A martini without the Olive. Something missing, that best describes last nights meeting at Waikaraka Park, the Ollie Browne Superstock Spectacular. This was round one of three, in memory of Ollie Browne who was described in the programme as the 'grand dame of stockcars' in a well written article by Ian Abrahams although it did have an unfortunate typo that read "her gasket did a lap of Waikaraka" when her casket did a circuit of WP as part of her funeral service. On paper the meeting was a great idea but during the week I learned that not only would the support programme be missing the Modifieds but also the Stockcars... alarm bells were ringing.
The success of this meeting then would almost solely rely on how many SuperStocks were in attendance and after suggesting at last weeks meeting that 30 would be there, the figure dropped during the week to perhaps 23, then a solid 17 only to have 13 in the pits and then 12 making it to the track after engine problems forced 96h Scott Redfern out before a race had even begun. 'Overpromise, underdeliver' is a classic way of losing business and going by the amount of people, including me, who left before 10pm it was not a great night. The small crowd size would also have indicated before the meeting even started that people are wising up to the hyperbole.
Of the cars who did turn up, 6 from Auckland, 5 from Huntly and Stan Hickey from Rotorua in the brand new Gordge, the racing wasn't too bad and a decent hit from Hickey on 414a Warwick Ansty sending him into and then up on top of the wall got the blood pumping. Ansty gave back as good as he got too in the third heat which sent Hickey to the infield for a few laps but the general attrition rate in all three heats meant action was spread pretty thin throughout the night. In fact everything was spread pretty thin in most of the classes and had a feel of a club night to me.
I think the WP promotion team should reconsider any programme that has Stockcars on standdown at this stage of the season, or at least be sure they have a pretty good replacement for them. Someone also has to look into why the predictions for Superstock numbers are so woefully out of sync with who is actually going to appear. For the record the rest of the programme involved 10 Streetstocks, 15 Saloons, 20 MiniStox, 4 Sidecars who were reduced to 3 after the warm ups and about 7 SuperSaloons. Of these the Saloons easily provided the best action with 59a winning two heats and performing a spectacular flip in the feature.
There was also a great buzz around the Hickey car in the pits pre-meeting which I haven't seen since Neil McCoard turned up with the Concoard a few seasons back. Quite a crowd gathered around checking out the new look 515r and I have to say it looked the goods. It seems quite narrow. Well done to everyone involved and for daring to try something a bit different. Lets hope something a bit different happens on the track in the next few weeks at WP...
Meeting rating : 5/10
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