Jayden Musgrove led a Wellington domination of the River City Youth Ministock Champs on Sunday afternoon. With 4 of the top 5 placings filled by the Te Marua drivers it was a case of lean pickings for the rest of the field in the final meeting of the season at Oceanview Speedway.

River City Youth Ministock Champs

The 40 drivers entered were split in to two groups and run over two heats. The top 13 points scorers from each heat were then combined in to run over two 20-lap finals with the top points scorers claiming the title. The track representation before the groups started to sort themselves out saw the net thrown far and wide - Wanganui - 12, Wellington - 9, Palmerston North - 9, Stratford - 7, Hawkes Bay - 2 & Peter Hunnibell from Auckland.

Group One
The two heats were run without too many incidents although 77P Kyle Lampp may disagree as he managed to plonk himself on his roof in front of the start/finish line in the 2nd heat. The damage was minimal as he made his way out for the non-qualifiers race later in the afternoon. Overall the top two 7A Peter Hunnibell (in his last meeting as a Youth driver) and 59W Jayden Musgrove looked to be the smartest on show. Final qualifiers: - 7A Peter Hunnibell, 59W Jayden Musgrove, 13W Todd Jenkins, 76P Caleb Moleta, 75P Zane Berryman, 55W Todd McLachlan, 78V Mark Johnston, 14W Stephen Taylor, 55B Nic Gibbons, 26P Nic Davey, 64V Annaliese Best, 82V Dennis Black, 45V Daniel Guilford.

Group Two
As in the case of Group One, there were no major dramas although 44B Kenley Brown and 92V Aimee Barnes fell foul of the officials in the 2nd heat when relegated to the rear of the grid after jumping the start. Brown was still able to qualify although Barnes was not so fortunate when ruining her chances with a spin when comfortably inside the top 13. 15V Kyle Heibner headed the group in his final start in the grade. Heibner graduates to Superstocks next year. And Stratford's Taylor Patene impressed - particularly when he had been sighted at Wanganui previously. Final qualifiers: - 15V Kyle Heibner, 45S Taylor Patene, 9W Sam Cook, 39V Tyler Gibbons, 4W Blake Ellett, 99P James Mallia, 93P Jordan McGill, 41B Trent Palamountain, 54P Solomon Scott, 88W Josh Bathgate, 33S Tyler Walker, 44B Kenley Brown, 77V Brody Fairweather.

Finals - Heat One
The 20-lap format will have had the 26 drivers on the grid licking their lips at getting such a decent crack to show their wares. With Musgrove & Hunnibell off the front row there were no prizes for guessing what was going to transpire. Musgrove was the quickest away and consistently turned in the fastest laps to waltz away with a 4 second win over Hunnibell and Heibner. 14W Stephen Taylor made up good ground as did 4W Blake Ellett.

Finals - Heat Two
With the light fading the rivals lined up for the final fling of the season. 55B Nic Gibbons and 64V Annaliese Best unfortunately paid the price for jumping the start to be relegated to the back of the grid for the re-start behind Hunnibell and Musgrove. This opened the front row for Ellett to get clear air. 82V Dennis Black also created further drama when the car failed to fire on the grid and he had to be carted off. In to the first corner and all hell broke loose. When the red lights were thrown 39V Tyler Gibbons was left stranded up the wall in the southern bend in an incident that removed 77V Brody Fairweather and 54P Solomon Scott. Crucially Heibner, Hunnibell and 78V Mark Johnston all got caught up in the meelee and lost vital track positions. On the re-start and Ellett had cleared out while Musgrove was picking his way through the field. By mid-race 45S Taylor Patene was infield and Musgrove was in an unbeatable position. On lap 15, the race came to a halt to remove 76P Caleb Moleta who had earned the ire of the officials with his over-aggressive driving style. But while Ellett wasn't going to be caught, Musgrove had ploughed his way up to 3rd and comfortably on top of the points charts.

Ellett's win propelled him to 2nd while Hunnibell recovered to claim 3rd= with Taylor.

Superstocks

With 7 Superstocks in the pits, it gave the Club the option of running a couple of races on their own before a finale with the Stockcars. The theme seemed to be a few driver changes with Antony Cooper sitting in the seat of the 15V Morris Doyle care, Stuart Smith driving the 45S Steve Guilford car and Kevin Large in the 9P Brett Hyslop tank. Also on the grid were locals 23V Scott Duncan and 35V Mick Paul. 82S John Booker made his first appearance of the season at Wanganui. And 82R Dave Anderson was a surprise arrival in his McMurdo Toyota powered beast. Anderson has a background at Wanganui having previously been a mechanic for Kerry O'Connor & learning the trade under his guidance.

Race One: 1. 82S John Booker. 2. 45S Stuart Smith. 3. 15V Antony Cooper. 4. 23V Scott Duncan. 5. 82R Dave Anderson. 6. 9P Kevin Large.

Race Two: 1. 45S. 2. 82S. 3. 15V. 4. 9P. 5. 23V. 6. 35V Mick Paul.

The final race was combined with the Stockcars with all sorts of mayhem being created by a 3-wheeled 6V Dion Mooney and perennial stirrer 99P Ron Tye.
Result: 1. 15V. 2. 82S. 3. 82R. 4. 9P. 5. 35V. 6. 89V Blair Lockett.