The M.C Fale Transport North Island Saloon Championship, the first of six speedway national titles to be held in Stratford this season, was run at MG Taranaki Stratford Speedway on Saturday.
With a few withdrawals in the days leading to the event, 24 of the original 29 entrants arrived tochase the glory of victory.
Local competitors were fast, used their home track knowledge and raced extremely well against some tough competition from throughout the North Island, including defending champion Trent Amrein and current New Zealand champion Jared Fletcher, who are in brand-new cars this season.
The competitors were drawn into three groups with each group racing each other in the qualifying rounds before the top ranking competitors raced in the winner-take-all final over 20 laps.
Such was the form of the locals that they filled three of the four front grids in the final - Thomas Korff in grid one, Bradley Korff in grid three and Blake Hooper in grid four.
Gisborne driver Daniel Cook was the odd one out, starting in grid two. New Zealand champion Fletcher was in grid five while defending North Island champ Trent Amrein was in grid 13 after suffering from a DNF in a heat race when he had nowhere to go and slammed into a parked car.
At the race start, Korff led the field away, Cook dropped back several positions and Fletcher moved rapidly into second place with Blake Hooper running in third. They stayed like this for almost half the race, Korff sitting on the pole line, Fletcher seemingly content to sit behind.
Hooper, however, had started running wide around lap seven, setting the high line for his car and passed both Fletcher and Korff for the lead on lap 10. Unfortunately for him, moments later Gisborne driver Hamish Moore, who was running mid-pack, slammed into the turn two concrete, bringing on a caution and returning the grids to the last recorded lap, undoing Hooper’s hard work.
On the restart Hooper again ran wide and made his way to the front with five laps to go. Fletcher was coming on form though and soon passed Hooper while Daniel Cook’s car was coming to the track and he was quickly moving forward, passing Hooper to sit in second behind Fletcher while Korff had dropped back to fourth and that is how they crossed the line - Fletcher, Cook, Hooper, Korff.
Blake Hooper (12s) uses the outside line to pass Jarred Fletcher (1nz) and Thomas Korff for the lead in the North Island Saloon Championship final. Photo / Matt Julian, Contact High Photography
At post-race scrutineering, Fletcher’s car was found to be outside of spec with the rear spoiler sitting too high so he was disqualified, making Cook the winner of the North Island Champs ahead of Blake Hooper and Thomas Korff.
Adult Ministocks raced for the Tool Hire Taranaki Champs and it was Lukah Phillips who produced good speed to record a first, sixth and second placing over the three heats to win the title from Brayden Shaw while Loyd Clarke was third.
Modifieds made their first season appearance with a solid field of 12 cars and raced for their City of New Plymouth Classic trophy. Murray Gordge built cars filled the podium with Newton Gordge winning ahead of Carl Hinton with John Jackson third after beating Jamie Fox and Cody Hata in a three-way run-off.
In the support class racing, Superstock races were won by Scott Joblin, Hamish Booker and Scott Willaims. New Zealand Champion Josh Walsh was in fine form and won all three Stockcar races while Jared Pryce won all three Streetstock races.
The next event at Stratford Speedway is on Saturday, December 16.
