Fine show, fast racing in 'Champion of Champions' title decider at the speedway

The Gisborne saloon car fraternity put on a great show of coat-of-paint, bumper-to-bumper driving at the speedway on Saturday night as the “Champion of Champions” title was decided in thrilling fashion. Daniel Cook (left) and Rodney McIndoe finished first and second, respectively. Picture supplied

Champion of Champions titles for saloons, production saloons and sidecars produced an outstanding night of hard and fast racing at Gisborne Speedway Club’s meeting on Saturday night.

But the saloons definitely took the cake.

Daniel Cook, behind the wheel of 77G, was in terrific form. He won the ProTraffic Saloon Car Champion of Champions title.

Cook battled his way into second place in both the heats, starting from back in the pack both times.

In the 20-lap feature race he went from pole position and led all the way to win well and wrap up the title.

All three saloon races were outstanding, with 3NZ Trent Amrein from Mt Maunganui keeping the local brigade honest.

Rodney McIndoe, in 7G, was consistently on the pace all night and thoroughly deserved his second spot on the podium; likewise Sean Robertson, in 16G, who finished third.

It was real “coat of paint”, bumper-to-bumper racing, and it wowed the crowd.

Cook was rapt to win the title.

“It was a nice run and it feels cool to get a win like that at home.

“It was awesome racing — a small field but everyone out there raced really well.

“So cool that Rodney (McIndoe) was also driving a Vulcan chassis car, also made by my brother Ethan.”

All the Gisborne saloon drives and their support crews now prepare for the New Zealand championships to be held at the Kihikihi track in the Waikato in two weeks.

The Professional Fleet Maintenance Production Saloon Car title was hard fought too.

Blake Dear (37G) and Seth and Anton McKay (48G and 17G respectively) drove like they meant it from the start.

Dear won the first race — a real dogfight that set the tone for the night in that class.

After the three heats, Dear and Seth McKay had a run-off to decide the title, and McKay won it. That left Dear in second place and Anton McKay third.

The F2 Midgets made an entertaining debut at the track.

Visiting drivers from Auckland, Huntly, Mt Maunganui and Kihikihi put on a great show.

Their streetcar motors sounded the business, and they delivered a fine display of open-wheeler racing.

It was a treat to see the way the top drivers took the corners of the banked track with full power on.

The Mount’s James Earl (22M2) was the best of them, with two wins.

Gisborne’s Callum Innes and his driver Russell Stuart (22G) took out the local sidecar champion of champions title, with two wins and a second.

Rob Miller and his swinger (8P) from Palmerston North won the Law Cartmell Memorial, with Innes and Stuart the runners-up.

“It was really fast and competitive racing, although the track was a little challenging,” Innes said.

“We were stoked to finally get our bike right.”

The North Island sidecar championships will be held this weekend in Palmerston North, and Miller, Innes and Stuart will be there.

The meeting drew a big field of 21 youth ministocks, and the youngsters put on a good showing; likewise the streetstock field.

Gooch takes three from three

Cody Gooch (6G) won three from three in the streetstocks, with Matt Ireland (96G), Jared Ingoe (78G) and Sammy Durston (177G) chiming in with seconds and thirds.

Koby Gooch (59G) was the standout in the youth ministocks, with two wins and a second.

Vinzent MacGregor (5G) had a win, a second and a third, and Corbyn Wilson (44G) picked up a second placing and a couple of fourths.

• The Gisborne contingent at the New Zealand Stockcars Championships at Stratford over the weekend had a tough weekend.

Only Bryce Simpson, in 98G, made the final 30 cars, and he had to go through a repechage to do it.

He finished 26th out of the 210 cars entered.

“It was pretty brutal racing,” said club president Sam Hughes, who drove 77G in the event.

“Not much luck came our way.”

• The entry list continues to grow for the Jazzed Up Logging North Island Stockcars Championship to be run at the Gisborne Speedway towards the end of February. As of yesterday it read like this: 3NZV Cody Lockett, 4B Courtney Hatton, 7G Shane Bunning, 7H Hamish Whyte, 8R Scott Fredrickson, 9W Sheldon Arapere, 15M Michael Schwass, 16A Tyler Ingram, 16G Jordan Fleetwood, 16H James Marshall, 17A Kristin Vermeulen, 17G Logan Bruce, 18R Jayden Steiner, 19B Caleb Ireland, 19H Ashlee Morton, 21K Gavin Tomsett, 22R Les Hepworth, 24B Daniel Melling, 24H Brad Philpott, 27H Brett Aikin, 28R Alex Jones, 33W Kareena Annan, 35S Joshua Walsh, 42B Lauren Swift, 48G Josh Mulcahy, 52G David Bacon, 52P Alex Maule, 55B Asha Penn, 55M Zadin Slater, 55R Tony Chapman, 57B Jordan Adie, 67G Jason Lovell, 71G Ethan Bruce, 72K Shane White, 74B Tony Palmer, 77G Sam Hughes, 79B Rynan Dittmer, 81R Brooke Courtney, 82P Royden Winstanley, 85B Willy Stevenson, 86B Brad Singer, 87R Chris Shingleton, 88G Shaun Dunlop, 92R Karl Garnett, 94H Samuel Murray, 97B Daniel Dittmer, 97H Kacey Cheetham, 98G Bryce Simpson, 99H William Whyte, 137A Zac Ingram, 164G William Kaa, 291R Megan Pinder, 361H Clinton Cheetham, 517S Mark Woods, 717G Adrian Bruce, 735R Keegan Orr, 824K Brogan Collins and 992P Taylor Lamp.