Action-packed start to new year

INSIDE RUNNING: Dave Cortesi (34) trying to take a shortcut around Clint Claydon, a manoeuvre which earned him a talking to by track officials. PICTURES/DEBBIE

The Kaikohe Car Club reported good car numbers for the first race meet of 2015 on Sunday with good fields in most grades and a couple of visiting drivers from Auckland which all provided an action-packed start to the new year.

With one commentator noting conditions were "stinking hot", the main highlight for many - as usual - involved a collision or crash, this time it was the turn of Ray Dare who had the side of his fibreglass-bodied vehicle ripped out after suffering a multiple car pile-up in the first leg of the LTD (limited) saloon racing with Nick Caldwell and visiting Auckland racer, Tom Roberts (an image of the crash featured in Tuesday's edition).

This appeared to do little to slow the aptly-named Taipa racer down, Dare reportedly deciding to also take on the town bend concrete later on in the day but managed to patch the resultant damage up sufficiently to enable him to complete his campaign.

Elsewhere, the C-grade featured some very close racing with Dave Cortesi getting his car up on two wheels in a successful battle for second place with fellow competitor Clint Claydon, who came home third, and Taipa's Allen Hallet finishing first. The C-grade ladies were not to be outdone and this class featured some of the closest racing for the day with the lead changing a number of times between Fran Verney, Amanda Cortesi and Jamie-Lee Aukett.

The main event on the day's card were feature 20-lap races for the super and limited saloon grade trophies. Tom Roberts took out the LTD Cup with Nick Caldwell finishing very close second after a very fierce battle which also included Dare and John Hussey; while Max Andresen took out the super saloon trophy from Keith Wilson, the latter holding the lead for 15 laps before getting tangled up with lap traffic, allowing Andresen's yellow Mustang to steal past.

Other highlights from the day saw organisers reporting a good number of drivers - nine in all - in the ladies' saloon class; and a couple of new racers including Fran Verney, who won her first race in the ladies saloon class, and 12-year-old Kaikohe local Ben Hood who enjoyed his first competitive debut in the ministock grade, with visiting Ashlee Kellie from Auckland showing him the way. Sure, there were only two ministocks on the day with full credit given to Kellie - as well as the abovementioned Tom Roberts - who travelled north to support the Far North club after competing at Whangarei Speedway the previous day.

Hood, it appears, represents the spearhead of another ambitious approach from the progressive club to introduce ministocks to its domestic racing programme, with the long-term plan being to purchase a number of mini-stocks and then provide lessons on how to drive them.

- The next race meet being held in the Far North is at Taipa Speedway this Saturday with a 2pm start and refreshments available at the track. "Bring the family for a great afternoon of action packed racing," Taipa officials advised. Meanwhile, the next domestic meet at Kaikohe is set down for Saturday, January 31, starting at the later time of 4pm.