Auckland Saloon & Stockcar Titles

Two of WP's outstanding classes this season drew good fields for their respective Auckland titles but fewer people than I expected through the gates which was a little bit disappointing, they certainly deserved a big crowd and just as they have all season, turned on some great racing all the same.

About 32 cars were in the pits for the Stockcar title which meant that it had to be whittled down to 30 cars for the three heat championship but after the two qualifying races 31 cars contested the three heats anyway. It meant two extra Stockcar races so I wasn't complaining. Heat one involved so much action that it would be impossible to even attempt to write about it, I found myself saying 'wow' every few seconds which is what we came here for. 441a Lloyd Harvey had a wild ride up the wall along the pit gate, 137a Pauly Rawiri spent the entire race making sure defending champ 66a Peter Church didn't have a chance of a repeat and 29a Steve Gavin was the victim of a massive hit on the grass when the locked together cars of 27a Jacky Phipps and Harvey careered on to the infield. Great stuff and this was only heat one!

Results:
67a, 272a, 168a, 95a, 117a, 919a, 64a, 71a, 158a, 36h

Only 24 cars made it out for heat two and the action continued on in the same fashion with 168a + 67a leading for most of the race, red lights for 272a and Huntly visitor 218h and another miserable race for Peter Church basically contained by Rawiri who was crawling round the poleline for the entire night.

Results:
168a, 67a, 117a, 919a, 64a, 158a, 71h

Going in to the last heat Nick Krsnic was leading the points

67a 64pts
168a 60pts
117a 56pts
919a 54pts
64a + 95a 52pts
71a 47pts

22 cars managed to front and for most of the race up until a red light stoppage it looked as though Krsnic was doing enough to take the title, he had managed to continue after being taken up the wall in his own signature move by 17a, a hit by Trevor Mason on 71h Wooten that was so hard the wing flew off backwards and a massive hit into the wall for 9k Pearce had the crowd cheering but the deciding factor was a hit from a no doubt frustrated 66a Church who was finally free of Rawiri on 67a Krsnic which cost him valuable places and the title. Littlewood home in 2nd place behind 117a Halfpenny enough to take it.

Heat Three:
117a, 168a, 17a, 919a, 64a, 441a

Final Places:
168a Grant Littlewood
117a Rose Halfpenny
67a Nic Krsnic

The Saloons also had a fair amount of bash and crash and I can imagine an enormous amount of repairs going on this week. The track seemed even more dusty than last week but a major amount of that came from the infield which was seldom watered and with every spin came a huge cloud onto the front straight which must have made visibility a problem. In fact I cant remember seeing this many cars spinning in a night so perhaps there were some problems with the track surface? The red hot favourite was 48a Towgood and he did indeed come through for the win but only just with 61a Roy Walker pushing him in the third heat. I must admit I spent alot of time watching the pack rather than the leaders as the amount of contact was incredible and poor 13r Murray Guy was one of the most unlucky on the night, he constantly seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Also the 4a Honda CRX which was in the thick of things chose a hard night to make it's debut and caused some headaches but at least the racing was fantastic for us in the stands if that's any consolation!

Results:
48a Towgood, 61a Walker, 71m Wymer

Good support programme too with 10 SuperSaloons, 22 Ministocks and 13 Streetstocks having their final appearance of the season. I may be wrong, but I believe it was also 36a Greg Mitchell's final appearance in the MiniStocks and he has been one of the stars of this grade with an exciting future I'm sure, all the best to him.

Meeting rating : 6.5/10