second again with heat one winner 87r Shingleton third. Race 3 got off to a cracking start with 192r Flynn Fraser slotting 24r Hayden Aiken up the wall on lap one. A few more dropped out as the race went on with 87r Shingleton capping off a good night with another win, class veteran 68r Keith Spanhake was second with 118r Luke Steiner in his first meeting behind the wheel of a Stockcar in third. 

The next meeting at TWS Paradise Valley Speedway is on Friday March 8th and it’s the LD McKenzie Transport Club Night featuring the Sportsweb Photography TQ Midgets Memorial Champs and the Seabreeze Souvenirs BOP Champs for Six Shooters. Support racing will come from Superstocks, Stockcars, Streetstocks and Ministocks with racing from 7pm.

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