Grassroots Speedway

Saturday 5th
Whangarei

I had been meaning to go up to the Northland Speedway at Whangarei for ages and this past weekend we were staying with friends who live up there and it coincided with a meeting being run which was their final club day meet of the season.

The track is down by the old port and pretty easy to find. I went in to the pits and started taking a few photos and was surprised to see quite a few Auckland TQ’s here to race against the locals but as I wandered a bit further I was even more surprised to see a genuine tank sitting amoung the eight stockcars in attendance. I went over to speak to the driver who was Mike Dodds 345wr who told me it was bought from Shaun Smith in Wanganui by Neville Macken who sold it on to him. It was great talking to Mike and then after I took a few more photos Stacy Macken came over and introduced himself, he is part of a family of racers including Dad Neville in the recently purchased from Rotorua 75r, brother Deon 343wr, Stacy 48wr and partner Paulette 334wr who all compete.

Stacy told me about the club and the stockcar scene up north and was very welcoming and awesome to talk to. In fact most of the family came over before the meeting and introduced themselves and told me about their cars and their involvement in the sport. Talk about passionate, it’s families like these that are the backbone of our sport. Stacy said although the numbers were low today being the final meeting (there are about 15 local cars but getting them all to the track at the same time is the hard part) that they would turn on the action for the crowd and have some fun and that they did. Two rollovers and more blocking than flagracing in four heats was great entertainment. Two of the stockcars are currently for sale and the 343wr of Deon Macken (the former Iron Maiden of Dean Watts 88p) is on the Macgors Buy and Sell. A good fast car that dished up some punishment for the other cars including Dad who was left on his lid.







Also racing were TQ’s, Quad bikes, Escorts and various grades of productions and saloons. Four heats for each of the seven classes was great value for only $8 and with decent food, good soundsystem and the friendly atmosphere on a brilliant sunny day made it a memorable visit to a track we don’t hear too much about. No delays between races and plenty of on track action. I fully recommend to anyone thinking of visiting or to race at Whangarei to check out their website for next seasons racing calendar, I know I will be going back up. It was a reminder that the sport is supposed to be about having a good time and getting the family involved something that is foremost at this track.





There are some great action shots on the Black Widow Racing site here.


Sunday 6th
Dargaville





As we were leaving Whangarei a guy mentioned to us that there was racing at Dargaville the following day for their final club meeting so we decided to do a small detour on our way back to Auckland and went to Finlayson Park Speedway on the outskirts of Dargaville township. It’s a smaller set up than Whangarei but the fields of mostly productions, saloons and four stockcars were no less passionate in their racing. Actually the biggest hit we saw of the weekend was here when the 349h of Chris White sent the 13wr Stockcar of Gary ‘Grub’ Bankcart right up and over the banked grass wall that surrounds the track! Awesome stuff. Only disappointment was knowing that there are a few good cars up here like the Rees chassis of 49d Andrew Drinnan that I would love to have got a few photos of but unfortunately they were not in attendance.

The commentator here was extremely funny and basically wandered around the track with a roving mic in his hand talking about the racing, the food or anything that took his fancy. And get this, the ‘Pit Stop’ which was the food stand had PIES! Bringing pies back to speedway is my new cause. Forget global warming, there is a pie crisis at most tracks. The weather leading up to the next ice age has been great lately so lets concentrate on the critical shortage of pies!

There was a small selection of photos and information about the track on display and so I hope its okay to reproduce a bit about the Dargaville track for those like me who know nothing about this speedway:

The Dargaville Production Stockcar Club raced for several years in TeKopuru, a settlement near Dargaville.

In 1977 the Dargaville Production Stockcar Club Incorporated was formed and moved to it's current location at Awakino Point, situated approximately 1.5 km from Dargaville on State Highway 14, the road from Dargaville to Whangarei. The racing track has undergone major changes since 1977 when it was just a swampy paddock surrounded by maize fields. The track is now a small clay oval approximately 400 metres long with 12 metre wide corners and 10 metre wide straights.

The Club went through a period of uncertainty during late 1999 and early 2000 with the possibility of the Club losing the lease on the land on which the track was situated. Members reacted positively to this and bonded together with a good result in early 2000 when an agreement was reached with the Council to purchase the land.

The land then became known as Finlayson Park Speedway, owned by the Dargaville Production Stockcar Club Inc., thus making it the first Northland dirt track to own its own land. The Club is currently in a positive growth era with membership currently at 14 family memberships, 13 single memberships and approximately 10 junior drivers and increasing.

So an excellent weekend of racing and an insight in to two of the northern most tracks in New Zealand that I’m really pleased I made the effort to go up and see. That leads nicely into a mention about the forthcoming meeting at Taipa Speedway on Queens Birthday weekend when alot of these drivers will be having their last run of the season. If you can, you should go, you can be assured of a warm welcome and you wont be disappointed.