Part IV

NZ Modified Title
Waikaraka Park, Auckland





Perserverance. Two rainouts last week. Then a rainout on Saturday night. The crew at WP earned themselves a huge pat on the back after I saw the photos of the waterlogged track and the extent of flooding on Saturday and managing to finally run the meeting on the forth attempt Sunday night. Rain has been the story of this season and Waikaraka really took a beating with this one. Still, its done and dusted and 71s John Jackson came out the winner. For a NZ title it certainly deserved a better crowd but with all the dramas leading up to the meeting, it was a relief to see it finally completed.

26 cars made up two groups racing 3 heats each, 8 qualifiers from each group with a repercharge to find 4 more, making up a field of 20 cars for a one race final. The track was a mess in the first few races (understandably) but with constant prepping during the night, was way better than I had expected. It still proved to be a difficult child and spat the dummy a couple of times most notably ending 19a Scott Lane's chances with a hole that opened up on turn 1 late in the night. It was a good but long meeting, and the amount of time between the final heat of group 2 and the repercharge indicated something was not right down in the pits as a few filler races took up precious time before Blair Luscombe missed out on one of four last gasp places in the repecharge.

The final was gridding up pretty soon after that and just like some of the heats earlier in the night gridding problems and not getting a clean start were features of the final. 871c Luke Keegan was unable to make his grid 18 position left sitting on the infield. 71s John Jackson on pole, with 129c Glen Leech on 2, 4s Dixon on 3 and surprise package 5gm Brandon Parkinson on 4. Defending champ Jamie Fox would have to haul ass from grid 6 to retain his title on a night when he had yet to shine. After one lap Leech had taken the lead, 33a Drube, 12s Kalin and 19a Scott Lane had joined 871c Keegan on the infield after Lane's roll. A full restart was required and 71s Jackson, who had lost his advantage on the first attempt to 129c Leech was given a second chance to grab the lead and did. From there on it was a case of who was going to take the title from him. 129c Leech and 1nz Fox would spend the next 20 laps inching closer and closer but it was Jackson's title to lose and he never set a foot wrong.

Whether it goes down as a classic title is debatable but the fans got some decent Modified racing and a worthy champion was found. The biggest disappointment was that a scheduled weekend meeting that had so much promise was once again compromised by the lousy weather that so often calls the shots.

71s John Jackson from grid 1
129c Glen Leech from grid 2
1nz Jamie Fox from grid 6
4s Mark Dixon from grid 3
67s Bunter Pierce from grid 5
21a Garry Parker from grid 8
64a Grant Harris from grid 12
72s Merv Julian from grid 17
36a Phil Crumpe from grid 20