I wisely chose to drive down on Saturday and so avoided the traffic nightmare on Good Friday that other family members got caught up in resulting in a five and a half hour drive to Tirau for them!
Anyway, it's been a while since I've been to Paradise Valley, in fact the last time I went down I think they had just finished the first lot of terracing on the back straight, so I was looking forward to seeing what else had been done. The improvements are great and the look of the place is a credit to everyone involved. I usually sit in turn three, in front of the food stand (of course), and now there is the option to lean on the wooden rails at the top of the bank which offers a fantastic view of the track. Perfect.
Before the meeting started I had planned to meet up with Mike from Superstock 21r to check out some old Rotorua photos of cars from years ago, and can I say it was a pleasure meeting you and hopefully at a later date I'll be able to post some of the amazing photos he had (specially of a bright yellow 83r Wayne Houston 'Sherman Tank-like' standard stock from years ago, I've never seen a more solid looking car)!
Then as I was about to leave the pits, I saw Neil McCoard who I hadn't spoken to for ages and managed to chat for about half an hour. He's always been one of the nicest guys in the sport and very approachable. We talked about the old 14a tank, the 'Concoard', racing injuries and his plans for next season. What a great start to the meeting and the racing hadn't even begun!
Night one of the Easter Meeting featured Superstocks, Stockcars, Production Saloons and Mini Sprints. Now two of these classes I love and two are not so lovable, can you guess... the minisprints had good numbers and did what minisprints do, so no real gripes about them. Productions saloons are less interesting. There was a bit of biffo though which made them bearable but it offered me the opportunity to test the theory offered by Barry Brown about the popularity of classes and the numbers of people ordering food and I can say the woman cooking the hamburger patties at the food caravan was getting her panties in a bunch because she was overwhelmed by the masses during the production saloon racing! During the Superstocks and the Stockcars there was virtually no one ordering food. This survey has a plus or minus error rate of about 5 burgers.
The Superstocks and Stockcars both had massive fields of cars with the Stockcars being split into two qualifying groups. The cars were mostly from Rotorua with a few W, P, K, M, a couple of H and one token Stratford entry. From the get go Wellington cars were set upon and dealt to. This made for great viewing! Also the two tanks in attendance, 33r and 26k were constant targets all night and perhaps because 26k used to be 26m the Baypark cars specially 91m, took to him. It proved that Bill Peat style tanks can take the hits!
The Superstocks were running a best pairs meet along with the knowledge that this would be Rodney Woods last meeting before the jump to Sprintcars, so I knew at some point there would be some paybacks. Most of the action for them was kept until night two but the stand out performers and points leaders after the first three heats were 1nz, 51r, 515r, 62r and Jeff Mohi in the familiar green 74r.
So night one over, the overwhelming feeling was that I had no feeling because of the cold. Fortunately I ate my body weight in food (to keep warm) and looked forward to more of the same for night two. The meeting ran smoothly and was over pretty quick which was fine by me.
I knew night two would be better because of the addition of Modifieds and Saloons. Ministocks were also on the programme, hundreds of them it seemed, in two bunches, I had grave fears for the hamburger lady, I hope she took some V or Red Bull because she was in for a big night...
Modifieds have a love/hate relationship with this track and when 16 of them rolled out of the pits I thought there is no way this meeting is going to run smoothly. In actual fact, although there were some rollovers and some 'incidents' I thought they were great. 10s Willie Noonan is one of my favourites and seeing him back on the track was a bonus. The eventual winner was 9w Tama Arapere from 11a Jamie Fox. A bit of a dust problem was the only negative from this class.
The Ministox were not on their best behaviour and I would imagine some harsh words were said to a few of them afterwards. Made them more entertaining if anything and some infield action also got the crowd going.
The saloons were alright, stand out for me was 98h who seemed to have no fear in attempting the outside pass when others hugged the pole line hoping for an error so they could jump inside the car ahead.
In the Stockcars only four non Rotorua cars made the final 26 for the three heat finals and were put upon fairly early. 77p was harder to stop but they got him in the third heat. 16r Clive Pritchard took the win and was well deserving. The non qualifiers though really turned on the action and were great to watch. Quite a few cars were 'sponsored' by FOR SALE, so it will be interesting to see how many changed hands over the weekend.
The Superstocks turned things up a notch for their final three heats and what a great spectacle it was. The noise and atmosphere that 26 Superstocks create is the drug that keeps me coming back time after time. I sort of hoped 51r would get the fairytale ending he deserved, but this is stockcars and so he ended his career with three wheels and a second place finish, which really sums up his Superstock racing, always in the top finishers and a never say die attitude. Quite a fitting end I thought. Apparently the crew were wearing black armbands! 1nz Darcy Hunter took the title with 515r Hickey in third.
Overall I was well pleased, heaps of cars on the track, good sound system and commentary, improved viewing and seating, good food, a great catch up with some speedway people and the chance to wear four layers of clothing at once. I don't think I've ever been to a disappointing meeting at Rotorua which is a pretty good record to have.
Meeting Rating : 7/10
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