BUMPER TO BUMPER TRAFFIC

By Pete McNae

We all remember our first time. The big build-up, followed by the lingering feeling that maybe it should have been better. So it was with the inaugural Stockcar Summer Slam, feature event at the Milestone Homes Top of the South Speedway tonight.

The Nelson Speedway Association were looking for a promotion to provide a lifeline for the stockcar class, the foundation of the club in the early 1960s but down on numbers of late. The result was the Summer Slam, presented by Thelin Construction, a best pairs promotion which had one car from each pair scoring points for a share of $5000 in prize money, with Brian FM lobbing in another $500 for the stirrer of the meeting. The format should have resulted in a fair bit of bumper action ... but no one seemed entirely sure how to approach it.

Perhaps it was the intimidation factor of the likes of Harley Robb, Wade Sweeting and Roydon Winstanley. Or maybe drivers weren't too clear yet how to attack an unfamiliar format, one that should have seen a definitive call made on who should run for points as the other driver acted as tail gunner and bodyguard.

What resulted were three entertaining and competitive heats from what began as a 20-car field -- but less smash and more dash than had been expected. Troy Currie laid down an early marker in heat one, smearing his mate Braden Russ into the wall but Russ raced through the heavy contact and trucked on as Sweeting put maximum points on the board for his pairing with Winstanley.

Three cars missed the grid for heat two with first-season Nelson driver Riley Eathorne (paired with clubmate Dylan Clarke) making an early – and eventually rewarding -- play for Brian FM's five hundy. He lined up Canterbury's Allan Jackson, took a swipe at Max Baker and went for Daniel Cox before he and Jason Brooks ended up scrapping over 11th and 12th placings. Harley Robb banked the win to lift the pairing of Robb and Jayden Nicholl right into contention heading into the deciding heat.

And then, well, it went a little flat. Robb ran for the win, Sweeting and Winstanley tried to reel him in but the expected carnage never came. Baker did his best to use his back bumper for some blocking and Winstanley put a hefty retaliation shot on Cox that saw the 9C exit in a cloud of smoke but with flat tyres and big money at stake, the all out impacts simply didn't happen. Robb and Nicholl took the top prize of $1000 with Winstanley and Sweeting close behind but you have the feeling that next summer's Slam will see a better tactical appreciation of how to engineer an outcome.

The other two contact classes were each tarnished by injury. Neville Soper and Josh Nell are each facing a spell on the sidelines, Soper's sadly long-term. He was hurt when his streetstock was unintentionally turned head-on into the wall. Soper went thumbs down straight away to get the race stopped. With an ambulance having already made a trip to the hospital for concussed superstock driver Nell, Soper remained in his car for a long while before he could be released, suffering from a broken leg. His recuperation will take away one of the more seasoned and successful streetstock drivers as the class has already dropped away from its opening night numbers. Ryan Musgrove and Cody McCarrison parcelled out the wins between them with Richard Bateman in his backup car the best of the chasers.

The superstocks welcomed four Canterbury cars in a field of 14. Notable travellers tonight included Tim Ross who brought both his stockcar and superstock through from Christchurch while Jason Brooks had a stockcar and two ministocks in tow and Ashley Harrington's Cromwell-registered youth ministock made a second appearance. The crowd lapped up the bigger superstock entry, with the 14 cars divided into seven pairs. Lloyd Jennings banked a win for himself and pairs partner Adam Hall, then it was Brett Nicholls taking race two after a good tussle with Hall and Alex Hill while Mitch Berry won another one for Christchurch in the third race as Hill decided he would block and slowed Nicholls and Jennings and then had a little swipe at Berry and Ross. Add the points, divide by two and the pairs champions were Hall and Jennings, ahead of Nicholls and Matt Inwood with Berry and Phil Krammer taking third. Nell's turn three rollover will likely cost him a start in the PTS Superstock Stampede with Chris Baxter (diff) and Krammer (chassis damage on his first night back in a while) also out early.

The crashes kept coming, in the TQ midgets (no surprise), production saloons and quarter midgets (big surprise). While they weren't a featured class, the TQs might have delivered the driver of the night in John Schoester. After a lay-off lasting a few seasons, he has returned this summer and looks set to ruffle a few feathers. He ran second behind Dylan Bensemann in the first heat of round two of the club championship, was midpack in a reverse grid second heat won by Jayden Corkill, then controlled the feature despite multiple restarts. While Schoester had a decent grid draw with the fastest off the back, his win was no fluke, posting the quickest lap time and pulling away from the vastly experienced James Thompson after each yellow. Corkill had the most hectic race, spinning and rolling, getting a restart from the rear and making his way back to third.

The little quarter midgets had a prang too with Mack Rawson's car nosing hard into the turn three wall, the young driver all nervous smiles when he got out of the car. Perhaps he knew what the reaction to a few bent front bars were going to be once he got back to the pits. Locky Martin and Kohen Thompson were the most consistently successful across three races as Bailey Bensemann also pocketed a win.

The production saloon class had a blind pairs promotion with drivers not knowing who their pair-mate was until all the points were tallied post-meeting. Brett Allan took heat one, Eddy Frans aced race two and it was Jordan Gillespie to the fore in the third heat but, when the big reveal came, the blind pairs winners were Frans and Cam Lankshear well clear of Allan and Kaylim McNabb with Gillespie and Zoe Connolly a single point behind in third. Abby Carter had a strong second heat but it came unglued late in race three when she caught a rut in the track and went head on into the wall before rolling. Carter thought it was all a great laugh, mum Mandy up in the tower, not so much.

Last class on the card was the youth ministocks who were putting in work ahead of Ministock Mania at the next meeting. The usual gang; Russ, Hearne, Brunt and Higgins, dominated the placings but Canterbury's Amber Brooks gave the lads a hurry up and there were solid nights for Jacob Skurr, Toby Walker and Deegan Broker.

As mentioned, Nelson's next meeting will be one of the big ones on the calendar – the return of two-day meetings and full fields of superstocks and ministocks for the PTS Superstock Stampede and Ministock Mania on December 10-11. The historic stockcars make a comeback with drivers arriving from around the country and streetstocks will race for their triples crown.

Photos: Rebecca Connor Maling, BM Photography on Facebook

Article added: Saturday 20 November 2021