Milestone Homes Top of the South Speedway has a huge double feature this weekend, the Bash of the Trinder’s Engineer’s South Island Stock Car title and the Dash of the Hydralink “War of the Wings”  Sprint Car series on one massive night of action. 

The South Island Stock car title will be a battle of the clubs as Christchurch will try to keep the title in canterbury while the locals will try to get one of our club cars to win the title for Nelson. Defending Champion Canterbury’s Brayden Lennon will have has just a few days to repair his car from the NZ Teams title in Huntly and head up to Nelson, he will have a strong line up of Canterbury cars to help him retain the title. There will be a few cars from Blenheim and Greymouth who hope to sneak in if the others take each other out. The last heat is always the one to watch, the build-up in the first two heats sets the storyline for the last race, tactics clearly laid out in the pits to who is blocking and who is running, finishing second or third place is forgotten as getting a club mate to win the title is the ultimate aim.

The Hydralink “War of the Wings” makes a welcome return, fresh from a round in Dunedin, the standings are about to change as series leader Joel Myers Jnr heads back home to the United States, it opens up the competition at a critical time as they start the second half of the series. On the local driver front, defending champion Connor Rangi has a heap of work to do to after a few poor rounds by his own standards, Stephen Tyler has been plagued by minor car issues but loves the Nelson circuit, Alicia Hill and Cambell McManaway return this week and the Sam O’Callaghan piloted Kevin Freeman car, looks set to make the line-up after engine issues.

The charge will be coming from new 3nz Matt Leversedge, having missed the first round and rolling in the feature in Greymouth, things are now on the up, a podium at the NZ title in February then runner-up in Dunedin, he will be one to watch. Invercargill’s Jacob McIntyre will inherit the points lead with Myers heading home but he is hotly pursued by Jacob Baughan (who won the title in 2020-21) and Jayden Dodge, who are both tied on points heading to Nelson. Daniel Anderson will make the trip up from Te Anu, while Matt Honeywell and Cory McQuillan should sneak up from Canterbury, 6 time W.O.W, 6x champion Jamie Duff has found time in a busy work schedule to make the trip north with brother Steve Duff Jnr, Gene Spooner and Allan Chapman also looking to attend the weekend as well. It should be a cracker weekend even without the 16 yr. old American sensation who they have all been chasing the past few months, it will be a superb watch to see who can come out on top of a very competitive Sprint car line-up.

The Quarter Midgets run their final round of the Mike Greer Homes (Nelson) series, points leader Locky Martin looking at holding on to the series lead, he was looking at a podium place last year but broke the car on the final round, he will be keen to finish in style on his home track, he had been on the podium over the past few weeks and is hoping his good fortune continues. 

 A solid line-up of T.Q’s had entered to attend the meeting, the new 1nz of Hamilton’s Aaron Humble is making his first visit to Nelson for a while, he will defend his NZ title here next year so it is a good chance to get some track time in before then.

The Gates open at 5pm with racing underway at 6pm, you can pre-order tickets online via the Nelson Speedway website or can be bought at the Richmond Mall kiosk. There are team shirts and War of the Wings merchandise for sale at the track on race night, it promises to be plenty of bash and a whole lot of dash in a huge weekend of racing.

Article added: Thursday 02 March 2023