The PTS Super Stock Stampede was bursting at the seams with the Rees/Vazey South Island tour combining in a huge weekend of racing at Milestone Homes Top of the South Speedway.
There were multiple competitions running over the weekend with the Stock Car Summer Slam, Ministock Mania, Streetstock Club Champs and the Super Stock Stampede, Historic Stock cars and the return of the Modifieds.
With a record numbers of cars entered, the pits had to be expanded. There was also the biggest gathering of Youth Ministocks ever in the South Island.
The Rees/Vazey Tour started in Blenheim on Friday, before the two days in Nelson. They are taking in the rest of the South Island tracks over the next two weeks.
Last year’s PTS Stampede was the basis for what unfolded at the NZ Championship earlier in the season, the defending NZ Champion Asher Rees having his winning chances stopped both times round the first bend.
After being stopped in his tracks at the NZ Championship earlier in the season, Asher made the most of an unimpeded run to take out the Stampede. Local legend 3nz Shane Harwood was 2nd and Rees Tour founder Peter Rees, Asher’s father, was 3rd, with Peter running behind Asher, very much like when Asher won the NZ Stock car title here 10 years ago. Locals Alex Hill and Brett Nicholls came home in 4th and 5th respectively.
The Stock Car Stampede was boosted by the tour drivers who loved the Summer Slam format. The cars were racing in pairs with the top 12 teams moving to an expanded run-off series with teams racing in a three-lap knockout competition. The importance of finishing all your races was vital as more points meant less knock-out races to contend with. That proved the case as the top points pair of Gavin Marshall and Wade Sweeting only had to face-off in the final knockout race, they were too sharp for the Dylan Hall and Brittany Carpenter pair who had several successful wins. Whanganui’s Mitch Lockett and Blair Reeves Smith were 3rd.
Kohu Whalon got the biggest slam of the weekend, a huge ride up the wall. The Ministock Mania talent was swamped with multiple championship winners attending the meeting. Unfortunately a couple of top contenders got caught up in tangles. M.I.P. winner Lachlan Timmins having the spill of the weekend getting airtime on the back straight ending his racing. Palmerston North’s Jayden Clark won the senior event with local drivers Andre Musgrove and Locky Martin finishing 2nd and 3rd.
The junior section was won by Canterbury’s Lukus Smith with Blenheim’s Tate Carpenter 2nd and local Bailey Jefcoate 3rd.
Ryan Musgrove took out the Streetstock club Champs in a run-off against Blenheim’s Anthony Gane after the locals rallied to slow the leading out of town drivers who lead the competition going into the final heat. The NZ Championship will be in Nelson next year.
A huge number of historic cars raced on Saturday night, marked by the debut of the original Proctor High-rise 113m car of local driver Mark Dalton after several years restoration. Cars from several generations of drivers added to the meeting.
The modifieds made a long-awaited return with Auckland’s 2nz Brad Lane taking out the points from Huntley’s Barry Hunter and West Coast’s Iain Whyte/ They were racing as part of the Rees tour. It has been seven years since the class last raced at Nelson.
The Rees/Vazey farewell tour is fundraising for youth Cystic Fibrosis. Several Rees Tour signed metal wall mounts were auctioned off at the tracks with more than $1800 raised over the weekend.
It was a fantastic weekend of racing with the clubrooms packed for the prizegiving.
