SPEEDWAY: Barry jnr shines at dad's memorial | Hawkes Bay Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Hawkes Bay

 It couldn't have been more appropriate ... Sam Barry winning the first race at ZM Meeanee Speedway on Saturday night.

After all the feature attraction was the inaugural Peter Barry Memorial Stockcar Teams Event - a tribute to Barry's father who died from head injuries received when racing at the Palmerston North Superstock Teams Event last year.

"I had a pretty good night with a first, fourth and third but I really wanted that last race," said Barry who turns 16 on Thursday.

The Central Hawke's Bay College student was referring to the 25-lap ministock final in which he finished third behind fellow Hawke's Bay drivers Quinn Ryan and Alice Bayley. The Bay domination of this event was an ideal form of consolation for the Orange Roughies and Meeanee Maulers failure to podium in the eight-team memorial event.

They were sixth and seventh respectively.

"The whole night was a great tribute to Dad ... I'm sure it will get bigger," said Barry.

Despite the threat of poor weather 4000 spectators turned out and they were treated to plenty of hard hitting racing. Several of them remarked on how well Peter Barry controlled the weather to allow the main races to be completed before the showers came.

The Waikato Raiders upset the highly fancied Palmerston North Pumas to become the inaugural winners of the highly fancied Peter Barry Memorial Trophy.

"That's the highlight of my seven years of racing ... it's not every day you beat a Palmy team," said 19-year-old Raider Tyson Wootton who was first across the finish line in the final.

"We had some great blockers out on the track and a big crew working behind the scenes," said Wootton, a son of Huntly speedway personality Red Wootton.

"We've got a young team with an average age of 20 and I'm sure we'll be around for a while together. We will definitely be back next year to try and win this again," he added.

Three-time national stockcar champion Peter Rees was one Puma who the Raiders had to mark closely. Rees was able to be shoved up the wall and turned around by the Raiders and this was a huge boost to the Raiders confidence.

Raider Scott Gallop, who had earlier put Puma Alec Wilson up the wall played a major role in reducing Rees's freedom. Rees was lucky to make it out for the final after completing a late gearbox change.

In their final outing before the final the Pumas got all five of their cars across the finish line in a 195-0 thrashing of the Kihi Kihi Crusaders.

The Meeanee Maulers first race was a nightmare and they lost 175-20 to the Wanganui Vulcans. The Vulcans had the first four cars across the finish line after Maulers Ricky Kuru and Mike McLachlan were both eliminated early and Marty Cooke's freedom was restricted by a hard hit from Wanganui's Dion Mooney.

The Orange Roughies were beaten 160-25 by the Te Marua Terminators in their first race. The Roughies redeemed themselves with a 125-70 win against the Vulcans in their next outing as did the Maulers with a 110-85 win against the Terminators but the damage was done in their first races.

While the Teams Derby final was cancelled to allow the stockcar races to be completed before the rain came all four teams, the Takapau Terrors, Dirty Rottens from Wanganui, Nu Generation from Central Hawke's Bay and the Churchward Family from Takapau, have every right to be proud of their contribution. Jason Holt was impressive for the Terrors.

One of the more spectacular ministock crashes involved rolls for Kayla Whittington of Hawke's Bay and Gisborne's Nikki Ellmers.

• The Bay-based Palmerston North-contracted superstock driver Shane Penn won his third New Zealand Grand Prix title in Palmerston North on Saturday night. Penn, who had earlier won the title in the 2006-07 season at Meeanee and in 1997 at Palmy, beat Nelson's Shane Harwood and Dale Ewers by three points.

"I've finally got all the gremlins sorted with the car," said Penn who is driving a new Nissan V8 powered car this season.

Steve Jude was the best of the Bay-contracted drivers with a 10th placing and the Bay's 3NZ Murray Long was 15th.