RUNNING ON EMPTY

By Pete McNae

It was role reversal night for commentators Jody and Gabe at the Milestone Homes Top of the South Speedway tonight. Instead of introducing the drivers to the crowd, this time around competitors outweighed spectator numbers about 100 to 1 as the Nelson Speedway Association ran a unique crowd-free, livestreamed race meeting.

The one-off (maybe) format was forced by the current Covid settings where mass gatherings aren't allowed. With competitors wondering where their next race meeting was coming from and beginning to question the value of owning expensive machinery that was gathering cobwebs, the choice was made to run without a crowd, competitors paying $50 extra to race while forgoing travel and prize money to cover costs. It seemed to be a win across most classes but, while RJPTV streamed the meeting in full, no one would suggest it was the same as having fans in the stands and the format for the rest of the race season will be up for discussion.

The feature tonight was meant to be the Cando Fishing South Island Superstock Championship. That was scrapped months ago when Speedway NZ held over all title meetings until next year. In its place was the South Island Classic but with just eight entries, it resembled most Nelson club nights, apart from the couple of local cars which have been sold and the two out of town entries from Woodford Glen's Malcolm Read and Lloyd Jennings. Track trash talker Jody Scott described Jennings as an unheralded talent and the Cantabrian proved that prophecy true yet again as he won twice and ran fourth in the other heat to take out the Classic championship.

Jennings is as smooth as condensed milk and always goes well in Nelson – as he said, anyone who can catch Brett Nicholls on his home track is having a good night. The 25C car is already painted kind of orange and sort of black – but he would be hard to prise away from the Glen. The class welcomed back Ant McKenzie after a long engine rebuild and his heat three win and fastest lap were good reward as the class got back to the mid-15s lap times they were running last season. James Nicholson also had a solid night in the For Sale 117N tri-rail and clearly has a future in the class, should he keep the car.

It's taken until March to get the midget class together in sufficient numbers to make their season debut. Nine entries became eight starters and seven competitive cars as Jamie Brown battled a misfiring 57N Saab. With the track in good nick, the remainder of the field gripped up and provided two good heats, a pole shuffle and a rapid feature, won by Tom Lumsden by a healthy margin from the ageless Glen Durie. Liam McCoubrey and Jack Low also featured in a class that laps up the tight smooth surface in Nelson but is rarely sighted.

Their smaller siblings, three-quarter and quarter midgets, were also on the programme, the TQs dominated by Cambell McManaway apart from one slight misstep when he missed his moment after a yellow light and was jumped by John Schoester. Dyllan Forsey was the other driver in a consistent top three while Mark Bezett drove his older car to the limits to hang in close. He will be pleased to have taken both his and son Kynan's car home with all the oil inside the engines – the same couldn't be said for James Thompson from the Coast, who lost a motor in spectacular fashion.

In the quarters, competing in the penultimate round of their SM Hydraulics series, Canterbury's Jack Brownlees stretched his lead but it's a very close race for second between Lakyn Thompson and Locky Martin, who closed the gap tonight. The meeting's biggest crash occurred when a couple of cars spun in turn three and the Brodie Morris car was T-boned amidships by Conley Webley who had nowhere to go. Both drivers came out of the collision shaken but no worse.

The other youth class, ministocks, caught the attention of the referees with exclusions altering the outcome. Callum Russ took race one, Harlen Brunt won the second on an exclusion and Blake Hearne, who is edging towards a superstock career once he turns 17 in the off-season, drove a well-paced race to pip Jack Burson in the last. As has been the case this season, each meeting another driver jumps the divide to start running with the leaders; Brunt, Toby Walker, Deegan Broker ... tonight it was Leilah Jefcoate who showed she is ready to compete with the pacesetters. Russ took out the club championship from Hearne, with Brunt third.

Another club title was at stake in the production saloon class where Fee Frans gave her new car, a retro Repco Nissan a win on debut. She didn't feature later though as Kaylim McNabb improved throughout the meeting to win on overall points as Vaughan Cornelius and Jordan Gillespie fought out a runoff for second, Cornelius getting the nod in his Honda. It was good to see David Leitch and Geoff (Gold Card) Watson each having a good run despite their combined ages adding up to a handy first innings cricket score.

That left one class at this most unusual meeting, stockcars who staged a hit-to-pass promotion. Hitting was in short supply but there was passing, most memorably when the winner of races 1 and 2, Wade Sweeting had to pull infield with a right rear flat tyre while leading race three. That opened a window for Riley Eathorne and Morgan Dumelow and it was Dumelow who barged through to take the win and the overall hit to pass championship, ahead of Sweeting and Melissa Gifford. While there was a high drop-out rate through the meeting it was great to see Gifford and Braden Lawton mixing it while Kynan Robinson and first night driver John Nicholson joined in the action. There's some talk of a Nelson rookies teams race before the end of the season which would be welcomed as it has been three arid seasons since the Thunder ran out of active drivers.

That possibility and others, including the prospect of bringing in spectators, will hinge on changes in national rules and meetings of the Nelson Speedway Association committee. The next scheduled meeting is on March 19 but the best plan is to watch the website and club Facebook page for official decisions.

Photos: Rebecca Connor Maling, BM Photos

Article added: Saturday 05 March 2022