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
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