The final meeting of 2024 at Milestone Homes Top of the South Speedway ended with a demolition derby after some grades contested pairs and triples formats.
While a few grades knew their who their partners were, a couple ran as blind pairs, they didn’t know who their partners were until prizegiving.
The Streetstocks ran a triples format, 5 sets of triples contested a busy night of racing. Ryan Musgrove took out all 3 races as he weaved through the traffic at pace. The key was finishing races, the triples of Perry Soper, Josh Atkinson and Taylor Lynch getting the job done with a 10-point margin after the 3 heats.
T.Q.’s ran a known pairs format, Alicia Hill backing up with another dominant feature win. Kohen Thompson made some huge moves from the back of the field as his mentorship finishes up. It was another youth driver, Malakai Webb from Christchurch, making his first visit to Nelson that finished inside the top 3 every race to propel and partner Maia Nicholson to the pairs win. Hill and Clinton Cross were 2nd with Dave McSherry and Thompson 3rd.
The Quarter Midgets were doing the laps, Taylor Martin getting all 3 wins as he heads towards a busy few months contesting meetings around the South Island. Bailey Bensemann finished 2nd with Leila Harper 3rdafter a wee roll in heat 2.
The Youth Ministocks were back to a single field with a few cars racing in the deep south. Locky Martin claimed all 3 races to match his younger brother Taylor. Andre Musgrove had won the first heat, but he was one of several drivers that were relegated by the referees in heat 1. Conley Webley away down south picking up title wins in Dunedin and Invercargill.
The Stock cars continue to entertain, a wild heat 3 keeping the crowd on their toes. Luke Higgins, with just a handful of meetings, had to take some evasive action to avoid a wall ride in the final laps of heat 3, plenty of bumper work kept the crowd looking at all parts of the track, the Hall boys, Adam and Dylan happy to get amongst it all night.
Production Saloons kept up their competitive racing, veteran Dave Leitch tying on points with the younger Kaylim McNabb after 3 heats, visitor Dave Allen just a point behind.
The final hit out for the Super Stocks before the NZ title here in two weeks had former NZ Stock car champion Ethan Rees from Gisborne in his new car to contest against. Rees not enjoying the hot Nelson sun on a busy workout testing the car set-up, the sweat pouring off his race suit. The grade contested a blind pairs format, while Brett Nicholls managed to hold off Alex Hill by a single point in the individual points, it was Hill and Rees that took the pairs title over Nicholls and Ben Taylor, with Callum Russ and Michael Oakley 3rd.
The derby cars were able to contest a couple of races before they destroyed their cars. Shaun Heath took a win with Andrew Mercer taking the next race before also being the last car going to win the derby, a couple of cars expiring in flames.
A huge festive crowd treated to some entertaining racing on a warm Nelson night, the big meeting is next on January 10th and 11th, the NZ Super Stock title, the biggest event on the speedway calendar.
