Racing around Riverlands

Timaru’s Carl Vaughan pulled away from the pack to take home the Marlborough Car Club’s Picton Tools & Tyres Riverlands Street Sprint title this year.

Thirty one competitors took on the Riverlands Industrial Park street circuit, and Carl’s #28 Formula Suzuki single seater consistently improved to hold off multi-time champion Neil Webb and his Mitsubishi Mirage by a second and a half in the final.

Spectators were treated to a wide variety of vehicles flying around the sprint track, and while cold winds and dark clouds threatened to throw another factor into the mix, they held off.

Marlborough Car Club committee member Jason Clark was very pleased with this year’s edition of the event.

“The day went really well, and we had no major holdups or crashes with a great standard of racing throughout the field”, said Jason.

“I was predicting Carl and Neil to be in the final from the first few runs, but the knockout format can always throw up wild results, so it wasn’t set in stone.”

Carl’s final time of 1.19.93 was fastest of the day - eight seconds faster than his first lap - and finished with the day’s three best times.

Despite his second place, Neil Webb was happy with his performance and said he pushed his Mitsubishi Mirage as hard as possible.

“I was under a second off my best time around the course with this car, so I’m really pleased with my performance”, he said.

Neil has had a fantastic fortnight behind the wheel, also finishing runner up at the Ashley Forest Rallysprint in Canterbury – behind World Rally Championship driver Hayden Paddon.

“I got the car back on Friday so the changeover from gravel to tarmac settings was a bit of a rush but I’m really happy with the last few weeks,” says Neil.

“It’s great the Street Sprints are still going strong, and kudos to the organisers for putting on an excellent day of racing”.

Neil didn’t leave empty handed for his efforts, winning the D Class, while Glen Taylor was best of the B Class and Bjorn Cowdrey claimed the C Class title.