A taste of things to come

It seemed like ages since I'd been at a speedway track and having been away on holiday in Coromandel I timed it right getting home yesterday and WP scheduling it's last meeting for the year, which didn't appear to have any featured title apart from "Meeting Five" in the rehashed printed programme from the rained-out "Christmas Cracker" meeting. A stroll through the pits showed that there were plenty of cars and a few new Stockcars making their first appearance. I took great interest in one car because I had seen if for sale on Macgors site for $3500 and noticed that it had been sold to Auckland and I wanted to know if anything under $5000 is worth racing these days...

The feature for the night was definitely going to be the Modifieds and they had a great field of 15 mostly Auckland registered, I think the only visitors were 18r and 55s from memory. There were other classes, 4 Supersaloons, 1 Superstock, 10 ATV's, 18 MiniStox, 18 Production Saloons and about 10 Saloons but the real question for me was whether two classes (the Modifieds and Stockcars) could carry a whole meeting? Well the good news is they did. Along with some fireworks and the opportunity for three people to have a go in a two seater sprintcar, the meeting went pretty well. With both the NZ title for Mods and Stockcars being raced at WP this season, it was a taste of what is to come with both classes providing fantastic action.

In the Modifieds it was Jamie Fox once again who appeared to dominate racing winning the first heat, 55s Paul Ward managed to take the second heat and in the third heat the sensation of the night (in my opinion) 2nz Allan Haigh, who ran off the back of the field in all three heats managed to catch and pass Fox until a mechanical problem halted his race just laps from the finish. The pass (in traffic) brought a HUGE cheer from the crowd, such is the dominance of Fox and really had my heart pumping, what a great race which Fox went on to win. The NZ title should be one of the meetings of the year if this is anything to go by. Also grabbing my attention was 18a who was fast and unpredictable at times and usually seemed to be in the thick of the action including a mix up which ended the night for 36a Phil Crumpe.

The Stockcars had their biggest field of the season with 26 cars and immediately the mayhem began from the very first corner. The $3500 car I mentioned earlier was 68a, a former Rotorua car and so I spent most of the first heat watching him, not one of the fastest cars but still competitive and in the action immediately even being taken onto the grass at one stage in a huge spin, the car finished the race in a cloud of smoke and wasn't seen for the rest of the night but for a real cheapie car it performed better than I had expected. Heat two had a huge rollover for 651a and the feature race continued the mayhem with probably less than 10 cars finishing. A return to form for this class and again, like the Mods, the NZ title in February will be a 'not-to-be-missed' meeting. A few of the Auckland drivers, 168a, 99a, 64a, 441a and 29a are going to be major chances for a win at this title the way they are performing... bring it on!

The rest of the classes were decidedly average, I hope the production saloons were a 'one-off' though and not going to become another semi regular class like the ATV's who with only 10 bikes were keeping the caterers busy. It doesn't matter how much the commentary team get excited (and trust me they can do excited, you would think Jesus himself was riding one of the ATV's) you can't have both these classes AND the MiniStox and not lose a few people's interest!

(pics to come)

Meeting Rating: 6/10

Merry Christmas!

Hope you all have a great Christmas, enjoy the holiday break and manage to get in some Speedway meetings too! If anyone is feeling particularly generous I'd love a copy of the programme from the NZ Superstock Title in Dunedin, unfortunately my budget doesn't stretch enough to cover going but I'm sure it will be a fantastic meeting, my pick to win... Shane Penn!

Thanks to Macgor, Yaz, Percy, Del Nield and anyone else who has emailed, sent stuff or gone to the effort of running a website and the work that is involved in sharing your passion for this sport.

Gregobro!

IMHO

Although I wanted to go to Huntly that option was a no-go due to commitments in Auckland so I went along to the Auckland Streetstock title at WP instead. In the two meetings I've been to so far at WP the Streetstocks have easily been the most improved class and have provided the best action, so were they going to step up another notch for their local title... well, YES is the answer! Three heats with three different winners, a good field of 14 cars, two rollovers, and one of my personal favourite drivers winning the title.

Heat one was more of a flag race/points grab kind of affair and it was the visitor from Kihikihi 21k Blair Castleton who took the win and set himself up for some attention no doubt in later heats, the pre race favourites of 89a, 66a, 45a and 12a all scored well.

Heat two was won by 36a Lydon Morrison in the Capri V6 but the major action was the 89a Shane Walden roll over, after a quick check of the car, was able to resume racing and collect valuable points that would see him with a podium finish at the end of the night, (I actually thought this roll happened in the first heat but I will blame the freezing conditions for any factual inaccuracy!). 12a received some front end damage and a DNF that basically ended his chance of winning the title. Going in to heat three the surprise package of 21k was leading the points ahead of 45a and 36a setting up a great final heat.

Heat three had everything except... the leading points scorer! 21k never made it out of the pits and so Bill Peat become the target for this race. Several attempts by 91r Mike Hallinan to end his race failed but Hallinan did manage to get 36a Morrison in the most spectacular barrell roll I've seen in ages sending the 36a up into the fence and ending his night. The final placegetters were 45a, 89a and 12a who took the heat three win. Great racing and a great result. I was surprised the 'entertainer/stirrer' prize went to 66a, I thought 91r was worth the price of admission alone and every time this guy appears at WP he is a major troublemaker.

The rest of the racing was top notch, not a hotdog class in sight! A teams race for the Stockcars which oddly included 55h Turtle in what essentially was a trial for the Alleycats won by the Possibles team of 168a, 99a, 158a, 29a and 117a over the Probables team of 55h, 12a, 71a, 69a and 95a. The Stockcar heats had some good action including a massive hit by 18a Sam Legae on 69a Richard Fletcher in heat two and another bizarre incident in heat three where every car in the race except 117a and the 1NZ of Darcy Hunter was brought to a halt due to the lead car spinning in front of the pack!

The Sidecars were also upstaged by a visitor from Kihikihi the 69k combo winning the first two heats until 28a won the final heat and finally secured a local win! The racing was much closer than last weeks Gisborne whitewash. Huge fields of Ministocks and Saloons also added to a great nights racing including a win for 76a Stefan Hibberd in contrast to last weeks disappointment and an evenly matched field of 9 Modifieds in some great close racing that had me on the edge of my seat when 36a Phil Crumpe looked set to take out the feature race only to be passed by 33a Chris Drube with 2 laps to go.

The night wasn't without it's problems but with the new sound system we were kept informed and an explanation for any delays (for example one of the pit gates was damaged and not working) was totally understandable and well managed. In fact the meeting ran almost at normal pace and full credit to everyone involved. The commentary team are getting into a good rhythm and the pairing of Aaron Drever and Mike Howe is entertaining. Whoever organised the new sound system must be in the running for 'Club Member of the Year' it really makes a huge difference to Joe Public's enjoyment of a meeting at WP, knowing what's going on and having good music during the downtime.

There was a sombre start to the meeting with a minutes silence for former Treasurer of the club Janice Dresden who had passed away and some kind words by the commentary team about how much dedication and 'behind the scenes' effort people put in just for the love of the sport. It's a point sometimes lost in the reviews and online discussion boards and taken for granted and so it was a well timed and fitting tribute.

Meeting rating : 6/10