Cardwell retains speedway title

Press, 30 January 1984, Page 6

Cardwell retains speedway title

Tony Cardwell, driving his Buick Skyhawk, retained his Canterbury super saloon title when the 1984 championship was raced over three heats at Woodford Glen Speedway on Saturday. It was the third successive win for Cardwell, who set a saloon car lap record with a time of 20.075. It clipped 0.03 s off the record set 12 months ago by the present New Zealand champion, Blondie Chamberlain, of Stratford. Cardwell finished second to Chamberlain at the recent national championships. Cardwell’s win, however, did not come easily and he went into the final heat on equal points with Colin Grey in his Monaro. With a more favourable grid draw than Grey, Cardwell gained the lead on lap three of the 10-lap race and left his rival to fight for the minor places. He finished fourth behind Jumbo Berryman, but this was sufficient ”to give his second place over all, ahead of Berryman and Brian Tizzard who tied for third. Royce Clive, in his Chevy Monza, won the first race after a long struggle with Cardwell. After an incident with Cardwell, Neil Graham (A9X Torana) and Russell Warnock (Torana SLR 5000), Clive was forced to retire from the second race. Grey won the second race with Cardwell again second. Neil Graham won the 12-lap saloon car feature with Cardwell again recording a second place. It was in this race that Cardwell posted his new lap record when he tried desperately to peg back Graham. The first round of the McCaul trophy challenge for stock car supremacy between Nelson and Christchurch resulted in the visitors winning convincingly. Nelson’s margin of 26 points to six was achieved with its team captain and present South Island champion, Dave Hewitt, winning the 10-lap race and Colin Ching coming second. Only one of the Christchurch team of four was to finish. Brian Johnson took third place. The team leader, Gerald Griffiths, punctured early and mechanical problems resulted

in the demise of Bruce Annan and Peter Ross Hewitt’s good form continued when he won two of the supporting races. Roy Gourley caused a surprise in the sportsman class when he withstood the close challenges of the leaders in the class to record two superb wins, He was awarded the Amalgamated Batteries “driver of the night” prize. Results:— Colombo Bridge Motors Canterbury super saloon championship. — Heat 1 (10 laps): R. Clive 1, T. Cardwell 2, C. Grey 3. Time: 3:44.46. Heat 2 (10 laps): Grey 1, Cardwell 2, J. Berryman 3. No time. Heat 3 (10 laps): Cardwell 1, Tizzard 2, Berryman 3. Time: 3:37.44. Davis Gelatine feature (12 laps): N. Graham 1, Cardwell 2, Grey 3. Time: 4:21.96. Stock cars. — Team challenge (10 laps): D. Hewitt 1, C. Ching 2, B. Johnson 3. Time: 4:01.5. Viking Pies race (six laps): S. Woodford 1, L. Robb 2, C. Cameron 3. No time. Coca Cola race (six laps): Hewitt 1, W. Atkins 2, Woodford 3. Time: 2:19.03. Phone A Part Race (six laps): Atkins 1, Cameron 2, B. Hern 3. Time: 2:26.56. Radio Avon feature: Hewitt 1, Robb 2, Hern 3. Time: 2:02.39. Four cylinder saloons. — Sydenham Auto spares (six laps): J. Rogers 1, L Bates 2, T. Blanchard 3. no time. Carnival Caterers race (six laps): M. Nicholls 1, R. Bryne 2, P. Tonkin 3. No time. Six and eight cylinder saloons. — 3ZB race (six laps): R. Stoop 1, R. Gold 2, G. Knight 3. No time: ERG Batteries race (six laps): Gold 1, E. Mako 2, B. McSaveney 3. Time: 2:29.97. Sydenham Park Chev Spares feature (eight laps): N. Nicholls 1, I. Hill 2, Stoop 3. Sportsman. — 3ZM race (eight laps): R. Gourley 1, J. Annan 2, G. Archibald 3. Time: 2:54.63. Bardahi race (eight laps): T. Allan 1, A. Birrell 2, Archibald 3. No time. Carmen Road Auto race (eight laps): Gourley 1, Allan 2, Giles 3. No time. Street stocks. — Town Hall Service Station race (six laps): Moser 1, P. Townshend 2, S. Aitken 3. No time: Trevor Allan race (six laps): R. Burgess 1, Hill 2, C. Hamilton 3. Time: 2:50.06.