It feels like an eternity since the club last hosted a race event due to January’s meeting being washed out.
Modified sprints will hit the track for the first time this season with three titles on the line for the grades, the Brett Cooper Memorial, the Southland Modified Sprint Championship and a round of the South Island Modified Sprint Series.
Modified sprints were once a mainstay grade at Riverside with grade numbers rapidly decreasing over the past five or so years. This weekend will hopefully spark some interest within the local grade and see some of the cars that are parked up this season return to bolster the grade.
Riverside’s most successful modified sprint driver is Jayden Fraser, a multiple Southland champion. He also holds the Brett Cooper Memorial, a trophy that means a great deal to the young driver, and one he would like to keep this Saturday.
Fraser will have his work cut out for him with several top travelling drivers venturing south to compete; his toughest competition will come from the likes of Hayden Kedzlie and Liam Astle, both from the Ruapuna club in Christchurch.
The club will also have youth Ministocks racing for their Southland championship, which is an invited grade and not usually one that would run at Riverside. Christchurch driver Jaxyn Houtos will be the hot favourite to claim the title but Cromwell’s Lucee Scott and Riverside’s Joshua McIntyre have been big improvers over the Christmas period and will certainly be challenging for the trophy.
Youth saloons will run a round of the Pits Media Trophy which is contested over three rounds at Riverside, Dunedin and Cromwell.
This event will see the best Riverside drivers go head to head with the best youth saloon drivers from Beachlands Speedway in Dunedin, and with a capacity field entered it will provide some great battles.
Streetstocks will compete for the Best Pairs Trophy. This event always provides plenty of action as drivers are randomly drawn to team up, then race against other teams over three races. Plenty of tactical battles will take place as teams look to eliminate other team members to claim the top step of the podium.
Streetstocks have several Dunedin drivers entered which should spice up the teams action.
Other grades in action will be Six Shooters, production saloons and stockcars.
Gates open to the public at noon, with racing getting under way at 2pm.
