Good stuff

TWS Waikato Stockcar Champs

During the week, it was quite ironic reading the entry list for the Waikato Stockcar championship having a possible 19 entries from Auckland which would make it the most 'A' registered cars to appear this season and it was at a neighbouring track not Waikaraka Park! Read into it what you will, but the good news was that most of them turned up along with one from Baypark and only one from Rotorua. Adding in the locals this gave a field of around 45 stockcars.

Split into two groups the top 10 from each heat would progress to a two race championship along with 10 from a repercharge. Group one had problems with the ELS system and although 17a Murray Kitt appeared to win, the race seemed short to me (perhaps it was because there was so much action going on) but the officials deemed the race invalid and it would be rerun. Normally this would be a problem but the chance to see them race again seemed great to me. Group two and the last chance repercharge also provided great action, rollovers and the only downer being the 6h Tank of Lindsay Trotter failed to qualify after a HUGE hit into the pit gate that ended his chances although the car still managed to drive off the track, built tough or what! Trotter and 55h Neville Hazelton would share the 'stirrer of the night' award - both well earned.

The finals would be contested over two heats and basically it became a big A vs H teams race. Of course this is the whole reason I chose to come to this meeting as the rivalry between these two clubs in stockcars always makes great viewing. Massively outnumbered the Auckland cars still put up a great fight but it was 31h Rodney Smythe who had a clean run to take heat 1. The damage toll though was high and a few of the cars nights ended here. A good number of visitors made it into the top 10.

31h, 27a, 218h, 89r, 57h, 64a, 67a, 59a, 98h, 66h

Heat two was the final race of the night and didn't disappoint. Most visitors were set upon although 89r Mabey had a charmed run for quite a while looking a real prospect if anything happened to 31h. What I hadn't noticed was that 218h Alderton had taken the lead mid race and now was a real chance for the title. As it finished a runoff was needed between 31h and 218h for the title which Aaron Alderton won. A great result for him in the awesome ex Ashton stockcar.

218h, 89r, 31h, 98h, 59a, 67a, 95a, 27a, 22h, 168a

As a staunch supporter of Stockcars, this meeting provided everything you would expect and infact the amount of hitting surpassed what I thought would take place. Once again as mentioned earlier, the standout for me was Lindsay Trotter in the Peat Tank which during the repercharge was sitting just outside the last qualifying spot for much of the race. Had he qualified I hate to think of the carnage he could have caused... perhaps a wildcard for the World of Stocks this weekend at Rotorua? The rest of the programme involved 16 Production Saloons, 5 Modifieds, 11 Superstocks, 11 Saloons and a huge field of 30 Ministocks. A pretty good night then and well worth the drive down to Huntly.

Meeting rating : 7/10