Faraway (so close!)

The title is a U2 song, and yes being able to see the light show at Mt Smart and hear the concert as I walked home was cruel but if you were one of the lucky ones to get tickets I'm sure it was a great show... meanwhile down the road at Neilson Street it was Demo Derby night...

A quick scan around the pits before the meeting showed that the pits was bursting to full but most of it appeared to be demo cars and not race cars which would impact the quality of the meeting later on. First the good news, the Streetstock antics from the first meeting were not a 'one off', in both heats one and three they were driving and entertaining (and hitting) like days of old. The class seems to be having a renaissance of sorts with big numbers and if they can keep performing like this week in week out they will be a welcome addition to any meeting instead of a 'filler' class. 66a Craig McKinney took three wins from three but 31a and 91r were the troublemakers providing the action.

The Modifieds also turned on the action with all eyes on 11a Jamie Fox who started off the back for heats two and three which made all the difference from heat one, watching him thread his way through the opposition only 56a Paul Blakely put up a fight and was able to take the feature and give the crowd (and Fox) some real competition. If the racing is this exciting with just the local cars, then mark the dates for the NZ Title and Super Dirt Cup in your diary IN PEN because they are going to be outstanding meetings. This class has really come alive.

A big field of Saloons meant the Supersaloons had to run as a separate class and they provided the crash and bash for the night, after only a few laps of the second heat the 8 cars had become 4 and the race was called. 38a Peter Hemi and 76a Stefan Hibberd provided the spectacular crashes for their respective classes.

The Sidecars featured an Auckland v Gisborne teams race comprehensively won 35-13 by the Gizzy boys with 99g leading the way. Clean racing but very one sided unfortunately not the result we were hoping for!

Now the not so good, the Stockcars numbered only 12 which is very disappointing for what is one of the feature classes at WP and with the NZ Title here on 15-17 February it's a little bit of a surprise that the numbers are this low and that we have basically had only one visitor this season (61h) from Huntly at the last meeting. The racing in all three heats was fairly tame (almost boring for these guys) and hopefully the numbers will pick up by the next meeting. The programme had no list of drivers for this class but from last seasons programme there were 50 Stockcars so that's alot of cars sitting in garages! The commentary team mentioned that the sponsors for the NZ Title will be Pick-A-Part and that 34a Mark Wearing's car should be ready in a few weeks.

There were only two Superstocks (11a and 414a) who ran off the back of the small Stockcar field.

I left the meeting just as the Demo Derby was about to start. The meeting was a mixed bag for a fairly decent sized crowd, I'm just hoping the Stockcars and Superstocks start attracting a few visitors and getting some more of the local cars on the track, they are personally what I go to see each week. The other classes seem to be more on the ball and the Modifieds and Streetstocks are doing the business.

Meeting Rating : 4/10