Huntly Teams Night 1

I was pretty sure this meeting would be rained out so by the time I left work on Friday afternoon I was pleasantly surprised with the fact there had been no rain all day. I arrived early rather than face the Auckland Friday night traffic twice by going home first then venturing off to Huntly. As I arrived the carpark was nearly empty! I knew the meeting hadn't been cancelled so I thought that perhaps we weren't going to get a huge crowd for the first night which turned out to be right.

Palmerston North's withdrawal meant that Auckland also got the chop which still seems like and odd decision to me. Surely a composite team or a second team from either H, M or R should have been arranged but who knows the ins and outs of organising a Teams Racing meeting - it seems to be a difficult task even in a class that boasts huge numbers and drivers who love to put their cars on the line.

So the six teams were Waikato, Rotorua, Wanganui, Hawkes Bay, Kihikihi and Bay Park. A draw was done in the crowd to split the teams in to two groups and the three best teams (on paper) got lumped into the second group: Rotorua, Waikato and Bay Park. So far so good. Now for my first moan... with only six teams that meant we would be having only six teams races on the first night so there had to be support classes to flesh out the programme which I have to say were pretty weak. There were three Supersaloons, a decent field of TQs and a few even smaller versions of TQs called Quarter Midgets and then the learner grade of Ministox. That's a whole lot of 'mini' everything and I was expecting matchbox cars to fire out of the pit gate as each successive race seem to feature smaller and smaller cars, such was the underwhelming feel of the racing. I know that the better classes are probably being held out for the Saturday night racing when I assume the bigger crowd will be present but it still wasn't a good start to the nights programme and perhaps the Stockcars could have been run on both nights as a support class? Seeing a few of them in the pits pre-meeting for some filming for the WRC Shakedown programme was a taste of what could have been. It took until 8.15pm before the first teams race took place so that was a lot of filler for the fans to sit through.

I wont go into major detail of the racing but just mention a few highlights.



Race 1 : Kihikihi Crusaders v Wanganui Vulcans
It was great to see two tanks in the Crusaders line-up specially when we were told one of them was Bryce Steiner (33k) in possibly one of the ugliest looking tanks around. Unfortunately the Kihikihi plans fell apart before they even took the track with the 33r retiring before the race started with clutch problems. Wanganui took a fairly evenly matched raced as the Kihikihi cars slowly fell away with reliability problems. Amazingly it was mentioned that Wanganui haven't even had a meeting yet at their own track so their performance was outstanding.
Wanganui 140 v Kihikihi 45



Race 2 : Waikato Raiders v Bay Park Bulldogs
15m Scott Gallop took the win in this race with barely a touch on him although there was plenty going on around him. Most attention seemed to be on 11m Scott Fredrickson and once he had been despatched the Raiders seemed to lose focus and it would cost them dearly needing a win against Rotorua later in the night to qualify after this performance.
Waikato 75 v Bay Park 110



Race 3 : Meeanee Maulers v Wanganui Vulcans
Hawkes Bay livened things up with a great performance, standouts were 84b Beatle Tarrant, 85b Mike Maclachlan and Gisborne ring-in Ricky Kuru had a solid effort as the runner taking the win. Wanganui kept enough cars moving to score valuable points that would see them qualify for the semis.
Hawkes Bay 160 v Wanganui 35



Race 4 : Bay Park Bulldogs v Rotorua Rascals
11m Scott Fredriksons night was ended by Ivan King in this race with a 'king' hit. Bay Park looked a bit lost without his usual reliable running style and the Rotorua machine looked strong and easily the best team on show. I will mention my usual gripe about consecutive numbering on cars making it difficult to work out who is who in a team of identical looking cars. I suppose that's the whole point but for a spectator it's not so great.
Rotorua 165 v Bay Park 30



Race 5 : Kihikihi Crusaders v Meeanee Maulers
Steiner's tank managed to make the start of this race but didn't last long and although 14k Noel Hawthorne and 4k Bryce Eaton never gave up, the HB team were supremely dominant in this race and it was great to see an Auckland car 14a CJ Chestnutt out there representing the Bay. Another good performance that saw HB top qualifier.
Hawkes Bay 165 v Kihikihi 10



Race 6 : Rotorua Rascals v Waikato Raiders
It was make or break for the Raiders after a less than typical display in their first heat and they were up against their bogey team Rotorua to do it. Unfortunately for them Rotorua's 204r Steve McPherson was never touched as he ran for the flag to secure the win and bump the hosts from the finals. This heat featured the only rollover for 98h. Another great display from the Paradise Valley team.
Rotorua 145 v Waikato 50

Overall I was well pleased with the teams racing, Hawkes Bay and Rotorua looked the goods and gave us what we wanted. Eight teams would have made the meeting better but obviously it was beyond the control of the Huntly Promotion. The support programme didn't come up to scratch and the atmosphere was sadly lacking for a meeting that really should be a big crowd puller. It had a bit of an 'undercooked' feel to it but weather permitting the finals should hopefully step things up a bit.

Semi Finals:
Meeanee Maulers v Bay Park Bulldogs
Rotorua Rascals v Wanganui Vulcans

Meeting rating : 5/10