Hard chargers in line for trophies

Daniel Cook at the wheel of 77G, will be the one to watch tomorrow night when the saloons race for the Phil Walsh and Bruce Ellmers Memorial trophies. File pictures by Liam Clayton

Coveted trophies go on the line at Gisborne Speedway Club’s track  tomorrow night and the drivers will be going hard out to win them.

The Roseland Tavern Stock Car Classic has always brought out the best in this class and there will be some hard chargers in the hunt tomorrow night.

Drivers entered so far include 5R Dion Henderson, 7G Shane Bunning, 16G Jordan Fleetwood, 17G Logan Bruce, 52G David Bacon, 61G Ethan Bruce, 67G Jason Lovell, 85R Jason Munro, 88G Shaun Dunlop, 98G Bryce Simpson, 128G Trevor McArthur and 164G Will Kaa.

Simpson, Kaa, Lovell, McArthur and the Bruce brothers will be among the local front-runners for the title.

“Logan Bruce, the youngest competitor in that class, seems to be going the quickest at the moment,” said club president Sam Hughes.

The saloons have two trophies to contest tomorrow night in the Phil Walsh Memorial and Bruce Ellmers Memorial races.

The already red-hot action in that class will ramp up.

Daniel Cook, on board 77G, would go in as favourite to win, but he will be hard pressed by the likes of Sean Robertson (16G), Hamish Moore (85G), Bailey Curtis (271G) and Rodney McIndoe (7G).

This class has arguably been the standout for consistent, thrilling,

tight racing throughout the season to date.

But Cook has been exceptional in his new Vulcan car.

“I definitely agree with that,” Hughes said. “Daniel will be hard to beat.”

The club hopes to run a demolition derby tomorrow night but as of this morning, they needed more entries.

“We are sitting at six entries for the ME Jukes and Son Derby and we need 16 to run the event,” a club spokesman said.

“If we do not have 16 entered by Friday morning we will have to pull

this event from this weekend’s meeting.

“We will have the option to run it

at the end of the meeting next

weekend, if it does not go ahead this weekend.”

The support programme tomorrow night includes youth ministocks (20+ cars), production saloons (10), TQs (6) and streetstocks (11).

“Also, the F2 midgets will be back as well, and we expect about a dozen of them from Auckland, the Mount and Kihikihi.

“They loved the bank track when they were here earlier in the season.”

Gates to the speedway open at 5pm, with the first race from 6pm.

The Gisborne Gladiators stock car team has been announced to race in Napier next weekend alongside about a dozen teams from other tracks.

Dana Kingsbeer will manage a team that includes Lucas Hey (13G), Logan Bruce (17G), Josh Mulcahy (48G), Ethan Bruce (71G), Haydin Barker (84G) and Will Kaa (164G).