King of the Park

Waikaraka Park finished their season with the 'King of the Park' for most classes last night, presenting a swift yet unspectacular meeting in front of a modest crowd. The track surface provided the ups and downs and the racing was mostly flat unfortunately. All the usual classes except Superstocks & Minisprints were represented, although Ricky Mitchell's 36a ran off the back of the Stockcars during their heats. Ministocks, Stockcars and Saloons had big fields of 24, 23 and 22 cars while the SuperSaloons managed a healthy 12 cars. Modifieds struggled with 6 and Streetstocks could only manage 10 for their last appearance of 09/10.

As for the racing, well it never really reached any particular high points. 6a Brian Jesen and 15a Dave McIvor won every heat in their respective classes without much of a challenge and 24m Ben Harding had the measure of the SuperSaloons with some awesome driving, leaving the Saloons and Stockcars to give us our thrills. The stocky boys had a few good moments and a couple of good hits with 22a and 37a being the protagonists of most of the trouble. In the third heat 34a Blair Mitchell gave 33a Hayden Cossey a HUGE serve into the wall ending both their races but unfortunately before the track staff had all made it back to the infield at the other end of the track the green lights were activated, similar to the last meetings problems. The reds came on again quickly but you've never seen infield staff move so fast! Huge respect to these guys but with incidents like this you have to wonder how much longer they will volunteer for this stuff.

An extra Stockcar race was put on for the 'Grand Finale' but it basically turned into a flag race with no end-of-season paybacks settled. Wins went to 22a, 34a, 95a and 137a won the extra heat. Saloons again produced some great racing and have been one of the better classes all season, in fact I dont think there has been a single meeting that didn't have good numbers appearing. Wins went to 48a, 82m and 74a in the King of the Park final.

It was interesting to hear what plans the Ministock drivers who are leaving the class have for next season with about 3 heading to Stockcars, 1 to Superstocks, 1 to F2 Midgets and the rest to Minisprints or Productions. Ministocks truly are the best thing that ever happened in as much as bringing new talent to the sport in a safe learning environment and feeding the other classes upon reaching age 17. Anyway, that concluded the 2009/10 season for Waikaraka Park with more of a full stop than an exclamation mark. The meeting was mercifully fast, which has been one of the big improvements this year, and the normal programme of 18 events was over by 8:50pm! There is talk of a mid-winter meeting so keep an eye on the club website but you will probably get more info from Macgor's to be honest. Back page of the programme has WP's opening night for next season as 30th October...

King of the Park:
Stockcars 95a Gary Lonergan
Ministocks 57a Aidan Eustace
Streetstocks 15a Dave McIvor
Supersaloons 24m Ben Harding
Saloons 74a Scott Landsdown
Modifieds 6a Brian Jesen

Meeting rating : 6/10







Using a mates camera again and somehow I managed to get some sort of panorama shot option which actually looks quite good (at a larger size than this but here are a few - not sure how to get this again so it might be a oncer!)