Panthers pay for lack of blockers

The Palmerston North Panthers' loss to the Nelson Tigers on Saturday night showed that, to win a fifth national title they will need more than Peter Rees' blocking.

After making a strong start in the annual teams' race, mechanical gremlins struck and before long the Panthers were down to just one car and their race was over.

The Tigers drivers took Rees out of the race soon after the start and there was no-one else to take up the blocking role.

The Panthers will be eager to see the return of one of the great blocking drivers, Peter Bengston, as well as Tank Commander Scott Miers for the national teams' championships in February. Shane Penn, one of the fastest and hardest drivers in the country and a integral part of the Panthers' four wins, is still getting his new car sorted, but will be in the team.

It was a disappointing debut for Andy McCabe, who has rarely had mechanical problems. He led the race until a blown diff put him out, Wayne Hemi took over the lead, but when he thumped into a slow Tigers' car he got stuck and couldn't restart his car.

Another rookie, Wayne Norris, was always up against it, eventually being rolled.

The Tigers showed enough team-work with Dale Ewers, Brendan Higgins and Shane Harwood to suggest the under-achievers' tag could be lifted in February with a victory, although often in the past they haven't lived up to the favourite billing.

A slick track made passing difficult in the sprintcars, but American Jonathan Allard was still impressive with a win and two placings, with the placings coming when he began from the back of the field and still managed to pass most.

Skinny Colson won the feature ahead of Hamilton's Greg Pickerill, with both drivers starting from the front, with the other win going to rising star Nelson Hartley.

Christian Hermansen is a driver of the future. After dominating the youth ministocks last year, Hermansen is doing the same in the adult class. Apart from winning when starting near the front, he's the only driver who seems able to get near the front when beginning at the back of the big fields.

Hermansen, Brett Whiting and Jeremy Hope won the races.

Mike Zachan and Paul Humphrey could be Palmerston North's big hopes at the national sidecar events as they continued their domination of the class with a win in the feature.

It was a night for firsts with Brett Giles winning a minisprint race and regular Hawke's Bay visitor Shane Mellsop winning in his impressive superstock.

George Frear had his best night in a long time with two stockcar wins.

- © Fairfax NZ News