Super saloons bring the noise to town

Speedway attendees felt the power and saw the pace over the weekend, as the 2025 Hunter Plumbing South Island Super Saloon championship weekend came to a thrilling conclusion.

Eastern States Speedway played host to two nights of exciting racing, as the Hunter Plumbing South Island Super Saloon Championships, the Debbie Webster Super Saloon Series, the LiquidAction Ministock Lads vs Lasses alongside Productions, Stockcars, Saloons, Streetstocks and Youth Ministocks.

Craig tasted victory in the Debbie Webster Super Saloons on Friday night, ahead of Greig Johnston and Kane Lawson.

Jaxon Dacombe had a great weekend in the Youth Ministocks, while Sam Martin, Kerry Walker and Taylor Lynch won in the Production, Stockcar and Streetstock categories respectively.

After Saturday’s first three Hunter Plumbing Super Saloon races split the field in half, the exciting two lap, one-on-one knockout racing decided the top seven places before the final feature race of the night for the South Island title.

However, many top qualifiers were caught up in an early crash which knocked out Mark Pitcher and Trevor Elliott which left Campbell McManaway in charge of the race with a long way still to go.

Despite valiant defensive driving holding off the rest of the field for most of the race, Campbell couldn’t hang on from Auckland’s Craig Cardwell completing the Super Saloon’s double over the weekend.

Peter Bengston, who won the feature race on the Saturday night with some impressive overtakes around the outside, was disqualified after his vehicle was determined to be invalid during post-race pit measurements.

Hunter Plumbing South Island Super Saloon Championship results

1. 8a Craig Cardwell (58p Peter Bengston was disqualified after the race)

2. 492n Campbell McManaway

3. 77t Greig Johnston

4. 6c Kane Laweson

5. 21n Ian Burson

6. 61c Mark Sangster

7. 61c Garry Edwards

8. 36e Dale Bigwood

9. 43n Paul Power