Queenstown builder Jason Scott is a five-time winner of the South Island Championship and he has been showing solid form in the lead up races, as has his nephew Sam O'Callaghan who is in just his second season of racing the 800 horsepower cars.
Christchurch's Jamie Duff has contracted to Cromwell for this season and he may just have an advantage over his club mates having won all three feature races run to date at Ruapuna this summer.
Duff won the championship two seasons ago and will be at the shortest odds of the South Island drivers who will be far better prepared for this event than in other years with 25 lap races, like that which will decide the championship, now being a regular distance for races on the mainland.
Among the starters is American Jonathan Allard, a professional Sprintcar driver from Chico, California who is the current New Zealand Champion.
Top Auckland drivers Dean Brindle, Jamie Larsen, Jamie McDonald and Daniel Eggleton are all well known on the South Island tracks and they all know the track well, while another Auckland contracted driver Matthew Leversedge will make his first appearance of the season in his home town after campaigning at Western Springs this summer. Leversedge is currently studying in Auckland and has registered some good results at North Island events.
Other prominent entries from the far side of the Cook Strait are former national champion Rodney Wood (Tauranga), former North Island Champions Steven Taylor (Wellington) and Skinny Colson (Tauranga) and a leading Palmerston North driver Tony Uhlenberg.
The format will see a host of Sprintcar races on the programme with the entry list split into six groups. These groups will race each other once, with the top 16 point scorers going to the 25 Lap final. An additional four drivers will qualify for the final through a last chance race. Racing starts each night at 6.30 PM with the public gates opening at 4.30.
- Allan Batt
