Southern View: March 27, 2018

SOUTHERN VIEW Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
Tuesday March 27 2018 11
Drag racer following in family’s footsteps
• By Andrew King
WINNING national
championships at more than
250km/h is in the Henley-
Minchington blood.
At Auckland’s Meremere Dragway,
another trophy was added
to the family mantelpiece when
Stuart Henley-Minchington, 28,
won the New Zealand nationals
modified drag racing title with
a blistering time of 8.25sec at
259km/h.
It also meant he was crowned
national series champion in the
modified section for the third
FAST FACTS
Car statistics:
Shell: Fibreglass based on
a 1923 Ford T design.
Engine: 496 cu in big block
Chevrolet stroker.
Transmission: TCL
Powerglide.
Chassis: Custom built
chrome alloy from Florida,
United States.
Rear wheels: 32in slicks.
Weight: 844kg.
Fastest time: 8.17sec at
261km/h.
SPORTS
consecutive year.
The Addington resident is
following in the footsteps of his
uncles, Bill and Clinton, who
together won four consecutive
national titles between 2013-2017
in the funny car category. They
finished the season this year in
third.
His father Owen still races, and
his sister Hayley, and the rest of
his family, pitches in to keep the
team going.
“It is a little bit surreal,” Stuart
said about winning the national
crown.
“It is been my lifelong dream to
drive these cars. Now I’m doing
it and being successful, it is a
dream come true.”
Stuart said his love for the
sport started early, but really accelerated
when he got in a scaleddown
dragster when he was
nine-years-old.
“Then we built one in 1998 and
away I went,” he said.
SMOKING: Stuart Henley-Minchington lights up the wheels at Meremere Dragway on his way to
a national title.
“From there I have just been
moving up classes. Once you figure
one out, then it is time move
on to something faster.”
Waiting for the lights to flash
green takes all the concentration
he can muster and he looks to set
the best time possible with every
pass.
“It is the most insane adrenalin
rush you possibly could have. It
becomes an addiction,” he said.
Motorsport is hard on the
pocket and he said without the
constant support from his entire
family and some sponsors, the
dream would not be possible.
“We definitely couldn’t do it
without our sponsors, Trident
Homes and AutoTrans, and Car
Aid, who have been helping out
with the engine, they are awesome,”
he said.
Stuart has one race left in the
local series at Mike Pero Motorsport
Park on April 8 and he
said he would like to break the
record in the A-modified altered
category which currently stands
at 8.35sec.
Hornby Panthers coming home
• By Eddy Bramley
THE HORNBY Rugby League
Club will return to an improved
home ground this season thanks
to renovations by the city
council.
The Panthers will return to
Leslie Park for the start of the
season after major upgrades to
establish a high-quality sports
turf surface and automatic
irrigation system forced them to
play elsewhere last year.
The city council started a
multi-million dollar irrigation
and drainage project on
eight sports grounds around
Christchurch at the beginning of
last year. Many were expected to
be completed before the end of
the winter sports season, but an
extremely wet winter had caused
delays.
Panthers president Brent
Tomlinson estimated that
playing a whole season away
from home had cut the club’s
revenue stream by 66 percent.
“The life blood of any football
club is your home games. It’s
your raffles, bar-takings and the
atmosphere in the clubrooms on
match day,“ he said.
“Not having that made things
really difficult.”
Hornby had moved trainings
and home games to Branston
Park where insufficient floodlighting
often meant that players
had to resort to using their car
headlights to light the ground.
Mr Tomlinson said participation
rates in the lower age group
levels had diminished as a result
of the city council upgrades.
“Usually, Leslie Park would
be packed with kids, so many
UNDER FOOT: Hornby Panthers premiers coach Jed Lawrie checks the condition of their new playing field after major upgrades
to establish a high-quality sports turf and automatic irrigation system at Leslie Park.
PHOTO: MARTIN HUNTER
you couldn’t fit them on the
field. Sending everyone down to
Branston, where there’s no lights,
severely impacted the numbers
because they couldn’t come
along as late.”
In spite of the challenges, Mr
Tomlinson said all of the club’s
sides from the 14 th grade to the
seniors went on to make the finals.
“We’re really proud of that”.
City council neighbourhood
and sports parks operations
manager Al Hardy said
Christchurch sports grounds had
been deprioritised immediately
after the earthquakes.
However, funding from
the city council’s sports fields
capacity programme and its
annual summer sports field
renovations fund had now been
combined to “attack” sports
fields in Christchurch.
City council head of parks
Andrew Rutledge said its
primary objective for the
upgrades was to support
Christchurch community sport
by ensuring all teams had good
quality grounds to play on which
lasted the whole season.
“These upgrades will help the
grounds stand up to the longer
playing seasons and increasing
demand that we’re seeing now.
We’re looking forward to having
some really high-quality sports
fields out there for our teams and
their supporters to enjoy.”