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Published 16-03-2015

South Island Stockcar Champs


96i Andrew Watson gets a helping hand from 222c Ricco Gray


 59c Brad Rosewarne heads off 5c Jay Holtham


84e Mark Taylor leads 59c Brad Rosewarne in heat two

Photos Debbie Race

Rosewarne Dominates South Island Stockcars

By Daryl Shuttleworth - Shuttleworth Motorsport Media

A massive crowd attended at The Rock FM Riverside Speedway on Saturday night to witness the first major Stockcar title to be run at the Southern track in the last decade.

With Cromwell Speedway giving up the rights to the event, Riverside's resurgence in the Stockcar grade saw them awarded the rights to run the Christchurch Roof Services South Island Stockcar Championship and the club grabbed the opportunity with both hands.
In recent years Riverside Speedways membership has grown considerably and this season has seen about six stockcars take to the track after a long absence, the club reports that next season there could be as many as twelve Stockcars on track representing Riverside.

The Southland weather gods played their part with the sun shining on the sixteen strong field of Stockcars mainly dominated by a strong Canterbury contingent, entering twelve cars in the event, one from Eastern States in Marlborough and three local Invercargill drivers.

In heat one and two the crowd may have almost thought the Stockcar grade was a non contact grade, with no major carnage on track and the drivers concentrating on bagging as many points as they could.

Heat one saw Canterbury's Brad Rosewarne dominate from start to finish as the track started to deteriorate to the point where racing was halted and track repairs undertaken to provide a fair, safe surface for racing on.

Rosewarne also bagged valuable points in heat two with a second placing,  finishing behind a very fast Mark Taylor of Marlborough who looked to be the man to beat for the championship going into the final.

Going into the final Rosewarne held a slender two point lead over Taylor with Kirk Page just one point further back.
Heat three is what was going to decide the championship, and as the flag dropped the Canterbury trio of Lance Holdem, Kieran Skurr and Gavin Marshall were going to make sure Taylor wasn't going to take the title North to Marlborough, pinning him to the wall in turn one of the fifteen lap final.
This bought out the red flag and Skurr and Marshall were ruled out for causing the stoppage, this put Rosewarne almost a lap up on his nearest championship rival Taylor.
As the race restarted so too did the carnage, local hopes were dashed when Andrew Watson has put up the wall to finish his championship with his car on two wheels rather than four, this caused another red flag and Watson eliminated.

On the third restart Canterbury's Shane Steer shot to the lead of the race, Invercargill's Steve Clements was hit hard and speared backwards at full speed into the pit gate, fortunately he got underway again and the race continued with Steer leading the way to the chequered flag, followed by Rosewarne and Ricco Gray.

With a second placing in the final Rosewarne claimed the South Island Championship in dominant fashion from fellow Christchurch drivers  Page, who was fast all meeting, in second and race three winner Steer third overall.

The drama didnt stop there, as the cars went to leave the track the pit gate wouldn't open due to the damage Clements impact had made on it, so it was only fitting that Rosewarne was given the honours of smashing the gate open much to the excitement of the large crowd.

In support races Dave Horton picked up wins in Production Saloons, Kerry Dixon in Saloons, Daryl Scott and Jayden Fraser in Modified Sprints and Ross McKinnel and Jason Scott in Sprintcars.

Riverside Speedway is back on track next weekend when they host the Southland Stockcar Champs and Streetstock best pairs.