You don't get a lot for five bucks these days and that's just what I expected last night at Waikaraka Park. I was pleasantly surprised then with a fairly decent meeting and a pretty big crowd. The idea of a cheap night drew enough people through the gates to have a good atmosphere but the only real downer of the night for me was the feeble number of stockcars in attendance - three! Obviously with Huntly having the Waikato title and 13 or so cars travelling down there, it just killed the class at home. The Auckland Stockcar title is in two weeks, do you think the Huntly cars will reciprocate and turn up in big numbers... wont hold my breath. The stockcars that did turn up raced with the five superstocks which basically was a Marx (53a, 63a, 73a) vs Masons (7a, 99a) teams race. Wins to 99a, 73a and 73a again. Good to see Trevor Mason with the ex Tony Whittaker 66p. Must be quite a few superstocks in sheds in Auckland at the moment, hope they start getting back to the track soon.
The standouts for the night were easily the Modifieds (11 cars) and the Saloons (17 cars) with four Supers tagging off the back. Good close racing that resulted in both feature races providing great duels. 59a Bryan Skelton v 48a Phil Towgood and in the Modifieds 64a Grant Harris holding off 1nz Foxy in an incident filled race with many stoppages and some uncharacteristic problems for the 1nz who twice had to come from the back of the quickly diminishing field. Sidecars (6 with visitors from Gisborne and Kihikihi) and Streetstocks (9 with 51r Gerrand from Rotorua) rounded out the programme.
Summary
The programme ran so smoothly that most classes got a 4th heat in, and I was home by 10pm. The rain held off until the last race. There was no printed programme but for $5 entry that's what you would expect. They now have pizza and a carvery in the food area by the end of the grandstand and the bouncy castle was getting a good thrashing by the kids in turn two. A few more cars in the pits and this would have been a simple but great meeting. Big ups to the Saloon and Modified reps or whoever manages to get such good fields each week for these classes, they were the backbone of the meeting. I'm surprised more out-of-town competitors don't show up, the track surface is good, the fields are big and as Saloon 18b said "what else would you do on Saturday night" when asked why he was at WP. This fan appreciated the effort, this meeting could be a winner in future.
Next meeting for me is going to be a big call but the Super Dirt Cup with Auckland Stockcar title on Sat Feb 27th might be just that bit better than the NZ Superstock Qualifying (can't believe I just typed that...)
Meeting rating : 5/10 (Five bucks gets five points!)
Results:
Saloons: wins to 27a, 6a, 48a and 59a won the feature
Sidecars: 4k, 43a and 43a
Modifieds: 56a, 1nz, 64a and 64a won the feature
Superstocks: 99a, 73a and 73a won the feature
Streetstocks: 13a, 91a, 15a and 66a won the feature
Stockcars: 45a took all three
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