Words: Daryl Shuttleworth
The 2025 edition of The Brian FM South Island Saloon Series kicked off at Custom Signs Beachlands Speedway on Friday November 14th, and attracted a strong field of 24, including six from the North Island, doing battle with the best of the South Island.
This series has grown over the years, from its early inception where it was an event for South Island cars, its now proving that this is the premier Saloon Series, with the best drivers entered.
Rain was forecast for Dunedin, but when racing was scheduled to start it was blue skies.
Ryan Marsden of Christchurch got off to the perfect start in Heat 1, taking a race win after an epic battle with Cromwell’s Mike Verdoner, who had to settle for second, with Beachlands’ local Aaron Andrews third.
Verdoner had an early tangle with Huntly’s Dan Weston in Heat 2, the pair interlocking bumpers and Verdoner towing Weston for half a lap before the race went yellow.
Verdoner took his spot back in the field, but Weston retired to the infield.
South Island Champion Rodney McIndoe dominated this race, taking the win. Cromwell’s Phil Burgess was second, with Jeff Stanton of Blenheim third.
Unfortunately, the results meant nothing, as the heaven’s opened up and the meeting was abandoned with no points given.
This saw the drivers next head to Central Otago and Powderworx Central Motor Speedway, where a cool overcast day was on the cards, but no threat of rain.
Christchurch’s Campbell McManaway took an early lead in Heat 1. Verdoner, however, spun on Lap 4, bringing out a yellow flag. Cromwell’s Pierre Leyser was deemed to be the cause of the spin and was forced to restart from the rear of the pack, while Verdoner slotted back in behind McManaway.
At the restart, McManaway battled hard with Verdoner but soon relinquished the race lead and had to settle back into second.
Verdoner powered off and eventually took the win by almost five seconds. McManaway was second, with Stanton running a solid race in third.
The next heat was pure class with a number of very fast cars showing off their skillsets on the technical Cromwell track.
Burgess had the advantage of clear air, starting up from he took off from the outset and would take the race win with relative ease.
The talking point was the battle behind, which saw McIndoe and Marsden fight their way through the pack to both be less than a second behind the leader at the conclusion of the race.
McIndoe took second with Marsden third and the fastest man on track.
There was an upset of sorts in the third and final heat, Dunedin’s Blayr Findlay upstaging some more favored competition by snaring a race win driving the car that Chris Cowling drove to win the New Zealand Saloon Championship last year.
While Findlay is admittedly not in the same league as Cowling, he certainly proved in this race that he is not very far away at all, fighting off a very fast Verdoner for the spoils, a strong suggestion of things to come.
As mentioned, Verdoner was second, with Grahame Strong of the Hawkes Bay third.
With the points added up from the heats, it was time for the B Main, where the top six cars filled the last three rows on the grid for the feature.
This race started as a bit of a torrid affair with an early incident involving Leyser, his clubmates Barry Taylor and David Speirs, and Dunedin’s Leo Bennett, who all came together in Turn 3 early, and all ended up parked up and out of the race.
The B Main was won by Ryan Bennett of Dunedin, with Auckland’s Scott Rumball second and Weston third.
Next was ‘The Dash’ for the main qualifiers, a simple format of four cars going four laps, the winner going onto the next round of four, with your finishing position determining where you would start the feature from the back forward.
The first dash saw Dunedin’s Calvin Todd narrowly beat home his clubmate Travis Smith to advance into Dash 2.
Todd improved his grid position another couple of spots but the Dash Two winner would be McIndoe.
McIndoe almost ended up in the main dash after a battle with Andrews; however, the latter snared the final spot by winning Dash 3.
Fourth on the grid would be where Andrews finished up, despite challenging McManaway, who placed third, Marsden in second and Verdoner, who won the dash to secure pole.
Now for the 20-lap feature final, where Marsden and Verdoner went toe-to-toe down into the tight Turn 1 corner at Central Motor Speedway. Marsden would prevail as the leader, but Verdoner would attack hard.
An early yellow flag came out for Todd, who spun up and stopped in Turn 2.
At the restart, Verdoner pushed a little too hard, spinning up in Turn 2, leaving Burgess with nowhere to go but into him. Burgess sustained considerable damage, while Andrews also punctured his right rear tyre, meaning three of the big names were all out early.
The race restarted, and from the outset the faster cars of Marsden, McIndoe and McManaway snuck away from the pack, but behind them Findlay, Smith and Cromwell’s Glen Johnston were charging hard and making ground.
Marsden and McIndoe would break away from McManaway to battle hard for the lead of the race, while both Findlay and Smith started to challenge for third.
Marsden was all class, the former New Zealand Champion driving his Lovelady Mustang like it was on rails to take out the feature and shoot to the top of the standings after two rounds of racing.
McIndoe gave it everything but needed to settle for second, while Findlay would continue his good form with a well-driven third placing.
A recap of race winners at Beachlands Speedway on Friday were Steven Thompson in Stockcars, Allan Finch in Streetstocks and Kaian Greene in Youth Saloons.
At Central Motor Speedway, the Otago Outlaws Stockcar team, made up of Zane and Nicho Tuhura, Thompson, and Bailey Mitchell, upstaged the more favoured Central Coyotes to win the Fastlane Spares Trophy.
Other Stockcar races resulted in wins for Zane Tuhura, Casey McEwan of Cromwell and Trazarn Ryland Annabell of Cromwell also.
Sprintcar heat races went the way of Cromwell’s Josh Buchanan in Heat 1 and Riverside’s Adam Evans in Heat 2. Evans’ clubmate Jacob McIntyre won the race on track but was deemed to have passed under the pole, dropping him two spots.
The Sprintcar feature went the way of Cromwell’s Zach Sokol, ahead of McIntyre in second and Buchanan third.
Youth Ministocks were dominated by Cromwell’s Lucee Scott who took all three race wins on offer.
In Production Saloons, Riverside’s Brad Fitzgerald took out the first two races, but he would have to settle for second in Race 3, with Vaughan Fairburn the winner.