The first official NZ Standard Stock title was contested at Rotorua's Paradise Valley Speedway March 23rd and 24th 2001, finally giving the class the recognition it deserved after many years of 'unofficial' titles held at Huntly Speedway. It followed on the heels of the inaugural North Island title for the class held at Waikaraka Park which had been won by 82a Billy Neill.
Thankfully Macgor has given me the okay to reprint his original review of the meeting here, along with some photos I took at the scrutineering of most of the entrants. This was the second attempt at the meeting after the original had been completely rained out. A couple of the photos are from the motels around us where masses of cars were all parked up, some unfortunately not making it back for the rerun including 31v and 69g. The header at the top of the page is a photo of the rainout at the track, look how much has changed in less than 10 years... incredible. I also have one of the carpark (I must have been desperate to photograph something, anything) and it's unrecognisable to the venue today. Anyway here is Gordon's review:
NZ Std Stock Champs : Rotorua 23 & 24 March 2001, By Macgor
After a months delay thanks to lousy weather at the first attempt, Rotorua turned on a brilliant two days of sunshine enabling this the inaugural NZ Std Stock Championship to finally be run. A quick count at scrutineering revealed around eighty cars had fronted to partake representing every track that runs the class. Stratford, Wanganui and Gisborne only managed one entry each though one is better than none is my way of looking at it.
Scrutineering which was carried out lakeside in Rotorua didn't seem to produce any great dramas for anyone other than for 0h Rodney Smythe who was plucked yet again for engine irregularities. The last time was at the North Island Champs in Auckland. More is bound to be revealed about this turn of events as time passes.
A disappointingly small crowd turned up to watch the qualifying night racing which was as expected for the class fairly aggressive from the first flag fall. Not too many major incidents happened despite the amount of contact happening on the track. One rollover for 5b Ivan Smith was a scary moment when his exposed rollcage was hit by another car but thankfully no injury to the driver resulted. Another rollover took an eternity for the crash crew to right again. Results were not forth coming as the meeting progressed and neither were they broadcast before the close of the meeting so I left the venue not knowing who the 26 qualifiers were. I suppose I could have wandered down to the pits after the meeting but it is my firm belief that that is not the way things should work.
Support Classes on night one were a five car field of streetstocks that actually turned on a good display of spinning and generally playing the fool. The 6 car field of A-graders had one interesting race with Barry Hunter blocking Darcy and Gary Hunter out of the top spots allowing Mark Osbourne driving the ex 96a Grant Wenzlick car to score a win. The 12 std saloons should have been somewhere else. 80% of the crowd left the venue rather than stay to watch their last race which was the last event on the program. The big question was would the local fans turn out to support the finals night as it appeared to me that most of those there on Qualifying night were out of towners.
Finals Night
Srutineering was once again held lakeside and appeared to be a formality more than anything else. I didn't see or hear of any dramas and everyone seemed fairly relaxed about it. Out to the track and eventually a reasonable sized crowd turned up for a look see.
Heat 1
Mostly a clean race and not a lot of upset for the front runners apart from 82a Billy Neil who collapsed his right front suspension while leading, relegating himself to the non-finishers group. 76h Scott Garland won from grid 8. 58p Peter Bengston had a dynamite drive into second from grid 23. Third was 92a Blu Rawiri who had to battle his way there from grid 19. 13b Weston Hemara did well to drop only one spot and come home 4th with 19r Lance Aldridge and 22w Richard Gaskin rounding out the top six. Interesting to note that all of the above named were from different tracks.
Heat 2
Heat two saw problems for Blu Rawiri on the starting grid and the three minute allowance used to effect rushed repairs to get him running again. His luck wasn't improving though when he was delayed in turn one of the first lap as a result of the general melee that took place. 58p Peter Bengston's good run ended on the bumper of 68r Keith Spanheke in the first instance and he was finished off by 44r Vernon Boothby. 82a Billy Neil and 99a Grant Littlewood were both in 'R' car destruction mode and silly me thought they were working to help out club mate Blu Rawiri. 68r Keith Spanheke was having a go at any thing without an 'R' on it.
Generally there was combat happening all over the track which made it not only a spectacle but also very hard to keep track of who was where in the running order. 22w Richard Gaskin won from grid 9 signaling he was very much in town to win, Tony Wootten driving the black 99h car of Tony Whyte maintained his grid two spot for second. 76h Scott Garland came in third from grid 23 in what was obviously a superb drive. 16r Clive Pritchard, 89w Dale Robertson and 14r Steve Axtens rounded out the top six.
Heat 3
Scott Garland was points leader by 3 points over 22w Richard Gaskin on 47pts. Blu Rawiri had gathered 43 points by virtue of his heat one second placing and scoring a more lowly eighth in heat two. All three cars were to be leaving from mid pack with Blu Rawiri the worse off on grid fifteen. Most unusual for a the third heat of a stockcar championship was the emerging from the pits of all 26 qualifiers to take their places for the start. I'm not sure I have ever seen that happen before and probably suggests the action up to this point hadn't really been all that vicious.
28r Graeme Lambert had pole and started on the brakes holding back the entire pole line column of cars while the outside pole column shot through. Scott Garland was in the lucky lot while both Gaskin and Rawiri were both in the traffic jam.
Exiting turn two and Scott Garland had moved from grid 12 through into fourth spot on the track. The bad luck continued for Rawiri when he finally got free of the start line block he tangled with 64a Carlos Chesnutt delaying him further. The race had barely done a lap when a rare red was shown bringing everything to a standstill to retrieve 43k Tony Bennetto from the pit gate wall. A lap after the restart and Garland was into the lead and lapping Blu Rawiri. Plenty of mayhem going on with the rest of the field meant the other positions were hard to fathom although I do think that Tony Wootten was still right up with the play.
Near the white flag lap I noticed the commentators calling Blu Rawiri in second place but to my mind he was a lap down and unlikely to be in that position unless the whole field had been lapped! Believe me the run Garland had going made that a distinct possibility. 76h Scott Garland received the chequered flag, did his parade lap as 1nz Standard Stock, gave the thumbs up to 82a Billy Neil in thanks, letting me know for sure which club the 82a was working for and I hit the road for home. A phone call on the way that informed me Blu Rawiri had come out as the new 2nz Std Stock and a hard fought run off between 99h Tony Wootten and 14r Steve Axtens had gone the way of Axtens to decide third overall. Looking at the Rotorua site the provisional results sheet published there has Blu Rawiri receiving maximum points for the third heat and I have since learned that 76h Scott Garland had been relegated for an indescretion.
Support Classes
The reason I left the venue before the meeting was complete was that I had had my fill of Minisprints and Ministocks and when I saw them lining up to come out yet again I was off. The other supporting class was a strong 12 car field of a-grade stockcars that raced dull. The only highlight was seeing 62r Neville Stanaway getting his new beast up to speed and hinting there was more to come. There were also consolation races for non qualified Std Stocks and their first heat contained 33 cars, their second 18 cars and at their third outing the field was down to 14 cars. Good action throughout though overall the meeting was run well enough but really there were far too many hot dog classes and in my heart I am slightly disappointed with the way one car was allowed to run away with the championship almost unchallenged.
Rotorua is a great place to spend a weekend for speedway and the improvements made at the venue show. The track surface was excellent all weekend with no dust and no slush. All we need now is for the health department to condemn the way below standard toilet facilities and force a rebuilding project to happen. Mind you the real reason they were so filthy is that a few of the customers were only human in appearance and used them as untrained animals would. I pity the Rotorua Club members that have to do the cleaning.
And here are some photos I took at scrutineering down by the lakeside on the day of qualifying and in the pits at the track:
0p Chris Ash
4h Rodney Smythe
4a Craig Collins
5b Ivan Smith
6w Hilton Parker
7r Steve Orr
8b Shane Hughes
9p John Durning
10a Sam Legae
11r Allen Dunn
12r Tony Hitchens
12s Nichalas Schimanski
13b Weston Hemara
14r Steve Axtens (came in third, 3nz)
15a Brent Griffin
15r Heith Lockhead
16h Steve Halse
16r Clive Pritchard
17h Lee Patrick
19a Shane Bessant
19r Lance Aldridge
22w Richard Gaskin
23h Lance Ashton
24g Dave Kingsbeer
26b Roger Lord
28r Graeme Lambert
31v Tony James
32h Robert Semple
32p George Frear
33r John Callendar
34r Nigel Barnett
35a Paul Vasey
36a Mark Wearing
37a Maurice Pene
39a Russ Foley
41r Dougan Hart
42b Brendon Hughes
42r Dion Bainbridge
43k Tony Bennetto
44r Vern Boothby
45a Neville Langdon
48a Mike Barnes
49h Stephen McPherson
51h Des Bullot
53p Keven Roberts
54r Allan Corcoran
55w Brent McLachlan
56r Kevin Henry
57a Clint Herring
58p Peter Bengston
59k Daniel Samuelson
62p Peter Locke
63r Richard Keijzer
64a Carlos Chestnutt
66b Aaron Iremonger
67a Nick Krisnic
67h Clinton Thickpenny
68r Keith Spanheke
69g Glen MacIntosh
69v Andrew Chaplow
71a Paul Chatfield
73w Paul Wood
74a Craig Chatfield
74h Dion Coote (and my camera strap)
75b Allan Milne
76h Scott Garland (winner 1nz)
78b Tony Palmer
79a Steve Pilkington
81a Peter Gleeson
82a Billy Neill
82r Jason King
86r Bill Keijzer
87a Robert Taylor
88a Jamie Fergusson
89w Dale Robertson
91a Mike Nowell
93b Terry Black
94r Carl Southall
96a Jason Walsh
97a Blu Rawiri (ran as 92a, second place)
98a Grant Littlewood
Listed in programme but perhaps never fronted: 99p Scott McIntosh, 87h Marty Shrubb, 13s Willy Bolland, 72k Ricky Ireland, 38p Sjored Dykstra, 24h Glen Whyte, 85h Wayne Christofferson, 29a Glen Read, 63a Peter Hawkins, 47k Dennis Lurman, 52a Gavin Welch, 97p Graeme Ward, 17w Robert Green, 21h Kevin Wing, 25a Karl Vinton, 27p Ken Meehan, 61p Peter Rees, 65a Richard Fletcher and 93a Shane Moyle. Any help with missing names under the photos above would be appreciated, just email them or put them in the comments at the end of this posting. Also if anyone has the final points from this meeting I'd love to add those on here. Finally, I think this might be an Ian Abrahams track shot, unfortunately it didn't have any stamp or anything on the back to identify:
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