Good times, good times

Auckland Superstock Title / Ollie Browne Memorial

Twenty-one Superstocks in the WP pits is not a regular feature these days sadly, so anyone who failed to take advantage and attend missed out a cracker of a meeting Saturday night. Going by the very average crowd size perhaps a few people have thrown in the towel when it comes to this glamour class, but word of mouth and a few more meetings of this calibre will only do good things as far as crowd numbers are concerned. Top marks then for Paul Vasey and Dave Tennant who I believe were the driving force behind the meeting. Not to be outdone, two of the support acts for the evening, Saloons and Stockcars really were entertaining and if the Streetstocks had a few more numbers then I think you could have added them in there too.

Auckland SuperStocks Heat 1
Twenty cars made it out of the pits, 86h Chris Allen failed to make the start of any of the four heats unfortunately. Rick Campbell and Tony Wootten diced for the lead for the first few laps before Woottens night became one of blocking, stirring or DNF's in the impressive looking 71h. Biggest mover was 351a Paul Vasey moving up from grid 20 to second behind a seriously slick looking 99r of Mark Decke who took the first heat win. 38r Ross Ashby had the tank flying for a 3rd place finish. There were a number of DNF's including 9k Baker, 71h Wootten, 23k Taylor and 28h Drabble.
99r, 351a, 38r, 5k, 73a, 6k, 73h, 63a, 22r, 37r, 52r

Heat 2
Eighteen cars made it out for heat two, 71h Wootten being spun on the first lap then deciding to have a play with whoever was unfortunate enough to be in his vicinity. First up it was 37r Ken Hunter who was able to power away without too much difficulty. The same could not be said for the luckless Vasey who was forced up the wall and over ending his title hopes. On the red light, Hunter was leading from Ridland and Karl Ross. Upon the restart 99a was in block mode with no one keen to pass resulting in a bottleneck of cars until 5k Ridland decided to have a go. 99a Mason spun him. 5k hooked reverse and sent the passing 63a Campbell up the wall and over on to his side in turn 2. I think by this stage we had seen two rollovers and more hitting than the entire rest of the season! Ken Hunter held his lead and took the heat two victory from local hope Bryce Marx.
37r, 73a, 73h, 38r, 22r, 99r, 28h

Heat 3
Going into the final heat, three cars were tied on 37pts; 38r Ashby, 73a Marx and 99r Decke. Further back on 34pts were 73h Ross, with 37r Hunter on 33pts and 6k Remnant on 30pts. A healthy 17 cars made it out considering how much action had taken place in the first two heats. Decke was off grid 4, Ashby off 6 and Marx on grid 9. Ross and Hunter were both starting near the ROF. Dave Baker had had a fairly quiet night up to this point but certainly made his presence felt with attacks on a number of cars most notably Ashby who's challenge basically ended fairly early with 53a Marx managing to block him. 22r Bryce Steiner almost had Decke spun early on infront of the pack but was able to button off and let the 99r correct himself and eventually power away for the win and the title. Throughout the race it was whether local hope 73a Bryce Marx could catch Decke and late in the race had his best chance when the other two Marx cars had Decke blocked and slowing only for 9k Baker to be doing the exact same thing to Marx further back in the field. A great nailbiting finish though. Plenty of action and one of the best Auckland titles in years. Vasey took the win and proved how costly that DNF in heat two was. Final points: 1st 99r 56pts, 2nd 73a 55pts and 3rd 22r 47pts.

Ollie Browne Memorial
The 4th heat for SuperStocks on the night was the Ollie Browne. 14 cars made it out for this race and although not as much action as the Auckland title we still got a rollover for the 99a, plenty of argy bargy and only 9 cars managing to finish. 22r Steiner pulling off a well deserved win from 6k Remant and 73a Marx first local home in third.

Not to be outdone, Stockcars went ballistic all night. 67a Krizo in heat one alone managed to give 33a a massive wall ride, then another huge hit on the 43a Smith car (sister car to 34a Wearing's back from Stratford, the old coupe sold to Huntly) and then rolling 69a Dave Seymour. Billy Neill managed to take the win. Heat 2 Krizo was back at it, taking out 46a, then 43a then 34a before 22a Leigh Cossey gave him an enormous serve into the pit gate. It didn't stop him but retribution came from the Pick-a-Part cars before 69a gave him a massive hit up the rear that he took exception to, and some infield hitting may have ended his night as he didn't return for the final heat? 95a Lonergan took the win. Not too much action in the remaining heat but 9a Cameron Kenworthy picked up his maiden win and two buckets of water for his efforts in the 12 car feature. 82a and 22a took out the other placings.

Meeting was all over by 10pm and the actual Auckland Superstock title was completed by 9pm which was great. Good commentary too it has to be said with points updates and Aaron back behind the mic which injects a bit of life into proceedings. There were a few incidents not mentioned though (Krizo coming out for heat 3 but parking on the grass?) that would have been worth knowing but these are small issues. Once again a great show put on by WP, perhaps fewer classes with shorter shows and bigger fields is the answer?

Meeting rating : 7.5/10