Last Saturday nights running of the Ashley Scott memorial lived up to all expectations and some

15 cars fronted for this event with major talking points before the meeting had even started being

-Brett Lloyd not in attendance

- Jamie Harding driving injured cousin Jason’s car. 86g

-Nick Vallance making first appearance at home track in the absent Shane Walkers 21g car complete with Mike Schwass sign writing. (Feel the love). Vallance had interestingly also decided not to run a transponder as was just out there to turn some laps effectively counting him out of any chance of winning.

Race one

Sam Hughes 18g was of on a flyer and looked like he had the race in the bag till he pulled to the in field with accelerator troubles. Handing the lead to 84m Ryan Smyth and

Hawkes Bay speedster 78b Andrew Powell with 27g Toby Pickering also in the mix Hughes 18g then returned to the track and went into full attack mode dispatching 7g Ian McGrory hard into the pit turn wall ending his night. 84m lead home 78b and 27g. with 88g Ian Barron and 75g Nic Hutton rounding out the top five. 81g Jason Jones chances of a second victory in this event were deflated along with a tyre.  Controversy followed in the pits with the 18g car becoming the attention of the SNZ officials and receiving a random restrictor plate check which was found to be compliant.

Race Two

Such was the brutal nature of this race  that only 6 cars finished this race. Jones made life difficult for Powell holding him against the wall near the end of the race 84m made it two from two with 88g home in second and 8g Bruce Harding home in third. The major talking points of this race were 18g putting 75g very heavily backwards into the pit turn wall.  It was no surprise to see Nick puts his thumbs down but thankfully he was ok, 15g Mike Schwass was caught up in this and damaged stirring as he went for the infield he was collected hard by 88g in full flight and the damage ended Schwass night.

Allan Stairs 51g then made a huge statement with a fully committed shot on Hughes sending both cars into the pit gate heavily Hughes drove away but Stairs sustained a lot of front end damage which ended his evening. There will be plenty that will now be thinking twice before driving around the 51g car. Such was the force of this hit the pit gate also required repair.

 One of the pre meeting favorites 27g had engine dramas in this race and that put him out for the night. 10g Kent Harper and 66g David Bacon rounded out the top five.

Race Three- There were many in the crowd that would have thought 84m was going to walk away with this after the first two races but it was clear from the flag fall that

Jones and Bacon had other ideas with them attacking the Mount registered car all race long. Hughes and Hutton continued the race two battle with the reds being put on to remove both cars after a coming together. 88g Ian Barron tok the win from 10g Kent Harper who was flying in this race, and the consistent 8g Bruce Harding

78b Andrew Powell home in fourth and 86g Jamie Harding home in 5th and obviously getting quicker in car as night progressed.

21g Nick Vallance must have been kicking himself as the Rover was flying and one feels he could well have been on the podium if he had a transponder- There is certainley life in the old dog yet and Vallance was notably impressed..

So when the dust settled

Ian Barron added the Ashley Scott to the stirrer’s prize at the classic- a great season so far.

Ryan Smyth drove a gutsy last race to take second and cap of a very good night.

Bruce Harding took third after three consistent drives and keeping out of the carnage. Of interest Bruce spoke at the prize giving that he had once had a work trial with Ashley at his panel beating business but decided that that line of work was not for him. He also spoke of his passion to win this event

Sam Hughes made it no contest for the stirrer’s sash, with judge Nigel Moiser saying it was an easy call to make.

A fantastic evening of stockcar racing and every driver present deserves credit for making it so a fitting tribute to Ashley

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 6:53 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.