Dress Rehearsal

Not many regional titles can attract around 50 Superstocks but that was the prospect leading up to Sunday's King Country title at Kihikihi. Although the final number was somewhere around 32, the last chance (and for some the first time) to race on the new track surface before the NZ title is held there in late January was reason enough to be there. Drivers were split into two groups for qualifying heats with a one race final. 31p Andy McCabe took both wins for Blue group and 515r Stan Hickey matched him in the red group giving them the front row for the final.

After a first lap crush into turns 1 & 2, Stan Hickey took off from the pack until spinning a few laps later and eventually pulling to the infield. This left Saturday night's hero 85h Jared Wade with the lead followed closely by local 6k Kerry Remnant and 75a Dave Tennant. I was watching the leading cars for most of the race as you could see Wade's lead slowly disappearing and after a hesitant move around a slowly circulating 5k Brad Ridland, Remnant seized the opportunity and took the lead and the rest was history. 31p Andy McCabe managed to pass Tennant for the 3rd place podium position. There is an excellent review of the meeting on the Kihikihi website worth checking out here.

One of the really positive aspects of the meeting was a few drivers who's fortunes have been 'mixed' recently showing some good pace or flashes of brilliance in a couple of heats. 42p Robin Davenport, 39s Michael Willemson and 75a Dave Tennant who finished 4th overall. As with Saturday night, 62h Dayne Conder will be one to watch and the speed of both tanks 85h and 38r will no doubt be a prospect to relish for the NZ title. Kihikihi turned on a absolute scorcher of a day and dust was always going to be a problem later on but with the NZ's being run later into the evening hopefully this won't be a major. The track wasn't the only surface getting burned, I managed to get pretty rosey red myself so might I add an essential for January at this track will be SUNBLOCK!

As a dress rehearsal for the club, things seemed to run pretty smoothly. I spent a lot of time in the pits and on the pit side of the track which doesn't appear to have any speakers so missed much of what the commentary team said BUT I did manage to get a number of drivers to sign my speedway review book from last season and plenty of compliments on the book which I was really stoked about. Thanks to Kyle Fraser, Stan Hickey, Kevin Free, Paul and Jared Wade, Ross Ashby, Brad Ridland, Gary Ellis, Dave Tennant, Lance Ashton, Aaron King, Dale Robertson, Rick Taylor and a few others. I understand at the NZ title they will be having a signing session and a few other spectator friendly aspects to the meeting which is great, the public really do appreciate it. I dont tend to get involved much with driver/club side of things but I have to say without exception every driver was easily approachable and happy to sign the book or have a chat and in the case of Jared Wade who was already in the tank about to head to the track, it was not a problem.

Anyway, I'll be booking my seat for January 30/31, should be a fantastic meeting and could throw up an unexpected winner if this meeting was anything to go by. The track seems to be a leveller which makes it all the more exciting...

Meeting rating : (want to put 10/10 after meeting all those drivers but...) 7/10

Waikato Superstocks

After a few weeks of rainouts for most of the North Island it was great to see a meeting go ahead as planned. This meant a bonus for the spectators with the Waikato Superstock title sharing the billing with the Midget 40 Lap Spectacular. 25 Superstocks made the grid for heat 1 of 3 in a night of slick racing, fast turnaround of programmed events and good fields in all classes on show.

Heat 1
Inside the first lap the beautifully presented 89r of Dale Robertson was sent into the wall in a tangle with 24h Warren Burkhart which would eventually bring on the red lights to remove the 24h. The infield was littered dnf's fairly early on: 5k Ridland, 9b Groome and 35h Fraser. 73h Karl Ross lead from 31p Andy McCabe for most of the race but it was a late charging 515r Stan Hickey who would take the lead and the points with a great three way battle for the heat 1 victory. Of note was the hard charging 62h Dayne Conder in the ex Redfern machine showing some good pace for a 6th place finish.

515r, 31p, 73h, 85h, 282s, 62h, 414a, 19r, 23h, 28h

Heat 2
A few cars were missing from the start for heat two. 15h Karl Pegg lead for the first few laps until 35h Dion Fraser took the lead which he would keep for the remainder for an impressive win. 15h Pegg lost a few places after a battle between 22r Steiner and 414h Ansty resulting in them spinning in front of the leading bunch. Heat 1 winner Hickey lost valuable places after being taken to the wall by 62h. Lance Ashton took second from the Wade tank who was looking very menacing for a podium finish.

35h, 23h, 85h, 15h, 91b, 19r, 62h, 282s, 31p, 515r

Heat 3
Going into heat three the points leader was Jared Wade on 45pts, 23h Lala Ashton on 41pts, 31p Andy McCabe and 515r Hickey on 41pts, and 62h Conder and the hardly seen at all 282s Ogle on 39pts. As expected the action really picked up for the final heat and the locals (particularly 414h) made sure Hickey would not be taking the title back to Rotorua. 91b SJ Cavell pulled off before the flag fell and it wasn't long before he was joined on the infield by a few local cars. 23h Lance Ashton lead from 282s Ogle meanwhile 515r survived attacks from 35h and 31p was hampered by 007h Wallbank who brought on the red lights. At this stage 85h was mid pack, 515r and 31p well down the field with Ashton leading Ogle, Remnant and Robertson. On the restart it didn't take long for 414h Ansty to remove 89r and then a final attack on Hickey before Ashton came home for the heat win. Overall points left 85h Jared Wade the victor from 23h Lance Ashton and 282s Phil Ogle taking 3rd place honours.

It was great to get some decent Superstock racing with a big field and a bit of biff and bash. Enough to make me decide to go to Kihikihi on Sunday for the BIG turnout for their King Country meeting.

Meeting rating : 7/10

New book!

After what seems an incredibly long off season, I finally managed to finish my book containing reviews of last seasons meetings featured on this website. I got a finished printed copy of it in the post on Friday and I'm pleased to say it's an improvement on the 2007/08 book and with some photos contributed by Gavin Evitt (PallMall) and Graham Hughes (SportsWeb) it's got some classy track shots to go with my pit photos. There are 473 photos in fact and all of the reviews good, bad or ugly for 2008/09 are included. Of course its not a comprehensive recap of everything that went on last season but it is a good snapshot and even looking back at the first book I did, the amount of cars that have changed colour, changed hands or simply gone awol is amazing. I like to think in 10 years these books will be a great reminder of what was going on.



Preview of the first 15 pages and the back cover is here and if you want one you can also order on that page. Mine took about 5 days to get here using FedEx but you can pay heaps less for standard postage. Remember the prices are in US dollars.

154 pages, full colour, christmas just around the corner...

King Country Stockcars

The third meeting of my 'stockcar addicts' weekend was at Kihikihi Speedway for the King Country Stockcar title. I had been pretty lucky with the weather on Friday night at WP when it was looking threatening but it finally caught up with me Sunday after about the first round of racing had been completed. Around 26 cars had turned up and were split into two groups for qualifying. When the weather did pack in I thought they had no chance of finishing the meeting and having had my fill of racing already, I decided to call it quits and head on back to Auckland.

The club managed to soldier on and complete the programme so well done to them and the people that stayed on would have appreciated it I'm sure. For the record 95a Gary Lonergan took the title from 116h Steve Halse and 218h Aaron Alderton. The track looks really amazing and I like the unique infield layout. Thinking outside the box (or the oval) in this case.

Meeting rating : 5/10

Baypark Gold Cup Stockcars

Last year this meeting was worth the trip down to Tauranga, so with the usual amount of Baypark promotion (none) it was good to see about 33 Stockcars in the pits. The breakdown of cars had about 16 locals and the rest visitors from Auckland, Huntly, Rotorua, Meeanee and Kihikihi. The format was two heats for points and then most points off the front for a grand final winner take all.

Heat one was okay with most cars having a good run and grabbing as many points as they could. Major casualty was 291r Chris Brown who started from pole postion only lasting about 1 lap before retiring. 109r Jason Brown looked good for a win but a spinning 66a Peter Church cost him vital seconds and he settled for second behind clubmate 81r Damian Orr. 8m Scott Fredrickson took third from 84m Ryan Smyth and a hard charging 17b Aaron Iremonger rounding out the top five.

81r, 109r, 8m, 84m, 17b, 82m, 218h, 48m, 81h, 13r

Heat two was a humdinger! Any local car who hadn't performed well in the first heat went into stirring mode and best of them was 24m Ian Daniel. At various stages of the race he managed to spin, hit or eliminate 98r, 218h, 109r, 66a and made a general nuisance of himself - top stuff and his battered car just kept on circulating. At the front of the field it was 29m Ryan Hunt for most of the race until a problem saw him head for the infield leaving a fantastic tussle between 95a Gary Lonergan, 81h Rodney Smythe and 82m defending champ Brent Haynes. Lonergan looked to have it until the last corner when Smythe managed to half spin him but fortunately Haynes tucked in behind righted the 95a and kept him moving forward for the win.

95a, 81h, 82m, 48h, 8m, 81r, 35m, 98r, 84m, 26m

For the 15 lap Fredrickson Gold Cup feature race the three-wide front row consisted of 81r, 8m and 82m. What followed was one of the best stockcar races I've seen in a long while. Hits going in left right and centre with the overall theme of the race seemlingly to eliminate whoever was at the front! One by one every leading car seemed to be taken out. 81h spun, 109r puncture, 95a spun, 8m spun, until a red light stoppage 5 laps from the end showed that 82m defending champ Brent Haynes was leading from 81r Orr and 17b Iremonger. Upon the restart the carnage continued and it looked like Haynes was home for the money until he clipped Scott Fredrickson's rear bumper while he was taking a car into the wall sending the 82m heavily front first into the wall. At this stage the teamwork from the Mount cars paid dividends and 35m Graham Keating inherited the lead taking the win from 84m Ryan Smyth and I believe 81r Damian Orr grabbed third place.

The rest of the programme included 15 Sprintcars, 22 Saloons, 8 Supersaloons and 38 Ministocks. I will mention that the only real problem of the night was the continual dust coming off the track - maybe there is a special place to sit because during the Sprintcar and Saloon races you could hardly watch such was the red dust cloud and if you were foolish enough to be eating food it got a few extra spices even the Colonel wouldn't touch. When I got back to my friends place in Papamoa I almost had to be hosed down outside before I could go in the house - I kid you not! Anyway, dust aside it was a step up from last years meeting and definitely a stockcar meeting worth venturing to Baypark for if you love heaps of contact. Outside of a teams meeting you wouldn't see this much action at most tracks.

Meeting rating : 7/10

Black Friday Biff & Bash

One thing you can say about Auckland is that not only is the weather fickle but so are the crowds going by the sparse turnout for WP's second meeting of the year. The Black Friday 'Biff and Bash' was essentially a club night meeting and I thought that car numbers would be light given the fact is was being run on a Friday but although down on the opening meeting the pits was still very full and included a number of new cars.

Paul and Craig Chatfield made they first appearances in a while sporting what can only be described as "Chatfield Racing Green" on two very slick looking cars. Also debuting was 9a, 82a, a very welcome return of 441a Andy Weir and 24a Trevor Cook. Numbers for the stockcars (19 in the pits) are very impressive this early in the season. Superstocks managed 9 cars which isnt too bad considering Rotorua only pulled in 8 last night at their meeting. Huntly cars took out all three wins but 61a Nicholls looked promising in the first heat although gremlins appear to have ended his night early ("We burst a pressure line from the oil pump, nothing sinister, we will be back next week") emailed from Tim. 85h Jared Wade learned the hard way that if you take on one Marx car (there were three of them racing: 53a, 63a and 73a) you will be punished and so the honour of first rollover in this class for the year was his after a perfectly timed hit by 63a. Don't mess with the Marx! 28h Glen Drabble won heat one, was second in heat two and took out the feature.

Supersaloons managed a very decent field of 10 cars and once again 99a McInteer was the one to watch although 38h Peter Hemi kept him honest. Keep an eye on 51a in the beautifully presented Mainline car, this guy has really stepped up a gear. 61a Roy Walker took a clean sweep of the Saloons and looked the goods in a field that could only muster 11 cars. The rest of the racing included a whopping 35 Ministocks, 8 Modifieds and 9 Streetstocks in some pretty tame racing. My only real gripe perhaps is the starting grids for some of these races with Jamie Fox barely tested with front row starts, likewise for McInteer in the Supers.

So a another small step forward in regards the actual show being put on, I'm sure the crowd will be huge at the next meeting being a Demo Derby. Special thanks to whoever was in control of the flow of events as there wasn't a single break in the programme and the 21 races were completed before 10pm giving the Modifieds a bonus race at the end of the night. When its as cold as it was last night, simple things like this make a huge difference. Also putting up stirrers money for all three Stockcar races made them the standout class for the night. Not sure of who took the money but 441a Weir, 007a Fergusson and the real surprise of the night 21a Brett Dixon who found his inner mongrel must have been contenders. Onwards and upwards then for this new promotion hopefully.

Meeting rating : 6/10

Cracker!

WP Opening Meeting

If ever there was an important meeting this season for WP, this was going to be it. A lot of pressure and expectation for the new promotions team and club who perennially under-perform each season, usually giving a glimpse of how good the place can be at only a few meets during the season. Fortunately they delivered with a quality show, fantastic fireworks display and decent fields in most classes even requiring some of the cricket grounds for the abundance of MiniStocks in attendance. More noticeable than the on-track action (which was great) was the HUGE crowd and excellent atmosphere (yes atmosphere!) that has been missing for several years.

From the moment you went through the public gates the new signage signalled change. The amount of competitors in the pits (probably double any figure a usual opening night has drawn in) and a quick look through the new-look full colour A5 sized programme which is very spectator friendly, confirmed that indeed, change is happening.

The four man commentary team (Howe, Drever, Duff and new man Chris Lawrence) gelled well although there were a few hiccups with driver info and results that can be overlooked on a normal race night. There were some hilarious jokes at the expense of John Duff who put the commentators hex on EVERY car he mentioned to the point that he refused to even say drivers names towards the end of the night. He must owe Nigel Ross a drink such were his powers of destructive suggestion! The flow of the meeting was pretty good although the fireworks usually means a late night - starting promptly at 6.45pm and finishing just after 11pm stretching it a bit. The programming of a teams race between Auckland and Gisborne (win to the Alleycats), a Rock FM promotion infield, a chance to win a season pass and the complete lack of pointless downtime for a crowd that would have included many families probably only there for the fireworks meant that for once the club were taking advantage of the opportunity to convert a few first timers and get them coming back for the speedway viewing.

The Gisborne Gladiators made the long trek up for a match-up with the local Alleycats team who haven't made a home appearance since the disastrous cancelled encounter with Rotorua last year. The race was essentially settled in turn three of the first lap as Gary Lonergan took out Gladiators runner 66g Sam Hughes leaving 5 cars on to 4 for the rest of the race. The visitors never gave up, which is becoming a hallmark of the new era Gizzy teams but with a polished looking Auckland team including new cap Dan Martin performing clinically and without too much need for mega hits, Gary Lonergan took the win from a late charging 65g Andrew Powell. Lets hope this is an omen for the Alleycats big season ahead at the Huntly and Wellington events.

The rest of the programme included 8 Modifieds, a big quality field of Saloons, a mixed field of SuperSaloons and Saloons with some spectacular if unpredictable driving from 99a Shane McInteer, 30+ MiniStocks, a very big field of 26+ Stockcars, a strong field of StreetStocks, MiniSprints and the Sidecar rigs who raced on the big track (another good decision that gets a thumbs up from me) plus the feature race photos and interview with the winning driver to finish the night off. As I left I heard over the pit speakers the drivers all being thanked for their efforts and no doubt relief that the first date was done and dusted.

Mission accomplished for the first meeting then, the big challenge now is to repeat it and keep the crowds coming through the gates. Having the big crowd there really makes a difference. Even when the winning driver went on their chequered flag lap people were cheering on the backstraight like in the old days. The old days... now there's a hard act to measure up to, nobody has been able to even get close in recent years, but if we remember massive speedway fan Rachel Hunter's sage advice "it wont happen overnight,..."

Meeting rating 7/10

WP Practice 2

Just a few photos from Wednesday nights practice.