Rain for a change...

King Of Crash
Meeting 2, Waikaraka Park

Not much to write in this review with the Saturday night meeting being rained out before a single proper race was run. All this after a beautiful sunny Auckland day really did test the patience of even the most ardent speedway fan who probably wonders what you have to do to see a meeting run without rain? There was a fairly decent turnout of cars in the pits along with the Demo Derby cars and a few out-of-town visitors who never even made it on to the track who can feel a little more aggrieved than I did. Once it was obvious the rain wasn't going to stop, the call was made to rerun the meeting on Sunday at 1pm.

'King of Crash' the sequel, and as I sat in the stand the rain drops started to fall again but not enough to stop proceedings. As far as I know the programme was completed. I left after the third Stockcar heat had slowly run its course with a high attrition rate and not much else going on. Four Streetstocks were surprisingly entertaining and two rollovers in the Saloons classes provided some drama. Ministocks were the other class running.

It's been a pretty soggy start to the season, so here's hoping we get a few decent Saturday evenings and get the season underway properly.

Meeting rating : 4/10

Déja Vu

Waikaraka Park
Meeting 1



After last weeks rainout at 'Gruntly' the fickle weather repeated the dose at WP ending the meeting at about the same stage, pretty much after the conclusion of the first round although the Stockcars and Minisprints managed to get a second heat in before the meeting was finally called. Was a pity too because the first heats on the whole were pretty good. Crowd numbers looked low, but with Rugby on at Eden Park and weather that was bloody cold and eventually very wet it was not surprising.

24 Stockcars fronted for the first race of the night and without exception all the rookies to the class 'got the bash.' 272a Seth McConchie managed to get up for a 3rd place in his first run in the ex 1nz Linklater car but it was 56a Juanita Leveridge who impressed most with a run up the front for most of the race until a massive hit with the 6a PT Cruiser pretty much finished both their chances. 81a Smythe won the race and in a slippery second heat again with heaps of action it was 168a Neill who cruised to victory. A few new stirrers are emerging that will make this class awesome this season.

24 Saloons were split into two groups and wins went the way of an impressive looking 35a Justin Ross and 61a Roy Walker and included a great battle between 48a Towgood and 74a Landsdown in the first group. I think 48a also scored a win somewhere along the way, I'm blaming frozen fingers for not writing down any results. Just a few years ago this class was struggling to even get 10 cars to run so this is an impressive reversal and perhaps class recognition has made the difference?

6 Minisprints fronted which soon fell to four and unfortunately there was more action in the Bouncy Castle on turn two than in either of the two races for this class who will need more numbers to even rate a mention. The Bouncy Castle attracted good numbers but took a massive beating from the kids and the weather but stayed the distance. Awesome performance.

Mods (9), SuperStocks (8 including two Huntly cars) and SuperSaloons (8) were good value and showed promise assuming numbers increase. Ricky Mitchell in the 36a drove with a bit of spirit making 28h Glen Drabble fight for the win in the only race for the Supers. He even managed to break the pit gate bringing on the red, recovered to take the lead again only to be cruely denied a victory with a flat rear on the last lap. Lets hope we see more of him this season than the few cameo appearances he has made these last few years.

Only a few photos below, amazingly since I moved to within 5 mins of the track I've managed to be late getting there more times than when I lived in town, go figure.

Meeting rating : 5/10
Bouncy Castle : 8/10

WP Practice 2+3, Huntly Opening Meeting

The fact that we got to see any racing this weekend was a bonus if the weather predictions were to be believed, although my luck ran out after the first round of heats at Huntly's meeting Saturday night. But first a few photos from the second and third practices at WP Saturday afternoon which had a bigger turnout of cars than the week before although fewer stockcars than last week. I spoke to Stacey and Neville Macken who I had met when I went up to Whangarei Speedway last season and they had brought down the ex Ricky Kuru Coupe that Stacey will be campaigning this season registering with Auckland. The weather played it's part and the taste of speedway made me keen to travel down to Huntly for their opener later in the day. Interesting to see that the 95a must be the first car to have it's second paintjob of the season before the first meeting has kicked off!









Huntly Speedway
Meeting 1

Opening meetings can sometimes be a massive let down and the only attraction is to check out the new cars and enjoy the fact the season is finally under way. But a quick look through the pits I was pleasantly surprised to see some good numbers in most classes. At least 31 Stockcars, masses of Ministocks, 8 Superstocks, 15 Saloons and also about 8 Supersaloons. The meeting kicked off at 7.05pm after parade laps for each class and began with Superstocks first up. The green flag dropped, a tank took the win and suddenly all thoughts of the All Blacks and any other recent sporting disasters seemed distant and unimportant, the 2007/08 season has begun...

The meeting was flowing nicely with a popular win for 21h Steve Williams in the Supers, the Saloons seemed to be a flashback to the past with both 9a Steve Louden and 46a Nigel Ross back racing and Louden taking an emphatic victory. Then it was the turn of that huge field of Stockcars coming out on to the track. My attention was on the radically different looking 12h of Lionel Halse. His first heat wasn't one to remember but the car certainly was. 441a Andrew Weir took a great win and there was plenty enough action to know this class will once again be a winner at most tracks. The Minisprints came out to a track that was starting to be affected by the rain that had threatened for a while and were fairly unlucky not to get at least one good heat in. Superstocks came out for another go and at that point I left knowing that the meeting would probably finish pretty soon after.

So only an 'entree size' meeting but promising signs as far as competitor numbers go. Also I was lucky enough to meet up with Nevano Cowan who has recently bought the PT Cruiser stockcar and will be running it out of Auckland this season. It was looking great during the practice runs at WP earlier in the day and no doubt will feature when WP kicks off it's opening meeting Labour Weekend. Hope to bring you all a profile on Nevano if everything works out okay.

Meeting rating : a soggy 5/10

Practice 1, Waikaraka Park 2007