The Rock FM Beachlands Speedway hosted twenty two of the South Island's top Saloons on Saturday night with the running of the 2016/17 South Island Saloon Championships.
On paper it was a tough championship to pick with talent to burn right across the field, Paddy North of Blenheim would have to go into the event as favourite, recently securing second place in the New Zealand Championship and it didn't take long for North to show his class.
Race one played into North's hands when Blayr Findlay, of Dunedin, and Russell Erskine, of Cromwell, tangled causing a restart. This allowed North to sneak from fifth to third at the restart.
North picked off the leaders one by one to pull out to a handy lead over the field, being followed by Peter Schouten, of Christchurch, Graham Williamson, of Cromwell and Ewan Shearing, of Invercargill.
As they caught lapped traffic, Schouten struugled to get through and dropped from second to fourth, allowing Shearing and Williamson to slip through to take second and third placings behind North.
In race two it was group two that would take to the track. This time it was the Ryan Marsden show; the Christchurch driver dominated the race, taking advantage of a superb racing surface, putting a lap on the majority of the field before securing the win.
The real battle was back in the pack with Cromwell's Steve Robertson fighting off Craig Davies, also of Cromwell, for second, while Jarad Verdoner was the first local home in fourth.
Race three looked to be going the way of Shearing, The Southlander got off to a lightning start and had a handy lead over the field, but with a handful of laps to run Shearing's set up went away from him and the pack pulled him back, eventually sending him all the way down to fifth.
North was the man once again, he threaded his way through to the front claiming his second win of the evening over Erskine and Williamson, this also guarenteed North a front row start for the third and final all in heat.
Race four was group two, and much like race one Marsden dominated, leaving the big crowd in attendance with the mouthwatering thought of Marsden v North in the last race to decide the title.
Verdoner finished second with Invercargill's Dean Shearing securing a well deserved third.
The final was an all in event and the anticipation was at fever point. This race would decide the championship and it was the first time North and Marsden would face each other.
As the green flag dropped, the angry field of cars launched into turn one and two, race leader North came unstuck spinning as he came out of turn two causing the race to be put under caution.
As it was the first lap it was decided a full grid restart would take place, meaning North, who caused the restart, would be allowed to take his place at the front of the field.
At the restart, both Marsden and North raced wheel to wheel, neither driver really getting an advantage over the other, while behind them Verdoner, Robertson and Schoulten battled hard for the minors.
Marsden managed to get his nose in front but it was short lived, North came back to him and slipped through to the lead just before another caution as Camden Crack of Invercargill made contact spinning with another car in the pack.
This bought the entire field back to Marsden and North, as the green light came on again it was on for young and old, the field was compressed and the leaders were now under more pressure from the pack, but as they got into a rhythm Findlay spun causing another restart.
Now with only a handfull of laps remaining Schouten started to make his move on the leaders, momentarily moving into second slipping past Marsden, this gave North the breathing space needed.
With two laps to go North, Marsden and Schouten all traded punches. The South Island title was far from decided, with all three cars almost side by side heading into the final corner.
North got the best run off the final turn and lead the drag race to the chequered flag to claim a well raced South Island Championship over Marsden and Schouten third in what was an amazing race that had the race fans on their feet right until the final flag dropped.
