Friday, January 25, 2008

Preview

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This time next week the Stratford club will be about to launch into the largest 'culling' of entrants for any New Zealand speedway championship. With 183 entries for the NZ Stockcar title, and even a waiting list of drivers who were late to enter, it should be some spectacle. Unfortunately for me, unless the budgeted lotto win comes in this weekend, I wont be there so hopefully there will be lots of coverage and photos on Macgors, and no doubt the Stratford website which has improved immensely will keep us up to date.

The entry list is here

The groups are here

and here are the reigning champs, 1nz Gerry Linklater, 2nz Keith Spanhake and 3nz Steve Axtens.

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So who will win? Qualifying will be hard enough but if recent form is anything to go by you would have to think a Wellington or Palmerston North car will take the title but Wanganui's Gerry Linklater is proof that in Stockcars anything can happen. I'll take a punt and list a few cars I think will at least qualify and maybe take the title... with such a big field I'm allowed more than three picks so, Gregobro's picks are:

109h Jason Brown

97p Graeme Ward

81a Rodney Smythe
168a Billy Neill

22w Richard Gaskin
321w Hilton Parker
11w Darren Gray
89w Dale Robertson

517s Mark Woods

13r Grendon Beazley

44c Peter Ross


I would have picked 449r Steve Macpherson but his name doesn't appear to be on the entry list. Anyway should be a cracker, all the best to all the drivers competing.

Monday, January 21, 2008

002

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From the Daily Post in Rotorua, a story about Nick Beazley with his 1/10th scale replica stockcar.

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World 240's Rotorua 2008

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I probably don't need to do much of a write-up about this meeting as the excellent Rotorua website has everything you need to know with reviews posted probably before I even managed to get out of the carpark! Once again this meeting was a winner, how could it not be with a class field of Superstocks and a good support programme. Once again there were quite a few improvements at the track, most notably the carpark which is now flat rather than the surface of the moon that it used to be. The food and printed programme were great and apart from the poor sound on turn 3 where I sat on Friday night it would be hard to fault this meeting. Action on the track was a little down on last year, but the repercharge for the last spot in the finals made up for it. Going by the size of the crowd on Saturday, it's easy to see that the Rotorua club have made this a must see on the speedway calendar and they sure know how to run a great meeting.

Just a few random thoughts then... what words do you think Shane Penn was saying as he sat stalled in turn 4 after being spun in the first heat of the finals, he won heats 2 + 3... pity the 19c Ngatai car didn't perform on Friday like it did on Saturday, still it must have been very encouraging for the NZ title... what strange magnetic force was on the 23h Ashton car that managed to have him in the wrong place at the wrong time in almost every race... how many SuperStock titles would Frankie Wainman jnr have if he lived in Rotorua and not the UK... is he the Sleepy Tripp of SuperStocks... should there be less entrants from overseas... and a final thought mentioned by the commentary team between races about what is the best grid draw to have, starting at the front or back in a championship? I would have thought off the front in heat one, middle in heat 2 and then when you are off the back in heat 3 and six cars are already DNS you have gained six places already... Bengston's grids were 22-9-9 for what it's worth... Bengston was only paying $12 to win on the TAB odds so he wasn't quite the outsider I thought he was, Collingwood and Redfern both paying $20 and Wainman $6.

Meeting rating : 8/10

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Monday, January 14, 2008

001

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From the Bay Of Plenty Times, a story about Carl Wilson winning the New Zealand Sprintcar title at Baypark.

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Sunday, January 13, 2008

Too good!

Oh C'mon, someone had to use that heading!

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Well talk about a 'game of two halves", the inaugural running of the New Zealand Saloon Car Championship at Waikaraka Park on Friday and Saturday nights was both incredibly satisfying in that one of the real stalwarts of the class took the coverted 1nz and incredibly infuriating with some poor support programming and a complete lack of points and information on the important qualifying night.

Friday Night

51 Entries were on hand for Friday nights qualifying in three groups of 17 cars with six cars from each group going into Saturday nights finals and then one car from each of the two repercharges making the field of 20 finalists. The field included no entries from the South Island and the breakdown from North Island tracks was Auckland 19, Wellington 5, Baypark 17, Huntly 2, Hawkes Bay 3, Rotorua 3 and Kihikihi 2 entries.

A smallish crowd were then put through a very loooooong night of qualifying which, if condensed, contained 11 great Saloon car races but also 4 Ministock races and 4 appallingly bad MiniSprint races. A few top names failed to make the cut for the finals including 9a Steve Louden, 61a Roy Walker, 10w Todd Moffat and so easily could have claimed the eventual winner 48a Phil Towgood who pulled to the infield and missed the very first heat for his group, then needing two wins from the remaining heats to get him through. The overwhelming memory for me of this night will be the delays in the programme which dragged on until 11.30pm which is not unusual for a national championship and the fiasco with points and letting the crowd know results which is not normal for a championship. Whatever the reasons for this the outcome was that people in the crowd around me were openly mocking the proceedings, shouting out abuse and leaving! Now to be fair to WP, the recent NZ Stockcar champs was run perfectly with I think the highest rating I gave for any meeting I went to last season, so it can be done.

Qualifiers

Yellow Group
6m Brent McClymont, 21h Steve Williams, 64a Paulus Van Zantvoort, 35a Justin Ross, 82m Paul Managh, 99m Steve Walling

White Group
17r Tony Heuvel, 18m Chris Taylor, 45m Paul Cressy, 46m Terry Corin, 48a Phil Toogood, 63a Nigel Mouat

Purple Group
28w Owen Larson, 42w Alan Jacob, 46a Nigel Ross, 59a Bryan Skelton, 76a Michelle Wymer, 77k Rossco Cresswell, 112r Mel Hills plus both repecharge winners 29m Shane McDonald and 27a Stephen Corry.


Two cars that qualified above were excluded from the finals for irregularities.

Saturday Night

After reading a few heated postings on Macgors about the meeting on Friday it was going to be interesting to see what unfolded for finals night. A much bigger crowd turned up for a much better meeting with far stronger support programme (17 SuperStocks, 14 Stockcars and 20+ MiniStox) also updates on points and grids were forthcoming although sometimes read so rapidly and without racing numbers that it was near impossible to fill in the programme but still a vast improvement. What was most important was that the three heats to find a NZ champion were clean, fast and exciting races although heat one was brought to a complete stop after 64a expired and then the field was made to go back to their original racing order rather than postion 1, 2, 3 etc which seemed odd to me but not having been to many Saloon championships I'm not sure if this is the norm? I did wonder if 64a had been able to rejoin would he have been sent to the back of the field or to his racing position? Anyway here are a few of the results, hopefully they are correct:

Heat 1
48a, 76m, 46a, 112r, 21h

Heat 2
21h, 18m, 48a, 63a, 46a


Going into the final heat Towgood had a 1 point lead over Williams but with a starting grid of 10 compared with Williams on grid 19 and Ross on 16 he basically just had to keep his nose clean and finish in the top 5 to secure the title and coming home in second place behind 42w Jacobs was enough to do it. I made that sound rather easy but trust me, my heart rate was through the roof because there were some pretty hairy moments and at no point did Towgood button off, he was here to win and do it in style. His driving throughout the two nights was worthy of the 1nz and I can't think of anyone else who was more deserving of the title. Some fierce racing further down the field resulted in the cars of 21h and 46a being hooked together for a few moments, pretty much did their chances in and especially for Ross which I imagine is why Williams was pinged two places in the final result meaning a run-off for second was not needed with McClymont.

Top 10 Final Points
48a Phil Towgood 56pts
6m Brent McClymont 48pts
21h Steve Williams 46pts
46a Nigel Ross 44pts
112r Mel Hills 40pts
76m Michelle Wymer 39pts
45m Paul Cressy 36pts
29m Shane MacDonald 34pts
4m Terry Corin 33pts
42W Allan Jacobs 32pts


Overall it was great that this class has finally been recognised with a national championship, lets hope it's more 'national' next season with some South Island involvement. Whether the meeting will go down as anyone's favourite of the year is doubtful, except perhaps MrsTTTT. One thing is that before the meeting I told a mate there would be more hits than in the Stockcars but in actual fact it was some of the tidiest racing in years. The Saloon action on the track was awesome but the rest of the show on Friday was not good enough. WP is celebrating 40 years of speedway this season but that qualifying night was amateurish and did nothing to encourage people to be more positive about WP!

Meeting rating : 5.5/10

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Sunday, January 06, 2008

Mad Butcher Demo Derby

Waikaraka Park

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After what seemed like a huge break from speedway (I've been down in Coromandel, or is that up in Coromandel?) arrived back in Auckland to grey skys but luckily no rain in time for the Mad Butcher Demolition Derby night meeting at WP. Usually a bit of a slow night but beggars can't be choosers so off I went for a much needed speedway fix. A good turn out of cars in each class including 14 Superstocks! Considering these weren't on the programme originally and were replacing the MiniSprints it was a win-win in my book. The other classes included 14 Saloons which was less than I thought would be there considering their first ever national title is here next week, 20+ MiniStox, 21 Stockcars and 8 Modifieds.

A fairly large crowd were then lucky enough to witness a smooth running meeting with both Stockcar classes stealing the show. A glitch with the sound system during the first race meant no sounds but was quickly rectified and then Mike Howe with offsider John (I assume) did a great job with the commentary. The three Stockcar heats were won by 168a, 17a and 67a but it was the amount of action that surprised me, including the 56a run by Tim Clark in place of Juanita Leveridge who was on a mission to cause mayhem and a great battle in heat 2 between 919a Shane Bessant who sent 168a Billy Neill flying into the wall near the pit gate only to get the favour returned with interest a lap or two later bringing on the red lights, awesome stuff. 91a, 67a and a new car 22a who's name I missed also dishing out plenty of biff. There have been an alarming number of Auck Stockcars on the For Sale pages recently but hopefully that means there are a few new cars ready to hit the track...

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In the SuperStocks visitors from HB, R, H and K made a great field and the two Kihikihi drivers took the first two heats, 5k Brad Ridland in heat one edging out the awesome looking 78a of Darryl Clarkson. Heat two was 6k of Kerry Remnant from 51a Wayne Whittaker who looked far quicker than usual in this heat but foiled by a spinning 417a of Rose Halfpenny from notching up a win. The third heat had the most action with the 38r tank of Horse dealing out some punishment to the Auckland drivers although it was great to see 61a Tim Nicholls not afraid to have a go and probably winning the battle, for now... 81b Grant Littlewood taking out the feature. Considering 6 Auckland drivers were missing tonight, a field of 14 cars was impressive and just quietly I had hoped to see the Wade tank racing as 85a but obviously the rumours will keep flying for a little while yet! The two Kihikihi cars were impressive as was Littlewoods performance in the feature but its the 61a of Nicholls who is really beginning to shine in this class.

8 Modifieds were reduced to 4 within a couple of laps of the first heat but a welcome return for 36a Phil Crumpe and a not so good return for the beautifully presented 21a of Garry Parker in a fairly quiet night for the Mods. Wins to 6a, 56a and 6a in the 1 on 1 challenge that replaced the feature race. In the saloons 46a Nigel Ross and 61a Roy Walker appear to be peaking at just the right time for next weeks NZ title. Two wins to Ross and Walker winning heat one.

Overall a way better meeting than anticipated and proves the theory that good fields of Stockcars in both classes equals happy punters! Even the Demo Derby was good which I usually avoid like the plague. Biggest cheer of the night was easily for Frank Irvine's spectacular 'drifting' in the water truck before the Derby. Only downer of the night for me was the food which is very ordinary, the hotdog I had was redlining on the stodge factor scale needing two cans of Coke to erase the greasy fat taste... yuk.

Meeting rating : 6/10

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