Track: Wanganui
Date: 20 February 2010
Event: Screenprint Services New Zealand Stockcar Champs - Finals

Reporting by Roger Morrison and pictures by Mike Pollard

Wanganui
Screenprint Services New Zealand Stockcar Champs - Finals
20 February 2010
Reporting by Roger Morrison and pictures by Mike Pollard

Peter Rees re-wrote the record books on Saturday night at Eastside Auto Recyclers Oceanview Speedway when he became the first driver to win three NZ Stockcar titles. Through guile more then muscle he negotiated the last heat in surprisingly easy fashion to claim a comfortable victory over two drivers in borrowed cars - Scott McIntosh in the Josh Kahui tank and Chris Flett in the Mark Coxhead car.

NZ Stockcar Champs - Heat One

There was drama before the green flag gave a hint of being dropped. 5P Brett Hyslop barely made the start line, having had to rebuild the front end of the car overnight. And then 58V Paul Ellis ran foul of the red caps when changing to an illegal tyre under a 3-minute bell while the cars were on the grid. Ellis was subsequently excluded for the remainder of the meeting, dropping the field back to 29 cars. While I am aware that rules are rules, it was a cruel blow for a budget battler who was about to compete in the race of a lifetime.

With 1NZ Richard Gaskin on pole, the field jumped well and amazingly made it through turn one & turn two in one piece. 81H Rod Smythe and 247W Jason Severn got caught in a meelee in lap two that subsequently put both cars out. Then in lap three 10P Josh Prentice was spotted crawling past the start/finish line hard up against the wall with a damaged front end. Two laps later and 557P Darrel Wallace came upon Prentice and powered in to him at full noise accidentally in a massive hit that shook the arena. Prentice was hailed infield with Wallace a half a lap later - looking very sore. By lap 6 Gaskin still had the lead from clubmates 24W Scott McIntosh and 2NZ Dale Robertson. In lap 8 107C Colin Cameron's title hopes disappeared when he shed a wheel. At the same time 39R Douglas Stanaway picked up a flat to drop him down the field. The order up front stayed that way until the finish. Big movers in the race were Hyslop up 25 places from grid 30,116H Steve Halse up 15 places, 3NZP Peter Rees up 12 places and 77E Tim Alexander up 9 places.

NZ Stockcar Champs - Heat Two

27 cars made it out for the 2nd heat with Wallace and Smythe out. A hectic first lap saw Cameron and Robertson drop a number of places while 686S Chris Flett made a flyer from grid 2 to be leading after lap one. 27P Ken Meehan was infield after lap 3 while 78B Andrew Powell joined him in lap 7 with his back left hand wheel adrift. Mid-race and Flett still had the advantage over Rees, 15P Rob Miers and 7W Shane Davis. Prentice and Severn were dragged infield about this time and a few laps later we knew we were going to have a new1NZ when Gaskin parked up on the grass. 34P Rob Mason and 116H Steve Halse came together on lap 11 that distinguished the Huntly driver's chance, having looked quick all weekend. Rees eventually managed to nudge Flett aside and strode to an ominous win from Flett and Miers. McIntosh had climbed from grid 19 to finish 4th while Alexander had astonishingly come from grid 28 to finish 6th.

After two heats McIntosh topped the points chart with 56, Rees was next on 53, Alexander 52, Robertson 51, Flett 50, 91W Kyle Lane 48 and three drivers on 45 still would have visions of grandeur - 18V Tony James, 81R Damian Orr, 5P Brett Hyslop.

NZ Stockcar Champs - Heat Three

With McIntosh, Rees, Robertson and Flett all off the back 1/3 of the grid it was Lane in grid 4 and Alexander in grid 6 who looked the big dangers. Joining Smythe and Wallace as non-starters were Severn, Prentice and Meehan.

Through turn one and Alexander found himself shuffled back down through the field to severely dent his chances. Miers was paying McIntosh a lot of attention and by the end of the first lap, Rees was up to 7th (from grid 21) - things looked gloomy for the non-P cars. By lap 4 Rees was up to 4th behind Hyslop and Stanaway. McIntosh was coming under attack from 581P Jordan Dare and Miers was blocking well for his leader. A red light on lap 5 to remove the stricken James saw Rees with an on-track tally of 81 points, 6 clear of Hyslop, McIntosh and Robertson - who was going to stop the tank?? With Miers running shotgun for Rees the threat of Alexander loomed in lap 9 but in turn one 78B Andrew Powell hooked in behind the Blenheim man to crunch him heavily into the wall - game over for the brave 77E. A short time later and Dare took McIntosh heavily to the wall in turn 4, wiping out 31V Daniel Matthews at the same time. The last 5 laps saw only 7W Shane Davis hint at taking a lick at Rees, but the great man was not threatened in any way and he strolled to the line in 3rd place behind Stanaway and Hyslop without a scratch on the paintwork - the Palmerston North plan had worked a treat. As the points rolled over on the screen it was a comfortable 5 point margin back to the tied McIntosh and Flett.
3rd & 4th placed run-off

McIntosh was relatively untroubled in taking the win, jumping quickly away from pole. Flett slowed to hamper him in the last lap but McIntosh muscled his way past relatively easily to claim the 2NZ tag - now all he has to do is find a car to put it on!!

And so reality struck for the bumper crowd when they realised that they had witnessed a master in action and a piece of history in the making - Rees was that superb.