Track: Rotorua
Date: 19 January 2008
Event: World Invitation Superstock Champs (240's)
Pictures & reporting by Mike Pollard 

Rotorua - 19 January 2008
World Invitation Superstock Champs (240's)
Pictures & reporting by Mike Pollard 

The world 240 was again looking like a proper World Championship, with no fewer than 6 x Overseas drivers joining the Kiwi qualifiers from the previous evening.
Previous entrants; #33gb Peter Falding, #55r Frankie Wainman Jnr and #425uk Richard Baldwin were joined by Dutchman #h29 Dirk Greidanus, F1 World Champ #390 Stu Smith and new BSCDA Chairman #152uk Neil Scothern.

Repecharge
The Last Chance Qualifier was won by #337r Darcy Hunter who started from the front and pulled away from the rest of the field.

Ht1
#75a Dave Tennant and #515r Stan Hickey started on the front row, and pretty soon #515r Hickey was in the groove but under pressure from #94p Royden Collingwood, these two opening a gap over the rest headed by #55r Frankie Wainman Jnr who started from grid20 ahead of #390uk Stu Smith in 4th. By the time the chequered fell #515r Hickey and #390uk Smith had dropped a couple of spots, with the win going to #94p Collingwood.

1.#94p Royden Collingwood 2.#96h Scott Redfern 3.#55r Frankie Wainman Jnr 4.#58p Peter Bengston 5.#515r Stan Hickey 6.#14n Dale Ewers .....8.#390uk Stu Smith .....14.#152uk Neil Scothern ...18.#h29 Dirk Greidanus

Ht2
#591p Wayne Hemi was first to the front ahead of #5v Darryl Taylor, until #591p Hemi tried to put a lap on #425 Richard Baldwin, which resulted in a drop to 5th! 1 x lap later and #425uk was in the fence and requiring the reds, at which time #591p Hemi was back up 3rd behind leader #3nzp Shane Penn and #58p Peter Bengston. Another 3 x laps down, and the reds were out again, this time for #14n Dale Ewers who was stranded on the racing line, at which point #591p Hemi retired to the infield. On the green #3nzp Penn was on a charge, and missed taking the lap record by just 0.005 of a second.

1.#3nzp Shane Penn 2.#58p 3.#55r 4.#94p 5.#77p Wayne Norris 6.#16c Mark Osborne ... 11.#h29 13.#152uk

Ht3
Going into the last #94p Collingwood had a 1pt lead over both #55r Wainman and #58p Bengston with the Rotorua drivers once again nowhere to be seen, so much so that the commentators tried to claim #55r Wainman as one of their own because he had an "r" on the car! #390uk Smith had some sort of problem before the off, and required the 3 minute bell, whilst #94p Collingwood lined up on grid22, #55r Wainman on grid13 and #58p Bengston on grid9. #96h Scott Redfern led them away, ahead of #77p Wayne Norris and #3nzp Shane Penn who were battling for 2nd. #55r Wainman's chances evaporated early when blocked by #62r Neville Stanaway, but #h29 Dirk Greidanus was taking to the Kiwi style of racing by ramming hard into anything that came near. At the sharp end #96h Redfern and #3nzp Penn were vying for honours ahead of #58p Bengston and #77p Norris who were battling for 3rd until #77p Norris was slammed into the wall by #152uk Neil Scothern. #3nzp Penn took the win before #87r Pat Westbury tried hard and only marginally failed to stop #55r Wainman just short of the finish line. The 3rd place of #58p Bengston being enough to give him the World 240 title.

1.#3nzp 2.#96h 3.#58p 4.#62r Neville Stanaway 5.#24b Gary Foley 6.#77p 7.#390uk ... 9.#55r ... 13.#h29 ... 16.#152uk

Run-off
Amazingly #55r Wainman and #94p Collingwood tied for 3rd, as they did last year. However, this time honours were reversed with #94p Collingwood taking the win.

Overall
1.#58p 2.#96h 3.#94p 4.#55r 5.#77p 6.#515r ...=11.#h29 =11.#390uk ...14.#152uk

Overseas Drivers
#55r was electric as usual. #h29, #390uk and #152uk all equipped themselves well on their first visit to n.z. #425uk Baldwin was unlucky not to score, but it came as no surprise to see #33gb record his usual 2 x dnf's and 1 x dns.

Cars racing
52 Superstocks
34 Ministocks
22 Stockcars
14 Saloons
1 Modified