Auckland Stockcar & Supersaloon Titles
Waikaraka Park
My last few visits to Waikaraka Park have involved rainouts and lighting malfunctions, but through it all good racing was always a given. Saturday night was more of the same, except this time a nasty accident in the Stockcar feature that involved 15a Carl Campbell being cut from his car on the track would be the reason for yet another meeting failing to go the distance. This meant that the Supersaloon feature was also canned and the results for both classes had to be obtained from previous laps or previous heats. It was unfortunate because the actual racing on the night for the two featured classes had been superb.
I never did a count of the Stockcars in the pits but they had been split into two groups. The pre-race estimate was around 50 cars which was fantastic. From my notes group one had 22 cars and group two had 21. Some of the cars in the pits didn't make it out onto the track so not sure what the reason behind that was. Two qualifying heats and the top 15 from each group would go through to a 30 car final, that raced two heats for points. After the first heat for both groups the obvious problem I saw was that the real entertainers (those going for the stirrers money) were not going to qualify for the finals. 67a Nick Krisnic took a fairly easy win for Group 1 heat 1, and with at least 4 or 5 cars dnf-ing our top 15 from this group was taking shape early on. 67a, 34a, 116h, 91a, 59a, 81h, 15a, 89r, 72r. For heat two only 20 cars fronted with 34a Mark Wearing and 9a Cameron Kenworthy on the front row. 9a had failed to finish heat one and would need a whole heap of points to get through. 67a Krizo was off the rear of the field. 59a Grant Littlewood took the victory from Wearing, Rinso and Mulholland. 59a, 34a 81h, 89r, 43a, 158a, 137a, 67a, 116h, 15a, 91a, 72r, 28h, 9a, 45a. Group 2 seemed to have a lot more action than group 1. 88h Justin Hutchby and 95a Gary Lonergan tussled for the lead and the Huntly cars banded together to hold up 95a giving Hutch the heat 1 win. 7a Ken Tyson spun 71h Tyson Wootton but was given some instant payback and put up the wall. 65a Mills gave a massive hit to stirrer 4h Matt Nilsson. 88h, 95a, 81r, 36h, 242a, 741a, 168a, 29a, 49h. Heat 2 had even more action with 85a Shannon Savage putting 4h up the wall but the biggest hit of the race was 71h Wootton on 95a Lonergan, it failed to stop the Aucklander qualifying. 81r Damian Orr taking the win. 81r, 242a, 95a, 29a, 7h, 5h, 741a, 34h, 168a, 88h, 13a.
The 30 qualifiers were: 168a, 81h, 34a, 158a, 43a, 71h, 49h, 36h, 29a, 5h, 45a, 13a, 89r, 91a, 59a, 15a, 34h, 48h, 81r, 28h, 95a, 72r, 741a, 116h, 7h, 88h, 67a, 242a, 137a, 85a.
Now this is where everything started to go pear shaped. By this stage the heats for the Auckland SuperSaloon title had been run and I hadn't taken too much notice of it as I was only going to write notes on the actual final race. Basically 8h Craig Cardwell had won the first heat, but it was heat two that had two rollovers, 12m and 99a (while running in 2nd place), and action aplenty. In their 3rd heat Cardwell had been sublime. Some nights he cant get a break but it was all going right for the 8h tonight. He managed to grab a 3rd place behind 24h and 1nz from a rear grid start, that would prove decisive. The Stockcars had the first of their two heats and it was spectacular to say the least. 137a Fergusson was rolled on the first lap but able to continue. 13a Hey and 158a Martin were early retirements. 29a Scott Tennant was leading from Billy Neill, Damian Orr and Lonergan. 137a went into stirring mode and slowed 81r Orr, he was then set upon by 71h Wootton and 48h Scott Gallop slowed Tennant. Krizo went into bat for the Aucklanders and removed 36h and put 28h up the wall by the start finish line but reversed out into the line of 81h Smythe resulting in a huge hit that brought on the red lights. Upon the restart 36h Mark Caldwell attacked 29a Tennant and 95a Lonergan took the victory. 95a, 34a, 88h, 15a, 29a, 168a, 89r, 34h, 81h, 72r, 741a, 81r, 45a.
After this we had protests apparently in both classes which resulted in a lot of filler as the meeting dragged on. Finally we had the Stockcars back out for the final heat. Hutchby was on grid 1 alongside 242a Fox while Lonergan was way back on grid 15 and Wearing would start from 7. From the green flag 137a tried to stop Hutchby while 95a and 34a were both spun sending them to the rear. Great blocking from 48h Gallop was making it very hard for the Aucklanders. 45a Taylor managed to put in a great shot on 34h Anton Leek but 95a was being held up by 71h. At about the 7 laps stage 34a Wearing was sent flying into the front straight wall head on and the red lights came on. 15a Carl Campbell had been injured in an incident I missed and the worst was feared. The meeting was halted and the race declared. There was no other option but to declare the Supersaloon result too. It was an unfortunate end to the meeting that had been action packed with both classes putting on a great show. Two more Auckland titles heading back to Waikato was almost as bad as the thousand of crickets that invaded the 'cemetery bend' end of the track (I'm not joking!) So we've now had floods, blackouts and PESTILENCE! I think WP has earned a break from Mother Nature!
Auckland Stockcar Champs
88h Justin Hutchby 58pts
15a Carl Campbell 53pts
29a Scott Tennant 51pts
89r Dean Mulholland 51pts
72r David Rumney 50pts
95a Gary Lonergan 47pts
81r Damian Orr 47pts
168a Billy Neill 47pts
34h Anton Leek 44pts
741a Craig Chatfield 43pts
Auckland SuperSaloon Champs
8h Craig Cardwell
1nz Shane MacIntyre
96a Lance Jennings
6m Gary Edwards
24h Ben Harding
8m Geoff Fletcher
7m Brent Emerson
63h Nigel Mouet
4a Shane Hick
58a Max Anderson
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