Demolition Derby a Feature of Easter Speedway Action By Ross Lindsay
If ever there was a reason for travelling with family or friends from the Wakatipu to the Cromwell Basin, Easter’s speedway action is most definitely it. Good Friday at Heavy Trax Hire Central Motor Speedway, it’s down to the wire for a blow-your-socks-off final of the $100,000 2018/19 Sprintcar Hydraulink War of the Wings. Defending Wow champ Jamie ‘Duffman’ Duff tops the leader board with 810 points. Nipping at his heels is 19-year-old ‘wunder kid’ Connor Rangi on 784 and don’t rule out Central Motor Speedway’s own Slammin’ Sammy O’Callaghan on 705. In speedway anything can happen and in the blink of an eye Sammy could leapfrog to the lead and title. Churning out 850+ horsepower, sprintcars are speedway’s fastest and arguably most spectacular class. Not that any class comes close to being boring. They all deliver excitement and high speed, tyre screeching, clay hurling, exhaust bellowing entertainment. On Good Friday other classes racing are the wide and grunty super saloons and saloons, Commodore powered six shooters (aka wingless sprintcars), enthusiastically driven productions and surprisingly fast and furious youth ministocks with boys and girls between 12 and 16 showing how it’s done. Easter Racing continues at Heavy Trax Hire Central Motor Speedway on Easter Sunday with one of the most popular events of the season... the X-Factor Cars and Otago Metals Central Demolition Derby. As a warm up to this festival of auto destruction there’s the Sprintcar King of Cromwell and all classes racing plus a contingent of streetstocks. And if all goes to plan, there will also be burnout action. This last car running Demolition Derby is a huge crowd pleaser, especially for the young of years and young at heart. As for the drivers, they have a smashing time. For anyone prone to road rage entering an old dunga in this derby would seem to be a lifetime cure. Before they start biffing each other, cars competing in the demo derby have in fact gone through quite a process that includes chaining or welding shut doors, removing all glass and accessories, fitting a four or five point harness seat belt and installing a substantial roll bar. Track action at Central Motor Speedway, Cromwell, on Good Friday and Easter Sunday starts at 4pm but to grab a parking spot around the track take advantage of gates opening at 2pm. While waiting for racing, use the time to visit the pits (children must be accompanied by an adult) to meet drivers, their crews and also collect free posters. Photo credit: Cromwell Speedway, December 29
SPRINTCARS