Bang!

My second meeting of the season was at Waikaraka Park on Saturday night for their fireworks "spectacular" which I think will be remembered more for being a fizzer than anything else. I arrived at around 6pm and there was a light amount of rain which almost had me turning the car around but I went in anyway and my first thought was that the pits seemed to have less cars than the opening meeting. I'm not sure of the numbers but unfortunately the first taste of Superstocks was going to be entree size as there were only six of them including two Huntly cars. Their first race was a little light on action and speed but understandable. The programme mentioned that Mark Decke will be running as 99a this season and that probably was the only highpoint for the Superstocks all evening.



Stockcars were there in force and thankfully performed like they always do, in fact their first race was the standout of the night with 96a Nick Krznic driving his old car and causing all the mayhem after a long absence from the track. In their second race they were combined with the remaining superstocks and that was there lot for the night, which makes me wonder why the ATV's were given 3 races, in fact quite a few odd decisions were made throughout the meeting and the best one was the decision to stop the meeting and have the fireworks while it was still light because of incoming rain... the rain never appeared, some of the fireworks never exploded (which really summed up the meeting) and then there was a half hearted effort to restart the programme after the lights were turned back on only to be told by the commentator that there was some MORE fireworks so we'll stop the meeting and have those instead.

At this stage I made like a skyrocket and left the stadium.

As usual the sound system was below par, which is a pity because they managed to get Paul Vasey in to talk about the Superstocks (including his own which is still a few weeks away) and the Stockcars including the team to go to Huntly (89a, 71a, 12a, 99a... was all I heard) but most of the commentary is lost on the public as you can only ever hear it when there is no background noise.

I always think that these Meetings are a good chance to grab a few new punters who come along basically to see the Fireworks and yet the supporting meeting usually is pretty lame and reinforces the feeling that most people tolerate the racing just to see the fireworks. It's a major marketing opportunity that is completely wasted every season.

I'll try and end on some positive notes, the new track surface looked good, Kevin Moore and Shane McInteer were great in the Supersaloons, the Modifieds were good and the food was okay and... we've just found EVEN MORE fireworks!