Tank driver Hughes man on a mission

SPEEDWAY by Bevan Chapman HAVING solved the steering issues that plagued his season debut two weeks ago, Sam Hughes produced a dominant display of stockcar racing at Eastland Group Raceway on Saturday night.
Behind the wheel of his newly-constructed “Rees Tank”, Hughes was a man on a mission, storming to two wins and rolling bitter rival Mike Schwass in the process.
The two have been embroiled in an on-track feud for quite some time.
This time Hughes caught Schwass midway down the back straight in race two and shunted his car into the wall, sending him up, over and out of the race.
Jason Jones won the night’s opening stockcar race following a great battle with Brett Lloyd.
There was also a spectacular ministock rollover, Zach Bright losing his helmet as his car flipped onto its roof.
Bright was quick to emerge from his car unscathed.
Jake Baynes continued his impressive youth ministocks form with two wins.
Sage Hartley picked up a first win . . . a great way to celebrate his birthday.
Streetstock racing resulted in three runaway victories on the banked track.
Travis Gooch recovered from a disappointing opening meeting to comfortably lead home the field in the first race, Ben McArthur raced away with race two and Hawke’s Bay-based driver David Hampton picked up his first win as a Gisborne-registered driver in the feature race.
The CGM Motorcycles Motocross and Quad Bike Invitation saw Grahame Strong win all three Quad Bike races.
Strong was clocked lapping the track almost a second faster than his motocross counterparts, who shared their wins between Jay Peach, Damian Fogarty and Bryan Miller.
Only three bikes fronted for the first sidecar races of the season. With the 3NZ bike of Deane and Rob Miller still in Australia following their recent world championship campaign, Clive Ireland was largely untroubled on his way to collecting a classy hat trick of wins.
Ethan Cook backed up his opening night success with a win in the first production saloon race of the night, passing a much improved Dylan Quinn on his way to the checkered flag.
Cook looked to be heading for another win in the feature only to pop a tyre, handing a rare real-wheel drive victory to Lloyd Stuart.
Jed Miller was first across the line in race two just ahead of Clayton Hammond.
In the night’s final event — the Gisborne Vehicle Testing Streetcar race — Dylan Pickering showed some impressive pace to lead home the 20-lap event from Ben Donaldson and Crystal Peach.