South Island speedway title won by Wright

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32864, 13 March 1972, Page 16

South Island speedway title won by Wright

The New Zealand test rider, R. Wright, comfortably won the South Island solo speedway championship from a field of 18 at the Templeton Stadiunt on Saturday night. Wright’s only defeat on the night came in the final when he was well beaten by the former double world champion, R. L. Moore, but as points won in the heats were carried forward, he still won the title. He finished with 15 points from a possible 16 with Moore and G, J. Stapleton sharing second place with 12 each. Fourth was K. McKinlay, who turned on one of the finest displays of his long career to score 10 points. Moore, a firm favourite for the title, saw his hopes disappear when his machine slid from under him on the first bend of the first heat. Even more slick than usual, the tricky surface took many riders by surprise and even the most experienced competitors at times found difficulty staying upright while maintaining a reasonable speed. The patch where Moore slid was particularly slippery and accounted for a number of competitors in all types of machinery as the night progressed. He was at the head of the field at the

time, and all but M. Brown managed to avoid him. Brown caught Moore’s foot and came down too, but without Injury. Moore was not so fortunate. It was some time before he was able to limp away and he competed in the remaining heats with his left foot heavily bandaged. Moore's performance in winning the final was quite outstanding for his foot was obviously giving him a lot of pain. His time in this race of 80.7 sec was by far the fastest of the night Another rider whose luck all but deserted him was Stapleton. Just before his third ride, the track was watered to lay the dust. It achieved its purpose but also turned the track into a skating rink. K. Burt won the heat—he was the only rider not to take a spill. Stapleton finished second after a quick recovery from a minor crash and made the final. However, he was slow out the gate in the final and finally trundled home a disappointing fourth behind Moore, Wright, and McKlnlay. Side-car tie The South Island motor-cycle side-car championship ended in a tie between L. Dwight, sen. (S. Unwin) and his son. L. Dwight, jun. (G. Pullen). Both finished the three heats with 10 points after Dwight, jun., had come from behind on the final bend to win the third heat by inches from his father. Third place was also shared. W Philp (B. Mulqueen) and I. Begbie (G. Cox) scored four points each. The final round in the South Island three-quarter midget car championship series was won by K. Stephens, but even before this he was out of reach of his nearest challenger, A. Palmer. His win boosted his points total to 33. Palmer, who was married earlier in the day and had postponed his honeymoon to contest the final round, was runner-up in the final race and finished four pointe behind. Stephens also won the final round of the John Morris Car Sales challenge series and Palmer was again second. Over all honours, however, went to Palmer, whose pointe total for the season was 28. The leader until Saturday was R. Burt and he only needed to finish in the first two to win. His motor failed while he was in a favourable position and he finished the series in second place, one point behind Palmer. Stephens was third over all. Although numbers were down, R. Clive, J. McKltterick and M. Burt provided some supert wheel-to-wheel racing in the midget car class.. Burt won two races and Clive won the last, but there was little between the th p ee Annan won both scratch races in the supermodified class, on each occasion narrowly heading the New Zealand champion, B. Tulett.

Results were:— MOTOR-CYCLES South Island solo championship (each heat 4 laps).-Firat heat: T. Black 1. T. O’Brien 2, G. Stewart 3. Time, 84.7. Second heat: R. Wright 1, M. Salt 2, R. Hall 3. Time, 82.0. Third heat: G. Stapleton 1, R. McKlnlay 2, K. Burt 3. Time, 85.0. Fourth heat: Wright 1, Stewart 2. McKlnlay 3. Time, 84.8. Fifth heat: Stapteton 1 Black 2, W. Irvine 3. Time, 84.0. Sixth heat: R. .Moore 1, S. Foster 2, D. Stacock 3. Time, 82J. Seventh heat: Wright 1. McKlnlay 2, Irvine 3. Ttae. 84.0. Eighth heat: Moore 1, Foster 2. O’Brien 3. Hme, 82.0. Ninth heat: K. Burt 1. Stapleton 2, T. Jammett 3. T™®;, S’ 7 ’ Final: Moore 1, Wright 2, McKinlav 3. Time, 80.7. Final points:. Wright 15, Moore

12, Stapleton 12, McKlnlay 10, Black 7, Burt 7. South Island sidecar championships (each heat 4 laps).—First heat: L. Dwight jun. and G. Pullen 1,1,. Dwight sen. and S. Unwin 2, N. Hill and B. Lynch 3. Time. 86.3. Second heat: Dwight sen. and Unwin 1, W. Philp and B. Mulqueen 2, Dwight jun. and Pullen 3. Time, 85.0. Thjrd heat: Dwight jun. and Pullen 1, Dwight sen. and Unwin 2, I. Begbie and G Cox 3. Time, 85. Final points: Dwight jun. and Pullen 10, Dwight sen. and Unwin 10, Begbie and Cox 4, Philp and Mulqueen 4, Hill and Lynch 2. Novice solo scratch events (4 laps).—First race: E. Lewis 1, J. Penny 2. B. Weasteal 3. Time, 93.5. Second heat: Lewis 1, Penny 2, Weasteal 3. Time, 96.8. Consolation solo scratch races (4 laps.— First race: M. Johns 1, L. Chatterton 2, E. Lewis 3. Time, 94.0. Second race: Johns 1, D. Reid 2, G. Stone 3. Time, 92.7. Third race: Stone 1, Reid 2, Chatterton 3. Time, 91.8. CARS Three-quarter midget racing cars.—Opening handicap (6 laps): W. Denovan (sOyd) 1, D. Packer (70yd) 2, D. Harper (110 yd 3. Time, 2:12.8. South Island championship points race (6 laps): K. Stephens 1. A. Palmer 2, D. Harper 3. Time, 2:0.6. Final points: Stephens 33, Palmer 29, R. Burt 20, Harper 18. John Morris Car Sales Challenge (6 laps): Stephens 1, Palmer 2, D. Jones 3. Time, 2:4. Final points: Palmer 28, Burt 27. Stephens 26, Harper 19. Midget cars.—Opening handicap (8 laps): M. Burt (90yd) 1, J. McKitterick (110 yd 2, G. Roxburgh (30yd) 3. Time, 2:48. First scratch event (8 laps): Burt 1, R. Give 2, McKitterick 3. Time. 2:42. Pall Mall feature scratch (8 laps): Clive 1, Burt 2. McKitterick 3. Time, 2:41.5. Supermodified rods.—Opening handicap (8 laps): B. Tulett 1, J. Madsen 2, R. Gleason 3, Time, 2:52.7. Ferry road Service Station feature (10 laps): P, Annan 1. Tulett 2, S. Everett 3. Time, 3:31. South Island championship points race (10 laps): Annan 1, Tulett 2, Everett 3. Time, 3:25. Progress points: Annan 44, Tulett 21. M. Allen 11.