By Daryl Shuttleworth
Photos Jo Broadhead

For the second year running Powderworx Central Motor Speedway have hosted the Fresh Choice Cromwell Aotearoa Production Saloon Cup in Cromwell, and for the second year running it has been a huge success, with this season over forty cars entered across the two day event.

This event has pretty much become the replacement for the New Zealand Production Saloon Championship which no longers exists, and it begs the question once more about should the championship be reintroduced, over forty cars is a better showing than some of the championship classes, and some of the smaller tracks who don't see the premier classes would be happy to run a Production Saloon title, my own thoughts are yes, they should have a title, unfortunately many people up the food chain from me say no.

Cars from as far afield as Wanganui made the trek South for this event and some massive prize money was up for grabs, something like a ten thousand dollar prize pool thanks to the sponsorship of locals sponsors Fresh Choice Cromwell, Aspiring Glass, Not Just Plumbing Ltd, Placemakers, Hiab Crane Services and McDonough Contracting.

The event would see six groups, they would all race each other once over five heats, over two nights, the top twenty two points scorers would go through to the twenty lap feature race, while two more cars would come via the B Main.

The first two groups rolled out to kick proceedings off on a fairly greasy track after the heavens opened up in Central Otago about half an hour before racing.

This was a pretty straight forward, trouble free race where all the drivers cautiously worked their way around the slippery surface, Brett Hackett of Whanganui took a pretty straight forward race win, followed home by Cromwell's Brad McTaggart and Riversides Stephen Clements in third place.

Heat one for the next two groups produced an epic battle between Cromwell's Aven Erskine and former New Zealand Production Saloon Champion Brad Johnston of Christchurch, the pair raced hard from the outset, Erskine led but Johnson chased him down and made a pass for the lead at half race distance.

From there it looked as if Johnson would drive away but Erskine stuck with the former champ and as the pair caught up to lapped traffic Erskine took a dive on the main straight and slipped between Johnston and a lapped car to give himself a huge advantage and eventually the race win, Johnston would have to settle for second and Dunedin's Ricky Pilley third, a great result after starting towards the back of the grid.

The first heat for the next two groups was interesting, from the commentary box it looked like good hard racing, but the Speedway New Zealand Officials stamped their authority on a number of front running drivers in this race, multiple relegations handed out for contact throughout the race.

There were no stoppages for any major incidents at all, just nudging and pushing and the officials drawing a clear line in the sand that it wouldn't be tolerated, a message that would feed through the field, hopefully keeping the event tidy.

On track it was Sam Martin of Blenheim who was untouchable up front, Martin put on a great display and charged home to a well driven win, behind Martin Cromwell's James Westerman claimed second with defending champion Eddy Frans of Nelson third, but after multiple relegations second would go the way of Cromwell's Sam McKenzie with Tyler Kelk of Dunedin third. Westerman had been handed a two spot relegation, as had James Wood of Cromwell and Nik Fraser of Christchurch, but it was Frans who got hammered the most, he placed third but was relegated six spots to ninth, apparently admitting to more hits on track than the officials had actually seen, had Frans said nothing about these he possibly would have only got a two spot relegation also.

The second round of heats would get underway with early race leader Ray Jaggard of Whanganui bringing out a yellow flag, retiring to the infield with no right door skin on his car at all, remarkably it was wedged over the left rear wheel of Cromwell's Laura Heads car and remained wedged for the entire race.

This race had a great battle up front with Cromwell's Vaughan Fairbairn sneaking home just ahead of Johnston with early leader Gavin Hurring of Cromwell third.

The next heat saw just the one stoppage when Josh Binnie of Dunedin would stop mid race in turn two, smoking out the arena with what looked to be a pretty terminal issue.

This was another great battle with the leading three cars all side by side and swapping positions over the very last lap, Martin it was though who would grab his second win of the event, just getting the nose of his car across the line ahead of Pilley with Erskine third.

The next heat race contained a number of the drivers who had earlier faced the wrath of the officials and the message must have got through as this was a good clean battle, one that Westerman would take out, claiming the win over Hackett in second and Frans third.

Martins night of dominance would continue in his third heat, again demolishing his rivals to bank three wins from as many start's on night one. Second in this race would go the way of McKenzie with Frank Burns of Christchurch third.

The next Production Saloon heat saw Cromwell driver Brayden Corbishley blow up delux after being sent to the infield after two laps, unsure what the cause of this was, I'm guessing being the only car without a window net may have been a contributing factor, but the crowd erupted when Corbishley lost his cool infield.

The next incident saw defending champion Frans night go from bad to worse when he made contact with another car coming out of turn two, Frans would spear off and make contact with the wall and then be collected by Shanon Fitzgibbon of Cromwell on the way through, both cars out of this heat and leaving Frans down in twenty first place after night one.

Once the race took shape Fraser and Westerman battle hard up front, Fraser getting the job done with the win, Westerman second and Pilley third.

The final heat of night one was clean, no dramas at all but it was also a warning shot that Johnston was finding form on the track he won his New Zealand Championship on, Johnston would work his way to the front of the pack early and despite being challenged by Hackett he would bank the race win, Hackett second with Andrew Bennett of Cromwell third.

So after an entertaining nights racing the top five going into day two were Martin, Johnston, Hackett, Westerman and Pilley.

With the cars all returning for day two of action the big news would be the fact that reigning champion Frans would be out due to damage sustained on the Friday night of the event, this would really leave the event wide open as a new champion would be crowned.

The first heat of the Saturday was race four of the event for these groups, and a tidy start to proceedings with Westerman grabbing a win ahead of Fairbairn and McTaggart who had ground to make up after missing two races the night prior.

The second race of round four had a bit more action, and it all started before the cars even entered turn one, Dunedin's Cam Bower fired down the inside of the pack from down the field, unfortunately Stephen Clements had the same idea a little further up the grid, Bower made contact and sent Clements to the infield resulting in a restart, both cars remaining in the race despite Bower going to the back.

The next restart would be when Riverside's Shane Carson was caught circulating with a flat tyre, again the field regrouped and from here raced home cleanly, Pilley grabbed the race win, Steven Nicholas of Cromwell second and Erskine third.

Fitzgibbon had more bad luck in his first heat of the Saturday, the Cromwell driver bringing out a yellow in the final round four race, clipping the wall in turn three and coming to rest in turn four. This race saw Johnston race away to a handy buffer, one that Martin couldn't chase down, Johnston sending a message to the field with this win, he was certainly going to be a factor in this competition, Martin settled second, his first race he hadn't won, while in third was Bennett.

The final round of races would be the last chance to cement a place in the top twenty two cars, either that or off to the B Main and hope to place in the top two.

The first heat of the final round saw Frank Burns of Blenheim secure a well deserved race win, second was Pilley with Brad Fitzgerald of Riverside third.

Second race of the round was another Westerman special, dominating up front to bag his second win of the day and book a spot on the front row for the feature, Johnston ensured he remained in contention placing second with Gavin Hurring of Cromwell third.

The final heat race was also a good clean affair, again Martin had to work his way from the rear of the pack, but did impress with a solid third placing, putting him on pole for the feature, second was Hackett who was still looking in good shape, and Nicholas grabbed some much needed points with a good race win.

The B Main would come next, and the last chance for two cars to go through to the big dance. This race started with some controversy as Bower and Carson had a coming together early in lap one, Carson would park up and the race would be deemed a restart, Carson joining the field again. Carson would find himself parked up against the wall in turn four eight laps later while Dave McKenzie of Invercargill and Olivia Glover of Dunedin would also come together in turn two putting all of these cars out of contention, McKenzie and Carson did however continue in the race.

McTaggart lost his last chance to go through to the final with another mechanical issue sending him to the infield after making it up to the lead. Up front Bower was in control, Riverside's Blake Murdoch was looking dangerous as was Liam Ballantyne of Cromwell, the pair fighting hard for the very last spot.

Bower secured his place with a race win and Ballantyne also did enough to move through to the twenty lap feature.

The scene was now set to crown a new Aotearoa Production Saloon Cup Champion, a big field, an excited crowd and one race to determine the weekend. This would last all of one and a bit laps before the first incident unfolded, Burns would get turned in turn two and have a number of cars make contact. The race would restart and begin to take shape, Westerman, Martin, Pilley and Johnston all up front challenging each other early, Pilley would back himself to take a dive down the inside of Westerman and Martin and grab the race lead.

Johnston looked good early but would soon park up in turn four, I'm unsure if he made contact with the wall or the car came to a halt but one of the red hot favorites were done.

At the restart Pilley would come under attack from Westerman and Martin once more, but after a couple of laps would build a lead, sligh, but enough to be manageable.

Pilley would have thought he was home free as the laps started to count down but with three laps to run Burns would stop on track in turn four, again heaping pressure on Pilley who could not wait to see the white flag come out.

The race went green, Westerman and Martin challenged Pilley up front, the three cars at one stage side by side, but Pilley held his nerve slipping just ahead of the two big Falcons and while they scrapped it out Pilley would again pull out a couple of car lengths on them.

The white flag would finally appear and Pilley set sail for one last lap, possibly the most nerve wracking lap of his short career, behind him all sorts of drama was unfolding when Nicholas took a wild ride sideways down the main straight when Stephen Clements gave him the big "dont ask", Nicholas would recover but would lose a number of spots.

Pilley would hold on, he would take a well driven win, and he would be crowned Champion against the best competition in the country, Martin would secure second while Westerman would be third but would also break the Central Motor Speedway lap record in the process.

2024/25 Aotearoa Production Cup Podium Placegetters - 1st: 94D Ricky Pilley, 2nd: 14E Sam Martin, 3rd: 28T James Westerman (new lap record holder @ 19.323)

Super Saloons

Super Saloons would also run for the Central Otago Super Saloon Championship and a good field of the South Islands best were on hand to compete for the trophy.

Nelsons Ian Burson stamped his authority on the event with a dominating performance early in the night driving away from the pack to what was almost a half lap lead before the side panel of Dale Bigwood of Blenheims car parted ways and caused a restart on lap six, this bought the challengers back to Burson.

Burson would get away cleanly at the start of this race but would be chased to the flag by Greig Johnston of Cromwell who looked fast but wouldn't have enough to pass Burson who would take the race win, Johnston second with Kane Lawson of Christchurch third.

Heat two saw a great scrap upfront develop between Dunedin driver Terry Soper and Christchurch driver Mark Osborne the pair going toe to toe for the majority of the race.

Soper would however hold Osborne off to claim the race win, Osborne second with Johnston third.

The final heat was nothing short of awesome, Lawson cruised out to a handy lead before Ian Stewart would have a spin in turn three. At the restart Osborne started to pressure Lawson and the pair attacked each other for the remaining laps, Osborne looked to have snatched the lead when the pair got to lapped traffic but Lawson backed himself to make a move which left Osborne caught up and gave Lawson the breathing space that we would think would have given him the win.

However Osborne hasn't become the success in Super Saloons that he has by sitting and wondering what could have been, and he set off on Lawson once more, some drivers would have been content with second but not Osborne, who on the very last lap in one calculated move took the lead of the race off Lawson to claim victory by the narrowest of margins. You had to feel for Lawson who drove a great race but would only take second, while third went the way of Burson.

This result would see Burson and Osborne equal first for the Central Otago Championship but on fastest lap countback the title would go the way of Osborne, Burson second and Johnston third.

Youth Ministocks

Youth Ministocks were also in support on the opening night of the event, Cromwell driver Joshua McIntyre was dominant in all three races, taking all three race wins on offer, in race two Lucee Scott of Cromwell placed second ahead of Dylan Johnston of Christchurch, while heat two saw Cromwell clubmates Thomas Scott second and Ollie Henton third which was the result in heat three also.