Updates from Palmerston North (Read 1,335 times)

[scw]

TIME-TRIALS
1. 7u Sammy Swindell 13.086
2. 1nz Dean Brindle 13.323
3. 3nz Greg Pickerill 13.452
4. 10u Ricky Logan 13.484
5. 0u Jonathan Allard 13.607
6. 11p Ian Easton 13.690
7. 8a Ryan OConner 13.730
8. 6p Nelson Hartley 13.745
9. 66m Skinny Colson 13.753
10. 21p Peter Huijs 13.796
11. 15p Rob Garratt 14.032
12. 28p Chris Uhlenberg 14.152
13. 24w Martin Halcrow 14.182
14. 4p Bryan Menefy 14.365
15. 9p Wade Savage 14.512
16. 5p Nick Pedley 14.655
17. 13p Keith Bermiester 14.994
18. 39p Brendan Lucas 15.375



Allard slammed the wall coming off turn four on last lap

[BarryB]

Have heard Logan from 4th up to 2nd in the pole shuffle, but Swindell onto his games and came out on top

[percy]

Swindell wins from Logan, albeit some controversy about the pass to win due to using the grass says my reporter.

[BarryB]

You must have the same reporter as me Percy ;D

Will take a brave SNZ official to remove the Swindell name from that victory

[hermo]

Well Logan could have blocked for the Panthers tonight, he was never going to win it, his car went off in the last 15 laps or so. He was only able to keep Swindell out by balking him.
Cool race though, Swindell past him on the outside and then got held up by a lapped car, Logan ducked under him again and he took a few laps to get him back. Some nice passes by Hartley to get from 8th to 5th, only one yellow, during the night 4 or 5 cars slapped the wall but all got away with it.

[Stevo]

I think you are being a bit harsh on Logan there Hermo. A couple of nice slide jobs off the turns to keep in front plus some lapped traffic played a part in it, I don't think Logan was baulking him, he held his lines and Swindell just had to work a little to get round him. It's always a bit hard to carry out a pass with such little room to play with. I thought it was great racing by all parties.

[Deleted]

This meeting was great entertainment.

Sammy Swindell, although listening to his post race interview was clearly unaccustomed to such a flat narrow surface, was awesome and showed that even at 54 he is still world class.

Ricky Logan usually does well at his favourite NZ track. I thought he rose to the occasion last night, especially considering he hasn’t been racing much recently due to a knee injury.

Jonathan Allard was the star of the show at Te Maura last year so hopefully the weather doesn’t screw up our chances of seeing that kind of action from him again tomorrow.

Thanks to whoever organised and helped pay the bills to fly the US pilots over here.

Adding the stockcar series was a clever move too which cranked up the overall entertainment value, plus considerably boosted crowd numbers compared to last year.

[trucker400]

Great show from the Americans and Swindell really showing his class,top six shootout with Logan psyching the rest out forcing them to the outside,great to watch but it didnt worry Swindell he definitely showed why he has won so many races and Champs. Personally I dont like the A B C Main format you dont see enough of the Stars before the last race but the show was still worth the trip down from Inglewood and a big THANK YOU to RON and the rest of the SALTER crew for making it happen!!!!

[Stevo]

Agree with you there, trucker. The format doesn't give you much of a look at the stars cos, barring mishap, they are pretty much garaunteed to go straight through to the feature, so Sammy and co do a total of 36 racing laps for the whole night and the only passing they have to do is back markers. At least with a 3 heat format with front, middle and rear grids you get to see some passing for position (a 2 heat qualifier and big feature will give similar racing). I often wonder what the big guns think of the format where they spend most of the night in the pits instead of out on the race track.
Still, no matter what format they use, I still love it when the stars are in town.

[trucker400]

Yeah one race from Swindell and Co the way they were performing still worth the trip and the money but 2 or three heats for positions in the final 30 lapper like the Superdirt Cup for Mods would be a much greater spectacle and Murray Gordge proved you can win that from the back,probably still rates as the best Dirt Track race I have ever seen in any class.

[pnspeed]

Jan 2, 2010 20:35:16 GMT 12 trucker400 said:

Great show from the Americans and Swindell really showing his class,..........you dont see enough of the Stars before the last race but the show was still worth the trip down from Inglewood and a big THANK YOU to RON and the rest of the SALTER crew for making it happen!!!!

Change of Format at Te Marua.

From the Time Trials the competitors will be split into two heats, odds and evens, with the four fastest cars in each heat inverted.

The 3 top place getters from each of these two heats progress to the Dash Shootout to determine their grids for the A Main / Feature.

The rest will then race the B Main to determine the grids from Grid 7 onward in the A Main / Feature.

Hope you can follow the above but it will give an extra race, for the top 6 drivers, after the Time Trials. Hopefully another opportunity for the Americans to show us their awesome skills!