Images: Graham Hughes (Sportsweb Photography)
UPDATE: Since publishing, Wellington Family Speedway has announced wet weather has seen the NZ Superstock Championship pushed back to Saturday for qualifying and Sunday for finals.
The New Zealand Superstock Championship is set to explode into action at Wellington Family Speedway across Friday 16 and Saturday 17 January, providing the weather plays its part.
One of the most glamorous individual speedway championships of the season has had a wretched run of weather interruptions in recent years, and the club will be praying to the weather gods that this year’s running of the event avoids similar eventuations.
Last season’s title in Nelson saw the finals night interrupted after the first of the three scheduled heats, with the top 26, less Randal Tarrant, who had a ferry crossing to catch, returning on the following afternoon to complete the championship.
Meeanee’s hosting of the championship in the 2023-24 season saw both original scheduled racing nights washed out. The entirety of the event with both qualifying and finals was held on a bumper day of racing on the reserve day.
The 2022-23 championship in Huntly was originally scheduled in January, with rain resulting in a total postponement until March, following the Covid-interrupted 2021-22 season.
And who can forget when Rotorua held the 2020-21 title. Four attempts at qualifying night before the weather finally allowed for the event to commence!
Reigning New Zealand Superstock champion Todd Hemingway has been in supremely fine form this season and heads the Humphries Steel & Performance group.
The Mount Maunganui contracted driver placed second at the North Island Superstock Championship in Kihikihi and was well placed to challenge for the Superstock Grand Prix last weekend in Stratford until the attention of local blockers.
The group also includes 2017-18 New Zealand Championship winner William Humphries, fresh off his second placing at the Superstock Grand Prix. Humphries had been provisionally awarded first place before late drama saw him lose a point in the official results, before falling to Hamish Booker in an incredibly good runoff.
Former New Zealand Superstock Championship podium placegetters Scott Joblin and Ethan Rees are sure to feature at the top end of the field.
Keep an eye on Brett Nicholls, who won this season’s South Island Superstock Championship in December, and was seventh overall at the last running of the New Zealand Superstock Championship in Wellington in the 2014-15 season.
Ethan Levien headlines the Ace Performance group. Having lost a runoff to determine 1NZ and 2NZ to Todd Hemingway at last season’s event, Levien will be looking to go one better on his home track.
He faces stiff competition in the group from two former 2NZs in Josh Prentice and Blair Uhlenberg. Former Stockcar 1NZ and 2018-19 South Island Superstock champion Jayden Ward showed his pace at the Superstock Grand Prix last weekend and will fancy his chances of making it to the finals field.
2015-16 New Zealand Superstock champion and current 3NZ, Shane Harwood, is the standout in the Pro Tyres & Automotive group. Harwood is a three-time South Island Superstock champion and finished in the top ten at the last running of the New Zealand Superstock Championship in Wellington.
Perennial fourth place finisher Keegan Levien enters the event as a strong contender, with the Wellingtonian just missing the podium last season in Nelson. Levien equaled his previous best finish from the 2018-19 season and will be looking to break his unwanted record.
Kyle Rowe will also be worth watching, with the former New Zealand Stockcar champion having shown a liking to the Wellington track when he placed third at the New Zealand Stockcar Championship last season.
Veteran Kerry Remnant should not be ruled out, and with seven finals appearances since first qualifying in the 1998-99 season, he events the championship on a hot streak, having finished fourth overall at last weekend’s Superstock Grand Prix.
A pair of former 1NZs in Peter Rees and Malcolm Ngatai feature in the Rees Race Cars group. Rees has an incredible eighteen finals appearance at the New Zealand Superstock Championship and was the winner in Wellington when the club last held the event in the 2014-15 season. He also placed third at the 2008-09 New Zealand Stockcar Championship in Wellington.
2008-09 New Zealand Superstock champion Ngatai has been on pace this season and, despite not having qualified for the finals of the event since the 2016-17 season, is likely to still threaten the frontrunners.
Fellow South Islander Alex Hill, a regular attendee at major North Island titles, could slip under the radar, and he was third at this season’s South Island Superstock Championship.
This season’s North Island Superstock champion, Scott Tennant, contracted to Woodford Glen, will be looking to emulate father Dave’s achievement when he won the New Zealand Superstock title in Gisborne in 1988-89. Both Dave and Scott also have form in Wellington. Dave finished seventh at the 1995-96 running of the event, and Scott’s first qualification to a New Zealand Superstock Championship finals field occurred when Wellington last hosted the event.
Finally, the only driver to win the New Zealand Superstock Championship three times consecutively, Asher Rees, has been drawn in arguably the ‘group of death’, Dewtec Hydraulics & Engineering group.
Rees is currently level with Kevin Free and Craig Boote for the most victories in the event’s history, and despite a new car taking some time to dial in last weekend at the Superstock Grand Prix, it would be a brave call to suggest that Rees will not have some influence in determining the outcome of the championship.
Two-time former 1NZ Simon Joblin also features in the group. Joblin has qualified for the finals on eighteen occasions, level for the most in the event’s history with Peter Rees, but the last time he qualified was in the 2020-21 season in Rotorua.
Local favourite Dale Robertson will be enthusiastically supported throughout the weekend as he looks to achieve his first podium finish at the event. Robertson placed second at the New Zealand Stockcar Championship on his home track in 2008-09 and is a former Stockcar 1NZ.
The group also includes last weekend’s Superstock Grand Prix winner Hamish Booker, former North Island Superstock champion Elias Dykstra, former South Island Superstock champion Harley Robb, former Superstock Grand Prix winner Tim Ross, and former Superstock 3NZ Zane Dykstra.
Given the immense quality of the drivers, merely making the top five of each group to qualify for the finals presents a huge task ahead for the field of more than 100 drivers. A “last chance” repechage at the start of the finals night will give the winning driver the final ticket to the finals field.
In the meantime, we cross our fingers for fine weather, and another chapter in the epic history of the New Zealand Superstock Championship.