Meeanee’s Caleb Ireland prevailed in an epic New Zealand Stockcar Championship final at Woodford Glen Speedway in Christchurch, successfully retaining his 1NZ Stockcar title for another year.
Faced with a talented finals field including twelve local Woodford Glen contracted drivers, Ireland had just one clubmate in Zayne Pullen to shepherd him during his pursuit for victory. Admittedly, that was one more than last season when he was the sole Hawkes Bay driver in the finals field, but the odds were once again stacked against him.
He became just the second driver to win the New Zealand Stockcar Championship more than once – Peter Rees, with five victories, is the only other driver with multiple titles.
Ireland also became the second driver, after Rees, to win consecutive New Zealand Stockcar Championship titles. Incidentally, Rees also achieved the feat at Woodford Glen, having won in Rotorua and Christchurch during the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons, respectively.
From his poorest grid in the first finals race, Ireland made huge progress, advancing from grid 25 to third place. He then finished in a solid fourth place, from grid 10, in the second race, and a further fourth place finish, from grid 11 in the third race, saw him score 82 points.
Ireland ended up finishing just one point clear overall of the TAB favourite, Harley Robb, who won the first race from grid 18 and at that point looked most likely to raise the championship in front of his home crowd at the end of the night.
However, Robb saw the attention of Gisborne’s Brad McGee in the second heat, and it was a costly intervention. It pushed Robb back towards the middle of the pack, and he could only muster an eighth place finish when the chequered flag fell.
Continuing as a marked man in the final race, Robb was calculated in his approach and had an opportunity on the final lap to attack Ireland. Rather, he chose the safer option of passing the 1NZ, picking up a spot and finishing in third place in the race.
One further place gained for Robb, or place lost for Ireland, and a runoff would have been required to decide the title.
Nelsonites rejoiced when Riley Eathorne was confirmed in third place. Having only made the top thirty from a win in the first of two repechage races, Eathorne was the sole Nelson driver in the finals field.
Eathorne took full advantage of his grid two start in the first race, maintaining his position when the chequered flag fell.
Seventh and sixth place finishes in the remaining two races saw Eathorne score 78 points and finish four points clear of subtotal leader Daniel Pye.
Wellingtonian Pye was in top form with a fourth place finish in the first race and a victory in the second race. But he was the target of the South Island block cars in the third race, and he quickly fell deep down the race order. Fourteenth place in the final heat resulted in a 74 point haul overall.
Woodford Glen’s Wade Sweeting, who won the final race, was also subject to the attention of McGee in the second heat, and it proved costly for his championship chances. He finished with 69 points and in fifth overall.
Tyler Walker, newly contracted to Palmerston North, was also in contention leading into the third heat, but was slammed into the wall hard on the opening lap of the and quickly retired.
After a first heat that saw over one-third of the field retire, from a combination of flat tyres to unintended damage from racing incidents, the second and third heats resulted in a North Island versus South Island battle.
Daniel Burmeister was particular severe on any car with a “C” on its side. He took a liking to Braydon Lennon, eliminating the Cantabrian from the second heat and out of contention, and then he did the same in race three.
The likes of Jay “Huggies” Holtham, Sam Jack, and Liam Gray, were all on the attack in the final heat to assist their Christchurch teammates, and it nearly worked, but for the slippery Ireland.
Zayne Pullen produced a phenomenal drive to shield Ireland for much of the early part of the third race, and it was only in the final few laps when the 1NZ was more exposed.
By that point, the block cars had mostly worn themselves out, allowing Ireland to escape any real danger, and ultimately celebrate a well-earned back-to-back victory.
Earlier in the evening, the remaining qualification heats of the final four groups were completed, before two repechage races for the last competitors.
For some drivers that took to the track in their final group race and then had to qualify through the repechage before the finals races, it resulted in five competitive races on a grueling evening. Casey McEwen even hit the track six times, as he had a runoff, that he lost, before cementing his place in the final from his repechage performance.
Ireland will defend his championship again, when Whanganui hosts the event in the 2026-27 season, and there he has the chance to become the only driver to win three consecutive New Zealand Stockcar Championship titles.