By Daniel Neville

After an awesome qualifying night, the 2022 World 240 Superstock Invitation Championship finals took place at TWS Paradise Valley Speedway on Saturday night. At the end of 45 laps, and the last 15 were torrid, it was the lone Hawkes Bay qualifier of current 2nz Jason Long who rose to the top taking the major spoils to complete the grand slam of Superstock racing now having won the four major titles.

The first up though it was the repercharge to find the 26^th and final place in the championship field. Bryce Marx in 73a sat alongside 136v Maddie Wise on the front row for the crunch race. It was all on in first few laps with 58k Stefan Roigard getting to the front early. 89r Brodie James was trawling the pole line again and as per the previous night had a crack at 591p Wayne Hemi but missed and got 144g Tim Ross instead. Wise then had a lunge at Roigard but it was to no avail and the 58k survived to take the win and the last place in the finals field. It was just as well the race was over 12 laps and soon after the black and white flag dropped the right rear wheel collapsed with the 58k needing a tow back to the pits.

The gridding up and driver interviews are always special part of the event and this year was no exception. It was the familiar call of “Gentleman, start your engines” then 166a Hayden Hart and 22w Richard Gaskin led the pack around to the heat one start.

A fast and epic heat one was won by 10g Peter Rees followed by son 127g Ethan Rees with the ever present 3nz Mitch Vickery home third. All 26 were back for heat 2 and it was a full on drag race with 58p Peter Bengston getting to the front first and was hotly pursued by 2nz Jason Long. The pair stuck together with Long getting by Bengston for the win. 94p William Humphries picked up good points home in third as most others made the finish line undamaged. Heading into the third and final heat it was Long who became the points leader from Ethan Rees, Bengston, Humphries and Vickery. Heat 3 amazingly had 25 of the original 26 starters on the grid. The race was sure to be action packed and it didn’t disappoint. It started off with 991c Harley Robb attacking Vickery then 1nz Asher Rees was smashed by 19c Malcolm Ngatai. Vickery was taken out again shortly before 9c Arapere was rolled and bowled out of contention. Peter Rees got spun then hit the brakes and held up leader Humphries in 94p and 5g Josh Prentice took the race lead. The rivalry continued and it resulted with both Peter Rees and Humphries rolling big time with some help from Ethan Rees. A frantic finish saw 147k Matt Neilsen take the heat 3 win but it was the third place 2nz car of Long who became the new World 240’s champion. Bengston followed Neilsen home to clinch the runner up spot with Vickery coming home 7^th in the race after copping a lot of attention to complete the podium in third.

TWS World 240s Final Points

The tier 2 Classic Builders Superstocks In Paradise competition was full on too with the overall winner gaining automatic entry to next year’s finals. 10r Alan McRobbie launched over the front of 38m Ross Ashby and rolled over in heat one with 62p of Adam Joblin collecting the win. Heat 2 was all 48n Brett Nicholls until the last lap when 581p Jordan Dare slipped underneath to take the flag. Unfortunately the 581p was relegated 2 places for putting a wheel over the pole line which saw Dare in a tie for tie for the lead with 46b Quinn Ryan of the competition with a heat to go. Heat 3 started out like a repeat of the main event with Hemi targeted again with his meeting finishing perched on top of 85s Brad Uhlenberg. It was a battle to the end with 29g James Clarke the race winner but a second place for Ryan saw him take the top podium step and a place in the final for 2023.

Classic Builders Superstocks In Paradise Points

In the Totalspan tier 3 racing it was 106r Des Curry who took the race one win. Race 2 went the way of 172p Daniel Bermeister with 118r Bryce Steiner taking the third and final race.

Totalspan Tier 3 Points

The final 3 heats of the Sharky’s Engineering Aotearoa Ladies Stockcar Crown were also on the programme. Points leaders from night one were 189r Milla Theobald and 14b Jemma Holloway with the former off the front for heat 4. Lap one had 4w Lexi Hendrikse squeezed up and over. There was another rollover towards the end of the and it was 454k Jessie Henderson who picked up 57b Aria Berg and sent her over. Theobald stayed out of trouble to collect the win and became the outright points leader. Heat 5 for the ladies was rough with dealings all over the track. 28r Alex Jones took the win from Theobald and Holloway. Heat 6 was on with Posjursky and Barr on the brakes with all kinds spin ups and hits going on. Again it was Jones who took the win which elevated her to third overall. Holloway had a top finish also which gave her the title from Theobald who had a busy race getting attention from many as predicted.

Sharky’s Engineering Aotearoa Ladies Stockcar Crown Final Points

Another feature on finals night was the two Stockcar teams races between the hometown Rotorua Rascals and the visiting Palmerston Pumas, sponsored by Morrow Builders. Race one had the Pumas off pole. 79p Kyle Rowe got the lead but was soon blocked and the Rascals assumed control. Then the Pumas blockmen got stuck in and shielded 278p Kyle Taylor all the way to the race win. Race 2 saw a change of tactics with Rascals blockman 735r Keegan Orr taking up the running role and evening the score which gave the locals something to smile about.

The next meeting at TWS Paradise Valley Speedway is next Saturday the 29^thof January and will feature the MB Century BOP Streetstock championship along with the Stitch n Print BOP Production Saloon championship with support racing provided by Superstocks, Stockcars and Ministocks. Racing gets underway at 7pm.

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