Smashfest!

Well finally I think you could say without any argument WP pulled off a winner last night with the running of the NZ Stockcar finals. It had everything including a fairytale win for a lone Wanganui finalist, a well run meeting and action aplenty in almost every race with run-offs needed for both finals and points updates for Africa!

The RamIt Grand Slam for the cars just outside the top 30 certainly provided the most action and going into the final heat 46w Alan Levien was the points leader. He was rolled early on by 174r Mike Hohneck along with 32p George Frear who was rolled by a menacing 84b Mike McLachlan and as each lap passed one by one the top five cars seemed to be picked off leaving a three way tie for first between 74b Tony Palmer, 14a CJ Chestnutt and 42r Ivan King. King took the runoff in a perfectly executed hit on Palmer on the last corner which Chestnutt couldn't quite capitalise on settling for the 2nd position. An outstanding display by every driver in this group considering their hopes had already finished the night before.

The NZ title was also action from start to finish and Peter Rees title hopes were gone almost immediately with yet another puncture which was great news for us meaning he would now go into stirring mode and that he did. 2nz Gaskin took the first heat and stand out performances from some of the lone entries meant that a possible outsider might go unnoticed through all the mayhem of P v W v R v A.

Heat 1
1st 2nz Richard Gaskin
2nd 31p Gary Davis
3rd 161r Clive Pritchard
4th 98v Gerry Linklater
5th 44c Peter Ross

Heat two was even better with Rees focussing on Auckland cars but playing more of a blocker role than the executioner we hear so much about. If I remember rightly it was in this heat that 98v got tangled up in traffic and without a push start and helping hand from Rees could have been an easy target. With Church and Wearing both out Aucklands hopes lay with 168a Billy Neill who moved up into the top 6 with his finish and making himself a real chance. Tied on top points though were Linklater and 31p Gary Davis who would now face a fierce Rotorua challenge with Pritchard, Axtens and Spanhake all in the top five.

Heat 2
1st 98v Gerry Linklater
2nd 31p Gary Davis
3rd 168 Billy Neill
4th 114r Steve Axtens
5th 68r Keith Spanhake

The anticipation for the final was amazing and it delivered big time. The Auckland challenge was faltering with 66a, 81a and 64a all unable to start the final race. Total carnage ensued and through the latter parts of the race 98v Linklater basically sat in between 68r Spanhake and 114r Axtens as chaos reigned around them. Rees spun 168a Neill and his chance was gone. The small Wellington contingent ended with 2nz dnf and a massive hit on 211w Gray leaving him sitting on top of the wall for a few laps (hope someone got a photo of that), 83w Robertson's poor finish in heat 1 cost him dearly as he managed to survive this heat and score good points. Meanwhile 44c Peter Ross finally became a target and although hampered often, still managed to finish. 31p Davis retired to the infield and so then it looked like a Rotorua 1-2-3 if someone could get to 98v but he managed to bring it home for a most unlikely win. 1nz from Wanganui!

Final Placings
98v Gerry Linklater 83pts
68r Keith Spanhake 81pts
114r Steve Axtens 80pts
161r Clive Pritchard 80pts
44c Peter Ross 63pts
711m Graham McRobbie 61pts

Summary

How consistent is Steve Axtens! Three times picking up the 3nz, in fact the talent coming out of Rotorua is awesome with R cars picking up 2nd, 3rd and 4th placings, so close to a clean sweep. 96a Jamie Fergusson taking on the mighty 1nz Rees was great to see in the third heat. Gerry Linklater 98v a very late entry in a car that may have already sold, he qualified as the only V car and somehow managed to win! 44c Peter Ross is another who made a lasting impression as the only South Island entrant and right in the hunt to the bitter end, how different could it have been with a bit of mainland support. A few cars that came so close to qualifying but went out in spectacular style 116m O'Reilly and 59w Marshall. Also one for the conspiracy theorists was the non-qualification of 191w Kyle Lane who failed to cross the start finish line twice in his heats on the Friday night. Whether or not it happened you do wonder what impact one more car of this class in the finals might have meant for the Wellington challenge and it would have come at the expense of either 96a or 711m from the same group as eventual winner 98v... a NZ title always has to have a little drama but this will be a hard meeting to top this season in my humble opinion.

I loved the 20 lap races for the finals, there is absolutely nowhere to hide during a race of this length and that extra five laps just added to the overall excitement. Also having 30 cars in the final was a winner. The commentary team gave out points updates and results all night befitting a championship in one of their better performances in recent years. There was no doubt who was coming where in any of the finals races and it was much appreciated by this spectator. The meeting ran smoothly and overall the whole weekend was an excellent showcase for the Stockcar class. As always these guys know what a Stockcar is for and deliver time after time. If you didn't enjoy this meeting I think you need to check for a pulse!

Meeting rating 9.5/10

NZ Stockcars Qualifying

During Friday at work I had been looking at the discussion board on Macgors and talk about 'thrills and spills, smoke and sparks' (that's the WP radio jingle by the way) there were some pretty big hits going in before the meeting had even started! Most people reading this would probably know what I'm talking about as some of the internet's high profile members went to war and even managing to bring back the ghost of internet past, Ian Abrahams, who probably hasn't posted on a discussion board in years for his take on the situation. To say there was 'a bit of turmoil' going on behind the scenes at WP is an understatement and so with some trepidation I headed off for my most anticipated meeting of the season...

I arrived around 4.30pm and the pits were full including the extra grassed area by the cricket fields so I am assuming that they got the 140+ entries that were hoped for. As usual the standard of the cars just keeps on getting raised each season and my first thought was that there weren't many of the old 'bangers' that usually turn up for these occassions, surely a sign that this is no longer a budget class of any sort. I was taking a few photos when over the loud speaker the public were informed that we had to leave the pits and it was only 5pm (you usually get until 6pm) so a frantic few shots were taken as I left because I had spent valuable pit time talking to a couple of drivers and crew!

Now for the meeting... it started off farcical and all my worst fears were being realised. A parade began of each group but the 'Dream Team' commentators weren't ready so then as they came on air, Aaron Drevers mic wasnt working and wouldnt you know it he was the one giving out the drivers names and numbers, the other three dream team members mics of course worked fine but they were on 'chit chat' duties. As the first group of cars came out for the first heat we all stood up for the National Anthem only to be told after it played "we have to do that again..." What? The Anthem was replayed so some fireworks could go off at the end, this was not looking good. Then the completely wrong group of drivers names was read out and people around me were making jokes about "someone swapped my car!" Then the flag dropped and 27a was rolled on the first lap and suddenly the feel of the whole meeting changed.

Every heat was run with almost immediately the next heat of cars coming on the track so efficiently that there was no time to get food, this was excellent and considering the amount of stoppages for rollovers and red light incidents the meeting was one of the best run and organised in years. Top marks to whoever was in charge of the flow of races. For the first time ever I tried to do a 'Tim Savell-Barry Brown' effort and take notes of what was happening, it will be the last time too, what a bloody mission. No wonder these guys are angry about the points not being read out correctly and poor sound systems, if you looked at my notes this morning you'd see the manic scratchings of a madman! More on that later...

Just a quick recap of what I saw and some highlights:

Red Group
This was the group of death apparently and contained Pete Rees who punctured in the first heat and looked to be in trouble of not qualifying but a second and third place in heats two and three got him through. Not as much action in this group as I had expected and the qualifiers were
64a Carlos Chestnutt
129m Ryan Hunt
83w Dale Robertson
449r Steve Macpherson
1nz Pete Rees

Black Group
This was one of the best groups because of 164b Beatle Tarrants relentless efforts to get 2nz Gaskin or anyone else for that matter. 4s was rolled in the first heat and my notes say "164b CHOICE!" 14a CJ Chestnutt just failed to qualify in this group and I noticed him having a go at a few cars in earlier races which might have cost him his finals place and as always 8m Scott Fredrickson was a popular target.
161r Clive Pritchard
31p Gary Davis
2nz Richard Gaskin
81a Rodney Smythe
221s Josh Hancock

Blue Group
This group had the biggest hits and had the most drama in heat three. 59w Marshall was absolutely king hit by 132s ending his chances of qualifying and worst luck must go to 6m Kerry Remnant who punctured in two of the heats while looking easily one of the fastest. 112w was rolled.
168a Billy Neill
188r Kelly Smith
211w Michael Gray
43h Tony Bennetto
116h Steve Halse

Yellow Group
According to my notes, this group we managed to get alot of points for and I've written 'controversy with 911w not crossing line, 23a heaps of stirring, PT Cruiser bugger!" the 116m car looked awesome and was one of the fastest of the night and probably only had to finish the heat to qualify but every man and his dog had a go at him and a final killer blow from 441a Weir probably helped Mulholland qualify.
68r Keith Spanhake
71a Dean Mulholland
298v Gerry Linklater
711m Graham McRobbie
96a Jamie Fergusson

Purple Group
61H and 818h both rolled in this group and 44c Ross managed to avoid alot of carnage in the third heat to qualify. Two of Auckland big hopes 99a and an impressive 4a both punctured and missed the cut. 99a Littlewood got hooked up on 38b costing them heaps of laps in the first heat and 88h Hutchby was left stalled on the back straight for ages until someone collected him ending his run also. 34a Wearing and 114r Axtens both looked the goods.
114r Steve Axtens
34a Mark Wearing
718m Alan McRobbie
54p Bevan Humphrey
44c Peter Ross

White Group
The Graeme Ward show! Qualified easily and looked great in a really sleek low riding car, will be a real chance tonight if he has any support. 611v Mooney punctured in the first heat ending his chances. Going into the third heat a number of cars could have qualified but 61r, 291m and 13r failed at the last hurdle.
97p Graeme Ward
66a Peter Church
85r Richard Keiser
92p Brett Lloyd
291m Chris Brown

So hopefully I've got those right, like I said my notes were a mess, I have real respect for anyone that has to write a factual report with detail for NZDTR for example, it's bloody hard to do!

Just a few last thoughts

The 67a of Nick Krisnic is the coolest car out there and gets my best presented by a country mile. Unfortunately a massive hit into the wall on the first lap of his first heat ended his chances but in heat three he ended the chances of 444m up the wall and a WILD ride for one of the Wellington cars (Matt Gaskin?) which will make him a must see in what ever races he appears in tonight.

The PT Cruiser of O'Reilly was just brilliant but it did make me wonder why he was such a massive target in heat three and yet absolutely no one touched 68r Spanhake or 1nz Rees or 64a Chestnutt who were much higher in points in their respective groups? Does the hard man reputation give them an easier run on qualifying night? Maybe its a Bay Park thing because 8m Fredrikson seem to suffer the same problem at every big meeting.

The printed programme is not good. Usually WP can be relied upon for a good souvenir programme but this one is a pig. Spelling errors, crap cover and not much info inside.

The Dream Team. Good grief what a performance. I dont know how many times we can say it but reading out the results while the race is still going is completely useless, WE CAN'T HEAR YOU! There were points updates but sometimes for the same races you'd already done and when there was a quiet moment it was pointless talk instead of points. According to my notes I got no results for White group races 2 + 3, Black group races 2 + 3, Blue group races 2 + 3 and purple group race 3. We got combined points but no actual race results for heat two BUT we did get top five or six going into each final heat which was good. I just thought with FOUR people one of you could have played the straight guy who just reads race results with no waffle and points totals for each driver. For example "Black Group race one, first 31p davis 24pts, second 161r Pritchard 23pts, third 2nz Gaskin 22pts... " I think the qualifying night is more aimed at Trainspotters like myself than Mr Family Guy who loves to shout when you say "Have we got anyone from Stratford!!!" Performance was far superior to Meeanee's first night last year though but there is room for improvement!

The McRobbies! What an excellent effort to both qualify from a field of 140+ cars.

Seven Auckland cars in the finals, been a long time since we've had that much representation.

So overall an excellent first night apart from some points problems and the programme, I thought it was great and I'm looking forward to an awesome finals night tonight.

Meeting rating : 8/10

NZ Stocks Practice Shots

Good turnout of around 40 cars at the practice session before tomorrow nights qualifying for the NZ Stockcar title at WP.
Getting excited about qualifying tomorrow, should be awesome...

Build up...

In anticipation of what hopefully for me (the non-traveller this season) will be the best meeting of the year, the NZ Stockcar Title at Waikaraka Park this coming Friday, here is a rerun of my review from last seasons meeting at Meeanee.





Just getting to this meeting was reward enough for me after a few weeks of injury stopping me from doing anything but with the help of prescribed drugs (including Morphine yee har!) nothing was going to stop me going!

It's at this point I'd just like to say to anyone I ran into including Wal86 (StockCarScene) and Yaz (NZ Stockcar Crazy) that I was heavily medicated so if I rambled or didn't make sense that's my excuse! It was great to catch up with you guys at last and put faces to names.

Anyway on to the meeting, 140+ cars were entered and the thought of an entire weekend of stockcars with a few superstock races thrown in on the finals night was just what the doctor ordered. We arrived fairly early on Friday night after a slow drive down to Napier (staying at the Shoreline Motel on Marine Parade - excellent!) only to find my 'pet hate'... the "Blanket People" had struck! Now I try to always write pretty positive stuff but these people really pee me off, HUGE blankets with one person or sometimes no one at all sitting on them reserving seats for 20+ people who wont arrive until after 6pm really sucks. If we can take a day off work, drive from Auckland to Napier and reach the gates at 4.15pm and then have trouble finding a decent seat of course I'm gonna be mad. Anyway I think something has to be done about this before too long because if you have a favourite seat or a group of you are going to meet up then get off your butts and get down there early like the rest of us do.



Qualifying Night

With only 4 cars going through from each heat I thought it would be all out carnage after the first round of heats but surprisingly some of the heats were a bit tame including green group's third heat which was like a flag race with barely any contact and one of the very few low points of the weekend. Hits did come though and the stars of the night for me were 68b Tony Darroch who destroyed his car, 37b Paul Demanser and 9g Steve O'Dwyer who turned mongrel after his chances of qualifying had been ended. In fact there was a few races where there was so much action going on including multiple red lights (that bloody siren sound) and roll overs that you'd have to be a hard nut not to have enjoyed the spectacle. The programme ran smoothly although the points updates where non existant and this is a major low point for me.



Instead of constantly hearing "Crank it up Sonny" and some old porn slapper thanking "Brent Boddy cars for the hot new pace ute with 17" mags and lowering kit oh yeah baby eat some Gala Catering hot dogs mmmm" WE WANTED POINTS UPDATES!!! I don't care if they are official or not, I want to know who the top six are going into the final heat at least and also during a break when both 1NZ and 97p where being removed from the track we got jokes instead of the importance of what had just happened, two of the major players removed from the championship. As the pits was closed to the public we left on the first night only having our own feeble attempts at who might be in the finals? Isnt it typical that at a track that had an excellent sound system, the commentary team had nothing to say!

1nz Dale Robertson's reign was over pretty quickly actually and it was disappointing to see him struggling all night, it was as though all his bad luck for the season hit on night one. Other favourites to suffer and not qualify were 8m Scott Fredrickson who must be one of the most targeted drivers you'll ever see and 97p Graeme Ward who was off the pace all night with various problems. 14r Steve Axtens and 19r Lance Aldridge the TAB favourite both taken out early on aswell. It was good to see a few unexpected drivers qualify like 49b Mark Jones who had some major support in the crowd and the five Straford drivers who really did their club proud.





We left the track well satisfied with what we had seen and thirsty for more carnage on night two.

Finals Night

A much better performance all round with the points updates and a few insides as to what was happening including tell us who was coming where in the points during red light stoppages - this was a much better option than music or husky voice overs but overall Im going to say that the commentary was below par for a meeting of this stature.

The Blanket People were out in force but we managed to get seats in the top row along from turn two so I was able to lean against the back board of the stand only slightly medicated and quite comfortable. I'd hate to think how many people squashed into the stadium but it was definitely a full house!

The actual three heats for the NZ title were great and once we saw who the finalists were (parked on the infield) it was obvious to me that a Palmy car or a Rotorua car would take the title. The Rotorua challenge faltered and it was the Stratford drivers who became a real chance by heat three, but I still didn't think Peter Rees would get the title as I was sure he would be a marked man. Ivan King 48r almost took him out in heat three but you have to hand it to the 11p that he can take the hits and was deserving of the title. We thought 19p Kerry Humphrey had won it and I probably think alot of the drivers did too as 11p seem almost oblivious to the fact he had just won.



19p Humphrey gets my driver of the weekend award. What an amazing achievement to be 3nz after moving up from the ministocks only a few seasons ago and had a tyre not chosen the worst time to give up he would easily have won the run off with 22w Richard Gaskin for the 2nz position. He was humble and gracious and his well presented car was a credit to the man and his club. He is a future 1nz for sure.

The consolation races were great although the attrition rate was high and perhaps a few of the groups could have been combined later on but a special mention to 44c Peter Ross in an immaculately presented car that came so close to qualifying on night one and showed his class taking out two of his three consolation races on night two. It's a great sign for the class that both of the entries from the South Island were competitive, well presented and worthy of being there. 1nz and 86b also took to each other in every race they were in and 37g Ricky Kuru had the best rollover of the weekend in my opinion and there were plenty of those. Generally the entire night was a credit to the drivers and the Hawkes Bay club.

...and finally some good stuff

A few things I'd like to mention that I thought were excellent, the opportunity to go on the infield and take photos of the cars and have a good close up look at them before the meeting. This was the first time I've ever gone on the infield at any track and once the cars fired up to head back to the pits the atmosphere was amazing, a perfect start to the weekend.

The signing session for the kids on Saturday was also a great idea and well done to the club for encouraging the drivers to be more proactive with the crowd.

The food choices at Meeanee are far and away the best of any meeting I've been to (outside Palmy of course) and even included Subway!

The programme was well put together and as a point of interest had an article on the woman drivers competing, Lisa Black, Rose Halfpenny, Kelly Layton and Donna Carter. 93a Kelly Layton and 117a Rose Halfpenny qualified for the Clay Classic.

The seating was great and the general feel of the Meeanee track is always excellent. The last meeting I attended there was Murray Hobbs winning the NZ Superstock title a few years ago and once again that was a fantastic meeting to attend.

If Billy Neill ever decides to leave stockcars he could show the clowns a thing or two, his quad bike performance was spectacular to say the least! Go Billy!



My best presented car award goes to 11r Kayton Beazley.

All in all then a great visit to Napier and a special occasion witnessing Pete Rees taking the 1nz title for the second time, and the first person to do it in Stockcars since the class was officially recognised. The quality and depth of stockcars in Palmerston North is frightening and it's hard to see any one else winning a title when you have the majority of drivers in a final carrying a 'p' on their cars.

Meeting Rating : 8/10