Track: Wanganui
Date: 13 March 2010
Event: West Coast Superstock Champs

Reporting by Roger Morrison and pictures by Mike Pollard

Wanganui
West Coast Superstock Champs
13 March 2010
Reporting by Roger Morrison and pictures by Mike Pollard

Palmerston North's James Soane and Taylor Lampp helped themselves to two titles on Saturday night at Eastside Auto Recyclers Oceanview Speedway. Soane was dominant in taking the West Coast Superstock title while Lampp was equally impressive in taking the Adult Ministock Invasion first prize.

In autumn-like conditions a good sized crowd rolled up to take in the evening's entertainment with proceedings topped off with a Caravan Derby.

West Coast Superstocks

With Superstocks having a lower profile for most of this season it was a chance for the heavyweights to stretch their legs on the tight Oceanview oval. Eleven cars in total fronted. Wanganui had 23V Scott Duncan, 15V Antony Cooper, 99V Richard Watkins (returning after a long wait for a new engine) and 35V Mick Paul (now astride the ex-Karl Jurgens car). Defending champion 8P Scott Miers headed the Palmerston North challenge with 43P Daryl Hammond, 57P Dave Tarrant and 93P James Soane - all drivers who have supported Wanganui in the last few seasons. And from Stratford we had ex-Wanganui registered 45S Steve Guilford, 39S Michel Willemsen and 34S Pete Moseley.

Heat One
Miers day pretty much turned to custard in the opening stanza when in the 2nd lap Guilford punted him heavily in to the southern turn wall. And two laps later Watkins spun the Palmerston North tank to drop Miers well down the order. Up front Guilford was flying, showing the form that had to taken him to an impressive 4th at the NZ Grand Prix a week earlier. He was a comfortable winner from Soane with the unlucky Tarrant limping home after one of his wheels parted company just before the race finish. Tarrant's bad luck was even further compounded when Duncan slammed in to him after the chequered flag.

Heat Two
Miers again got a poor start when getting stuck amidships with Duncan on his front bumper. This gave the chance for Soane to sneak away in the lead early. In an uneventful heat Soane took the ex-Roydon Collingwood car to a comfortable win ahead of Tarrant and Willemsen.
So after two heats we had Soane leading on 21 points, Guilford two points away on 19 & Tarrant & Willemsen tied on 18.
Heat Three

Guilford jumped away to an early lead only for Watkins to squeeze his way past. Hammond went in to block mode with Cooper his first victim. Miers was infield after only a lap or two. Guilford finally edged his way past Watkins in lap six to draw him level with 3rd placed Soane on points. But the defining moment came when he tangled with Hammond midway between turns 3 & 4 leaving the front of the 45S car sitting up on the side of the 43P. With Guilford going nowhere, this left the way open for Soane to cruise to a comfortable victory taking the chequered flag as well to seal the win.