Now that I've listed all the past winners going back to 1986 (I haven't got any programmes previous to that championship so that solves the mystery as to why I chose 1986!) it brings us nicely to the upcoming title in Auckland in February 2006.
The first thing worth noting is the lack of superstocks Auckland has had for the last few seasons. The timing of this champs couldn't be better, as we have seen recently the title seems to bring out cars from the garage that haven't had any track time for a while and also brings back some of the old legends who want 'just one more shot' on their home track.
At the tail end of last season 75a Dave Tennant re-appeared in the old 78a car of Darryl Clarkson and made it to about 3 meetings. Ricky Mitchell who has appeared off and on (mostly off) for the last couple of seasons made a triumphant return in the 36a machine and rumours abound that Paul Vasey and Mark Wearing will be moving up from the standard stocks. Also talk of a return from Clark Proctor the "Metalman" would be excellent news and add to that the cars that did front last year, 73a Bryce Marx, 53a Phil Marx, 8a Graham Goldsmith, 414a Warwick Ansty, 11a Gary Ellis, 15a Steve Pribicevich and the 87a of Greg Thompson and you have a fairly decent line up.
With news of the decision not to run superstocks at Baypark this season you wonder how many of them might make the big jump up to Auckland and having drivers like 119m Kerry Remnant, 38m Ross Ashby, 15m Rick Taylor, 2nz Rodney Wood, 92m Kyle Fraser and the like looking for a new home, I hope the Waikaraka promoters are on the phone...
..and if we are going into fantasy land lets imagine that 46p, 171r, 17v and 7r all decide to re-register with an "A" on the car! Also a few of the missing-in-action like 51a Wayne Whittaker in the old Darren Gray car and 21a Peter Drake turn up for the party. Could this be the revival of superstocks at WP?
