It was a fitting finale as Connor Rangi won the Hydraulink War of the Wings sprint car series on his home track at Milestone Homes Top of the South Speedway, as the 8 round series ended in Nelson.
Rangi was trying to hold on to a slender 10-point lead over defending series and NZ Champion Joel Myers Jnr after racing in Blenheim the previous night.
The series had rounds in Cromwell, Ruapuna (3), Greymouth and Ellesmere.
Joel, an American driver, held the series lead before Rangi took over in Greymouth after he had mechanical failure.
Rangi did enough to stay in the lead as Joel won the remaining feature races, hoping the local hope would falter.
But it wasn’t to be, Rangi taking 2nd spot in the Nelson feature to secure his second W.O.W. title.
The meeting ran best pairs for the Quarter Midget class with Taylor Martin winning the feature race and taking the pairs title with Kaiden Simmons, Ryan Gallagher and Bailey Bensemann were second and Meneka Rawson and Millar Johnson third.
Club championships were held for several other grades.
The Production Saloons tried to match the Streetstocks for contact with Vaughan Cornelious taking the title from David Allen and Dave Leitch. A few panels needed some beating out on several cars.
The Streetstock club champs was decided on who was able to complete all their races and three huge unintentional rollovers kept the crowd entertained.
Taylor Lynch picked up a prized club championship with Jason Clark runner-up and Harry Moffat-Schwass third after rolling Cody McCarrison in a run-off.
The Stock Cars continued to stir things up in their club champs with a couple of drivers happy to ruin someone else’s title chances.
The locals tried to slow a couple of visiting cars and they did enough with Jack Rarity taking the title from Wade Sweeting and Ben Smith.
The final round of the MTF Finance (Nelson) T.Q. series saw Kohen Thompson take out the feature win, backing up from second at the NZ GP a week before.
Alicia Hill finished second with Lachlan Brett third.
The series win going to Jayden Corkill, with Aaron Finlay second and Jamie Booth third.
Eli Gare won the Ministock Youth King of the Coast title in Greymouth, Locky Martin top qualified in his group at Ministocks at Paradise in Rotorua, finishing 4th overall in the Junior section. Ian Burson finished 6th at the NZ Super Saloon title in Tauranga, a huge effort after starting from 20th on the grid.
The next Nelson meeting is massive with the PTS Stampede, Rees tour, Ministock Mania, Stock Car Summer Slam and Historics.
The event is running over two days, Saturday 15 March from 5pm and Sunday 16 March from 2pm. You can pre-purchase online tickets here or pick them up at the kiosk at Richmond Mall.
