Kiwi Auto Spares
South Island Super Saloon Series / Kamikaze Derby
Saturday 8th March 2008

Race fans would have been missing their weekly "fix" with a couple of rainouts here in recent weeks but tonight finally saw the running of the much awaited South Island Super Saloon Series.
The first "Teams Race" for these guys took what seemed forever to get underway. The 32c Corvette of Martin Harcourt hit the turn3 wall rather hard forcing the first re-run. I was surprised to see Harcourt then return to his pole grid with considerable steering damage to yet again spoil the proceedings. It wasn't until the 3rd restart and he was overtaken by the entire field that Harcourt decided to pull infield but by then several cars wore battle scars which I consider were all totally avoidable. The officials should have know better than to let a car with such huge "toe out" issues even take to the track.***
25d Mike Verdona remained in control and soon took a good lead over 21n Ian Burson. Bursons "bright as" Camaro suffered from a severe mid corner push which allowed local "hot shoe" 58c Richie Taylor thru to take over second place. 12n Shane Carey & 46e Paddy North rounded out the top 5.
The Super Saloon Feature produced a geat tussle between Taylor & North. Taylor took up the front running from the start but mid race North reeled in the Corvette and then set about attempting an outside pass. After several attempts and often getting the nose of the big Monaro in front North just couldn't quite take the position from Taylor. Several laps of this close side by side racing from the two of them and the entire 20 lap race run without caution was a great spectacle.
Fresh from their north island tour the Superstocks returned and it showed that some had learnt plenty from their north island counterparts. 89c Jason Smith displayed a huge increase in car speed and was matching the rapid 16c Mark Osborne machine for speed lap after lap. However the prowess of Osborne won him the race. Osborne continued this winning form into the third race with a great duel against 19c Malcolm Ngatai. The two of them clashed side rails several times while exchanging the lead but Ngatai had to settle for second this time round. This sets the stage for what we all hope will be another awesome "Battle of the Stocks" at the next meeting.
4c Mike Gourley & 84c Natasha Rodgers dominated the Modified racing throughout the evening with confident drives.
The Production Saloons ended up looking more like Streetstocks and some even drove like them which I'm sure is great action for the fans but not for the car repairers.
Over 20 streetstocks at the Glen always assures there will be action and tonight was no exception. It appeared from the outset there were many attacks and paybacks being dished out which was most apreciated by the substantial crowd on hand. Their appetite for "Crashing Carnage" was also lapped up in yet another Derby at the end of the night ... this time it was the turn of the Japanese cars in the Kamikaze Derby. This is one great way to get rid of some of those aging jap imports from our backyards.

*** Remember this is Anne Opinion
The views expressed by this contributor are not necessarily those of Woodford Glen Speedway Assn, it's Management or Advertisers.
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