5th April 2009 - News

Harrisville Winged Thunder 2
Author : Russell Harris
The Harrisville Family Speedway on SH1 adjacent to RNZAF Base Ohakea will host its second major event on Easter Sunday, April 12th. Encouraged by the outstanding success of last year’s inaugural WINGED THUNDER 1, track owners and promoters Brent and Denise Harris have continued with the development of their outstanding facility that will benefit both competitors and spectators.
WINGED THUNDER 1 was greeted with great enthusiasm by all the teams that participated and the 20-lap Feature race was hailed as one of the best of the entire season with many lead changes before Skinny Colson took the chequered flag after arguably the best drive of his career. Colson immediately indicated that he would return to defend the Winged Thunder Challenge Trophy and was the first to lodge his entry for this year’s event.
Colson says - “The event was so wicked last year we had to be there again.. The facility is superb with lots of room, it’s a stunning sprintcar track because it’s wide and we can use all the dirt. The event is novel and has real character because the track is only used once a year for this meeting, the atmosphere is like a Sunday afternoon picnic but gets serious when your hat goes on”.
Harrisville has scored a coup by signing newly crowned New Zealand champion Dean Brindle for the meet and the Aucklander is certain to extend the defending champion despite not having raced at the track. Another favourite for a podium result is veteran Ian Easton who has been enjoying considerable success in his 40th year of motorsport and leads the season’s points chase at Palmerston North. The man dubbed “Mr Spectacular” claimed the outright lap record last year with a time of 16.635 seconds in the Hot Laps, more than half a second quicker than Colson who was second fastest, with his unmatched experience Easton should be even more competitive with his new car.
Drivers of the proven calibre of Peter Huijs, together with the teams from the lower North Island tracks, will ensure that the field will have great depth. The wild card in the pack is likely to be 23 year old Palmerston North driver Nelson Hartley who has been very impressive in his first full season running in the class after switching from circuit racing where he was contesting the single-seat Toyota Racing Series. Often sensationally fast in qualifying, Hartley showed his potential in the International Series and followed that up in the New Zealand Championship, heading Carl Wilson after the pair had duelled throughout the race and repassing the defending champion on the final lap to clinch 4th place.
Like the inaugural meet, WINGED THUNDER 2 will be run to the American World-of-Outlaws format that will see drivers running Hot Laps, Heats and a 4-lap Shootout to set the grid for the Feature with prizemoney totalling $10,000.
Racing commences at 1pm and a full support programme will compliment the Sprintcars, including the increasingly popular classic and vintage midgets that will run on the short track inside the main oval. The Harrisville Speedway offers full catering with souvenirs available from the “Track Shack”.
Admission Prices are as follows:
$20 Adults
$5 Children (5-15 years)
$40 Family (2 Adults / 4 Children)

Entry List
96a Kevin McGreal
4p Bryan Menefy
4a Glenn Torpey
6p Nelson Hartley
7p Graham Standring
11m Alan Lewis
11p Ian Easton
12v Brent Huijs
12m Greg Jones
15p Rob Garratt
16m Dean OReilly
21a Mark Browne
21v Peter Huijs
1nz Dean Brindle
22v Donny Hopkinson
24w Martin Halcrow
28p Chris Uhlenberg
35a Hans Boere
41m Mark Weal
43w Chris Mulvena
52m Ben Quin
57m Aaron McConachy
66m Skinny Colson
75c Kevin Freeman

Further Information :
Denise Harris
06 329 3464
027 248 3598

25th March 2009 - News

Ran good all night, scored a 7th, 2nd (put back to 4th for jumping start) and 8th feature, started from pole in heat two and held lead for 3 laps before Rodney Wood 51m slipped past down the outside, held on to Wood for remainder of the race to finnish 2nd.
Skinny Colson won the Feature.


Next Race @ Baypark March 28

7th March 2009 - News
Tonight's Meeting at Baypark was Postponed to March 14th due the rain over the last 48 Hours making Track Preparations next to Impossible.

Remaining Dates
March 14th @ Baypark for Demo Derby
March 28th @ Baypark (closing night) for BOP Champs
Easter Sunday @ Harrisville Speedway Bulls for World Of Outlaws

1st March 2009 - News
Last Nights Baypark Race Meeting was Cancelled due to the Weather.
Remaining Races Dates for the Season are:
March 7th @ Baypark for Demo Derby
March 28th @ Baypark (closing night) for BOP Champs
Easter Sunday @ Harrisville Speedway Bulls for World Of Outlaws

22nd February 2009 - New Zealand Sprintcar Championship

38 Cars fronted up to the Start line for the New Zealand Sprintcar Championship at Palmerston North International Speedway.
Keri-anne James and partner Bernie Gillon were notable withdrawals with the passing of Kerri-anne's Mother during the lead up to the Racing. As a mark of respect all the Sprintcar's were sporting a Pink and Black Ribbon.

Racing was due to start on Friday night but persistent Rain put paid to that and Racing started on Saturday night and will finish with the Finals on Sunday Night. The Track which is quite narrow stood up well to the rain and throughout the night was a rather good surface. A narrow track usually means a lot of contact and tonight was no exception with 9 cars having rollovers 4 of those in one nasty start line incident in Heat 2.

Alan's Night started with the team hard at work replacing a Jammed spacer on the left rear. that solved all the cars lined up for the Hotlaps Alan drew a midfield draw which meant the track was just going off pace Americans Jonathon Allard and Ricky Logan made the most of there early draw with Ricky Logan breaking the tracks lap record setting a 13.01 lap time to be fastest qualify. With Alan's turn at the Hot Lap he was faced with the unknown a track he's never raced on bar 4 short warm up laps just before the meeting begun. Playing it safe with the setup he ran a best lap of 14.55. making him 35th qualifier this meant if he didn't make the Final automatically he would have to try and and qualify from the D-Main.

The Format for Racing had the field split into 4 heats the top 3 would go straight into the Final and would start in the Top 12 grids (these are decide on those 12 cars racing in the A-main Dash for cash where you finish is your start grid for the 25 lap A-Main. Alan was drawn in Heat 3 and would start at the rear of the 9 car field. There had been numerous crashes in the first two heats so the plan was just drive it easy and stay out of trouble and learn the track. Drama early on with one of the cars hitting the wall causing a stoppage before a lap was complete. More drama was to follow soon with the 8a Ryan O'Connor car have a Rear brake rotor fail in spectacular fireball and at the same time Top NZ Driver Jamie McDonald crashed out in a huge roll writing off the entire front of the Chassis. The Restart meant only 6 Drivers fighting for the top 3 spots to go to the Final. Alan finished 6th in the race and would now go to the D-Main. at the end of the Night.


D-Main 8 cars were to take part the top 4 would then go into the C- Main. One of the cars failed to make it out onto the track and during the start up another car failed to fire this left the field down to 6 cars with Alan starting in 4th spot. The start was pretty kaotic and Alan backed off a bit not wanting to be apart of anyone else's accident. settling down in 5th spot it was going to be a wait and see approach and challenge for that vital 4th place near the end of the Race. unfortunately the Accelerator Pedal Broke the linkage. With the throttle link coming out through the top of the Dash Alan could work the throttle with his right hand which he did for just over Lap before pulling out of the Race. This was the end of Alan's First attempt at the NZ Sprintcar Title. A lot was learnt and the Team look forward to Racing on some more tracks for the first time in the Future.

13th February 2009 - 2009 Sprintcar Nationals
47 Drivers are registered for next weekends New Zealand Sprintcar Championships

Aaron McConachy ... 57m Alan Lewis ... 11m Alan Wakeling ... 27a Allan Haigh ... 59a Ben Quin ... 52m Bernie Gillion ... 5m Brent Harris ... 7p Brent Huijs ... 12v Bryan Menefy ... 4p Carl Wilson ... 1nz Chris Melvina ... 43w Chris Uhlenberg ... 28p Colin Entwisle ... 68m Corey Haigh ... 45a Craig Ward ... 12m Daniel Eggleton ... 78a Danny Mayson ... 97c Dean Brindle ... 22a Donny Hopkinson ... 22v Gary Price ... 47t Glenn Torphy ... 4a Greg Clemence ... 94c Greg Pickerill ... 18a Hans Boere ... 35a

Havard Daniels ... 9a Ian Easton ... 11p Jamie Duff ... 19a Jamie McDonald ... 71a Jason Scott .... 48t Jeremy Halpin ... 96a Jonathan Allard ... 0u Karen Forsey .... 38c Kerrie-Anne James ... 23m Kerry Bartlett ... 4m Linsday Gilbert ... 89c Martin Halcrow ... 24w Nelson Hartley ... 6p Peter Huijs .... 21v Raymond Griffen ... 11a Ricky Logan ... 10a Rob Garratt .... 15p Rodney Wood ... 51m Ryan OConner ... 8a Shay Oliver ... 86m Skinny Colson ... 66m Tom Rusher ... 75a Wade Savage ... 9p

Its an impressive field. "Will be interesting to see what eventuates on this flat narrow slick track given the full fields that will be screaming around a track with a history for producing a bit of carnage" "I'm looking forward to being there that's for sure, somewhere in the grandstand, up high, where I won't get run over"
Phil B Sprintcar Fan
Thanks Phil, I have now gone from keen as mustard to shitting my pants lol, no honestly I am ready and feeling comfortable and will try my best to just stay CLEAN and out of the carnage.
Alan Lewis 11m

26th January 2009 - Baypark 24th January 2009
A clear blue sky all day and temp hitting 30 in the Bay Of Plenty was sure to make for a hot sticky nights racing at Baypark, it is the NZ Super Saloon GP night so with the stock cars absent and lots of saloons the track was in good condition with 2-3 race lines. All 3 Flamecrusher cars were racing with Bernie Gillon back in his new car and Kerri-anne happy to be back after a great drive at Christchurch grabbing a 4th in the Thursday night feature.
My car had a complete new set up, new shocks, bars and some wild settings from the yank Bill Rose. The track looked sticky which should suit the new set up.

Heat 1
Started pole 7 got off to a good start and headed straight for the cushion, the car was soft and laid into the turns fast and exiting with good drive. I decided to pace myself and get some seat time with the new set up, I passed a few and also got passed by two faster cars, finished 6th. Mid race I stuffed up and pulled all my tear-offs away at once which meant I had little or no visibility for the second half of the race. I figured out later where I went wrong, I normally remove my tear-offs from the left however I had loaded my helmet with tear-off ends on the right so when I thought I was grabbing one I was actually grabbing all of them and lost the lot.

Heat 2
Started pole 9, ran out wide on the cushion and started to push myself a little harder, got passed by Skinny Colson mid race and managed to run high with him holding on for 2-3 laps, I made the mistake of moving down to the pole line on turn 3 and lost speed plus Colson got away too. Finished 6th.

Feature
Started pole 8, I had Colin Entwisle on my inside on 7 and knew he would stay down on the pole line where he likes to run. I got a great start, stayed up high on the cushion and when attempting to pass Entwisle he got very sideways midway through turn one and two, I decided to back off the throttle and avoid contact, Entwisle managed to gather it up and continue. I decided I needed more grip and moved my wing to help, I passed two cars around the outside right before Rodney Wood had a spin bringing on the one and only caution. At the restart I gained one more spot giving me a 5th.

I enjoyed the nights racing and felt confidant running on the cushion thanks to my awesome crew. Next race is at Baypark next Saturday 31 January.

23rd January 2009 - Indiana Rose Completes Downunder Tour With A Double




"THE INDIANA EXPRESS' SET FOR RUAPUNA"
The wide open spaces on offer at the Xpress Print House Ruapuna Speedway will make American driver Bill Rose feel right at home during this weeks two Sprintcar shows.
Rose has long been recognized as one of that countries most accomplished 'non wing' Sprintcar drivers however in recent times he has diversified across to running 'winged cars' like those run in New Zealand.
He has been a regular on the All Stars Sprint Series as well as the famed World of Outlaws back in the USA but is equally at home on Indiana's 'New Zealand like' quarter mile dirt tracks.
This week he will be driving a 2008 Cool chassied car powered by a 900 horsepower engine prepared by legendary American mechanic Don Ott for Tauranga businessman Bernie Gillon, who provided the same engine for the top Australian driver Brooke Tatnell to use at the worlds premier Sprintcar event, the Knoxville Nationals.
Rose last raced at Ruapuna in 2001 when he finished fifth in the New Zealand Sprintcar Grand Prix.
On Thursday night he fronted up for the North Island side in the 'Sprintcar Civil War' and then on Saturday he contested the 7th Annual Gold Cup which is the premier event on Ruapuna's calendar.
Other visiting drivers include Palmerston North's Ian Easton, the Tauranga duo of Kerry-Anne James and Bernie Gillon and Auckland's former New Zealand Champions Allan Wakeling and Jamie McDonald.

9th January 2009 - Sprintcar Grand Prix

Friday January 2nd
Qualifying I broke a right front shockasorber however still managed to qualify 3rd fastest and 6th overall. Started from 3 in heat one and had a shocker start, lost 3-4 places on a drivey track and missed out on qualifying for the next days dash races.

Sunday January 4th
With the result of Fridays bad heat I was in the B Main on the second row of the grid, another shocker heat on a slippery track, mid way I had a spin but managed to keep going, I finished good enough to give me pole 15 in the final. The final was good for me coming from 15 to take 6th. The crew all did a great job with the setup for the final, thanks for all your support.


Skinny Colson was crowned NZ Sprintcar GP Champ, Colin Entwistle 2nd and James Dahm 3rd.

31st December 2008 - Sprintcar News

American Bill Rose makes Adjustments to his Car.

Sat Dec 27
All four Flamecrusher cars including American Bill Rose were present, we were faced with a track with deep ruts and this made it difficult to decide on a ideal car setup. I struggled through the heats. In the final I got a great start and was sitting in top 10 when I spun putting me out for the night. The feature field of 26 included two Americans and a bunch of top out of town drivers.

Tues Dec 30 South Pacific Sprint-car Championship
Again all of the Flamecrusher cars were present. Heat 1 I had a bad run with the front brake locking on and making the car difficult to drive. Heat 2 with new brakes fitted I got a great start and had a battle with American team mate Bill Rose, I saw him come along side me right before another car rolled bringing out the caution, On the restart I got the jump and managing to hold out the Indiana Rose, lap after lap I could hear his engine buzzing in my ear at the end of the straights however I seem to have a little more bottom end and mid range and that was enough to keep Bill from passing.
In the feature I got a good start from pole 13 and was working my way forward when I came together with car 52 Ben Quin, it got ugly and we both almost rolled into the wall, Ben survived and kept going however my cars drive-line was grinding, I retired to avoid further damage. Bill Rose came home 4th and the South Pacific Champion is car
0 USA Jonathon Allard from California.




The 4 Team Cars all lined up ready for Racing


Next race NZ Sprint-car GP Jan 2nd - 3rd

21st December 2008 - World of Outlaws Palmerston North

American Bill Rose driving the Flamecrusher 5m Team Car finished the 30 Lap final in 8th place. A better tyre combination may have seen an improvement in position.



Alan and a Fellow Crew Member kept Bill's Car on the right track.

The World of Outlaws event at Palmerston North saw the Flamecrusher Team take 3 cars to the Track with American Bill Rose in Bernie Gillon's 5m car and Bernie driving an older Chassis but having to use Alan Lewis's Engine due to the new American Engines not being delivered in time for Racing. Kerri-anne James was in her usual 23m Car.

The Racing was due to take lace on Saturday night but a torrential Downpour ruined the track surface and the meeting was moved to Sunday Night.



Bill Rose from the USA ensured there was a Flamecrusher Car in the 30 Lap final with a good night of driving while trying to adapt to the narrow Palmerston North Track.

15th December 2008 - December 13th Baypark Round 5

Congratulations Brent McClymont NZ-1 saloon car championship won at Huntly Speedway on December 6
The 11m Sprintcar Flamecrusher crew were lucky enough to share the spoils of victory (strong brew in the trophy) with Brent and his crew at the Baypark bar on Saturday night after racing.

Heat 1
With Bernie, Kerry-anne and American Bill Rose in Wellington for the International series we were down on crew with just the number 11 car attending round 5. Started from pole 3 and after getting out on the track late we were behind the 8 ball from the start, 4 cars whistled past on the outside on a drivey track, finished mid field.

Heat 2
We made some changes however the track was not slick enough for the changes, started pole 11 and finished 7.

Feature
The boys made the changes for a slick track, when the race went green the track was greasy causing lots of push, I got down on the pole line and started to pass a few cars, I made my way up to mid field before the first caution, after a spectacular do-nut and a big wheelie exiting turn 2 we managed to Finnish in 7th. I had a great battle with Shay Oliver passed her twice then she got me back on the final few laps.

Next race at Baypark Dec 27, the crew will head to Palmerston North this weekend Dec 20 for round 2 of the International, Bill Rose USA, Bernie Gillon and Kerry-anne James will be the 3 Flamecrusher cars racing.

Merry Christmas and thanks for all your support.

Alan Lewis

3rd December 2008 - November 29th Baypark Round 4

Very Busy at times in Traffic

Our 4th night of racing at Baypark qualifies me to be eligible for normal grid draws and not have to race off the back of the field any longer

Heat 1

I drew grid 6 and came home in 6th, I drove my own race and stayed out of trouble, some large ruts had opened up midway between turns 3 & 4 this is where team boss Bernie Gillion in #5 Flamecrusher car flipped hitting the wall causing enough damage to sideline him for the night. Bernie got out of the wreck with some minor bruising and was lucky to escape any major chassis damage.

Heat 2
Starting back on grid 13 the track had slicked off a little however there were some deep ruts still on exit of turn 2 and midway through turn 3 & 4, I got a good start and finished 7th, number 23 Flamecrusher car driven by Kerri-anne James came home in a strong 2nd place.

Feature
A great grid draw back on row four on the inside on grid 7 would give me a chance to attack from the green light however it was not to be, the car was pushing and forced me wide twice on turn 3 and I slipped back to 12th, the first caution caused by a 3 car spin allowed me to relax myself and adjust my wing, on the restart I got a flyer and passed 3 cars, after several cautions and a massive crash by Shay Oliver I managed to pass a few more cars and finished 4th behind Colin Entwisle in 3rd James Dahm 2nd and the win went to Taranaki driver Skinny Colson.


Getting Belted up.

I would like to thank Bernie Gillon for putting me in a great car plus my crew for all their support and hard work without them this would not be possible. Next race is Christmas race on December 13th at Baypark.
See you there.

20th November 2008 - Baypark 22nd Meeting Cancelled

Skinny Colson Passing on the outside before spinning himself

My apologies to our sponsors and supporters, this Saturday nights racing at Baypark has been cancelled and I have no idea why, I received the text Wednesday from the Baypark Promoter saying this weekend cancelled and the next race will be Saturday November 29th. We did look at what other tracks we could race at however there are none this weekend. The crew will work on the car Saturday double checking everything to make sure we are ready for next week. Thanks for your continued support.

16th November 2008 - Baypark 3rd Meeting

Image from Last meeting by Stuart Whicker.

Tonight I drove 2 inch's off the wall exiting turns two and four, I had a fast car under me thanks to a dedicated crew that made changes to suit a track with 3 drive lines. This was my 3rd race night as a rookie and still starting near the rear of the field to learn and stay out of trouble

Heat 1 the track was already looking slick down on the pole line and starting from 17 I passed a few cars plus tested the car out in lane 3 on the cushion. This was a heat to throw the car around and see where the limits were which I soon found having a spin in turn 4 however i kept it running and only lost 2 positions.

Heat 2 was a nail biter we made some changes to the car, less stagger and tightened up the chassis for the slick track, again I started from the rear and made a great start, I ran up on the cushion, eased my foot down as much as I could reaching full throttle a few times, I passed a few cars on the outside and pulled the front wheels high in the air down the front straight, what a buzz it was to run up high laying the car into the turns flat out.

The feature was a 20 lap-per on a slick track, the boys made some radical changes, the car was a rocket for the first 6 laps, I passed several cars around the outside, ran high on the cushion and was sitting in middle of the pack when the caution lights came on for a 2 car spin, during the caution I moved the wing, removed a tear-off and pulled my shoulder belts tight ready for the restart. Green I headed for the outside and got loose running too close for comfort to the wall, I backed out a little and settled back down on the pole line following the car in-front waiting for him to make a mistake. By half race distance the track changed and I was wheel spinning more and getting too loose, I made a dive up the inside and got pushed from the rear and came together with another car luckily I survived, the caution lights came on once again and I ran over the right rear of the car in-front damaging my front wing. OK calm down I kept telling myself remembering my crew Dave telling me to talk to myself and remember "smooth smooth smooth" on the restart I had a half spin and lost 2 or 3 positions, I decided at that point to stay down on the pole line and just bring it home in one piece, after a bunch of cautions, rubbing wheels with 2 cars, riding a rear wheel and a half spin I finished around 11th.

I thoroughly enjoyed the racing and feel very comfortable in the car running up on the cushion where I had not been before. Many thanks to my crew for putting me in a fast safe car and I cant wait to race again next week.

13th November 2008 - "Angel With Attitude"

Kerri-anne James hot foots it around Baypark last Saturday in her stunning new silver and pink Cooley/Flamecrusher sponsored car, She is no stranger to dirt track racing with many years behind the wheel of Midgets and Sprintcar's. Just a few weeks back at her first outing in her brand new car she scored a heat win at Palmerston North Speedway. Off the track you will find Kerri-anne down in the pits at the Flamecrusher Truck selling race car parts and accessories to help keep her racing buddies on the track, during the week days you will find her at Flamecrusher Race Products in Tauranga along with partner Bernie Gillon making race suits for drivers Worldwide or sending out race car parts and accessories Nationwide. Both Kerri-anne and Bernie are an awesome team and always willing to help anyone at the track or race shop.
Check out their website www.flamecrusher.com or call 0800-025000