Tregoning, the current NZ under-21 champion, won the Andy Tree Memorial Trophy at his home circuit, near Invercargill, on Saturday. Andy Tree, of Invercargill, was one of New Zealand’s rising speedway stars and was about to embark on a professional career in England before his untimely death last year.   

After competing in the World Under-21 Qualifying Solo Championship, Tregoning returned home from Europe earlier this month to ride in honour of his friend.  “I would not have missed Andy’s memorial meeting for anything,” Tregoning said. “It’s nice to be home.”   

Tregoning was in dynamic form at the fixture, claiming a maximum 18 points from three rides. Christchurch rider Dale Finch was second on 14 points, followed by Invercargill riders Paul Hayes on 12 points and Alex Cunningham, another close mate of Tree’s, on 8 points.  Cunningham suffered mechanical failure and after qualifying jumped on a borrowed bike to race in the finals. 

The only incident of the night saw Josh O’Docherty, of Christchurch, have a spectacular spill.  After being released from hospital, he returned to the track sporting an extremely swollen broken nose. 

The sidecars again provided impressive entertainment with local man Fraser Gillespie and swinger David Uitentuis proving an untouchable combination. Two new pairings - the 16i team of Jason Harpur and Mark George and 58i team of Aiden Thwaites and Lyndon Mair – showed that new passengers wasn’t a disadvantage, finishing the meeting second-equal along with the normally invincible combination of Shaun Kerr and Robin Poole on 48i and the experienced team of Kevin McDonald and Karl Hosie on bike 23i. 

Full results can be viewed on www.oretiparkspeedway.com. The next meeting scheduled is a club day on 14th November 2009 with racing beginning at 5pm.