Stockcar Rumble and Supersaloon Champs

Stockcar Rumble and Auckland Supersaloon Champs
Waikaraka Park, Auckland
14th February, 2015

Rain finally claimed a scalp after what has been a fairly good run of meetings this season. Unfortunately it was just as the Stockcar Rumble was beginning to start 'rumbling' with plenty of agro in the first of three finals heats for the title. There were about 37 cars in the pits split into two qualifying groups which ran two heats to find the 30 or so finalists. A good mix of visitors and some local feuds were about to be sorted it seemed but as I said, the heavens opened and the track was awash in minutes.

Group 1
198h Brad Philpott lost a wheel after a ride up the wall ending his race while 69a Dave Seymour was spun by 83a Cole Riggans. 55a Wayne Devonshire went hard into the concrete in turn 4 while 13h Jamie Symons was one of the only cars not to complete the race. 98a Aiden Eustace lead from start to finish with a big lead for most of the race. 51h Ali Van Amsterdam, 25a Jason Rowe, 95a Gary Lonergan and 651a Troy Power rounded out the top 5. In their second heat, Jason Rowe lead for the whole race while Power and 86a Harley Bell-May tangled in the wall with Bell-May losing a wheel bringing on the reds. At the same time in turn four, 137a Jamie Fergusson put 54h Nigel Hazelton up the wall ending his run. 98a Eustace and Power then had a tangle and decided to amp up the action resulting in them both spinning in turn 2 and losing a lot of ground. 34a Mark Wearing attempted to spin 22a Leigh Cossey which backfired spinning himself on the white flag lap. Rowe was followed home by 45a Corey Baker, Lonergan, Cossey, Seymour and Van Amsterdam.

Group 2
19 cars in this group and the early leader was 97a Ryan Eustace, 27h Brett Aikin and 55h Neville Hazelton got hooked together on the infield for a lap. 12a Jamie Stanaway hit and spun Eustace before taking the lead. 67a Nic Krsnic attacked Aikin before something went awry with the Krizo beast retiring to the infield. 37a Ash Wearing spun 145a Jessica Peat then got in a battle with 23a Che Takarua before Peat slowed and had her chance for revenge on Wearing holding him up. 61a Leroy Neill was spun on the last lap. Stanaway home first, 117a Dean Mulholland, 71a Geoff Cook, 81a Steve Sims, 169h Rob Neill and 49h Tony Van Lieshout followed him home. Heat two was looking good for 5a Michael Harris who lead for most of the race before a flat right rear tyre dropped him well down the order, 218h Aaron Alderton taking advantage for a win ahead of Mulholland, 91a Paul Chatfield and 37a Wearing. Takarua, Peat and Krizo all failing to finish this heat.

Rumble Heat 1  8.30pm
30 cars rolled out for the first heat just as a few drops of rain started to fall. 95a Gary Lonergan grabbed the early lead from a grid 10 start within a lap while a big crush going into turns 3 and 4 claimed 12a Stanaway, 97a Eustace and 61a Neill bringing on the reds. 83a Riggans retired also during the stoppage. Lonergan lead Ash Wearing, Paul Chatfield, Leigh Cossey and Mark Wearing. 54h Hazelton went heavily into the wall in turn 3 before 137a Fergusson attacked 218h Alderton on the front straight with 91a Chatfield caught up in the action left facing the wrong way. As the track surface got more and more slippery a number of drivers spun including 98a, 49h, 45a and 117a. 25a Rowe retired and as Lonergan crossed the line for the win, 22a Cossey hit the spun car of Cook. 37a Wearing, 5a Harris and 218h Alderton followed Lonergan home just as the rain really came down, eventually the meeting was called off.

The other major feature was the Auckland Supersaloon title which 24a Ben Harding wrapped up with some superb driving. 12m Kirstin Vermeulen took out the first heat while 63a Nigel Mouat won heat two, both fending off Harding who placed second in both, before he inevitably won heat 3 and the Auckland title continuing the good form he displayed at Palmy. A field of about 11 cars fronted for the title.

Neil McCoard made a welcome return in a small field of Superstocks leading into their Auckland title next week. He won the first heat easily before winning a hastily put together shootout for the 5 cars in attendance. Hopefully we will see more of McCoard than the one visit a season we have been treated to in the last couple of years! Worryingly no Allstars cars were in town just emphasising the damage a Palmy teams expedition takes on a team. News was better for Scott Tennant, his car should be repaired for the next meeting. 84a Brent Crookes improves every meeting and had the orange beast flying.

...and we're back!

WP Opening Meeting
October 26th, 2013

I haven't been so excited about a new season in a long time. To say I've had a rough year is putting it mildly, but I guess it's all relative, there are plenty of people doing it tough out there. So the simple pleasure of turning up to speedway, meeting up with good mates and enjoying a few hours of entertainment in the brilliant sunshine that blessed Auckland yesterday put all those trials of the past few months on the back burner, and its part of the reason this sport of ours continues to thrive I guess. Its just great to be a part of it all. Anyway, unlike many opening night meetings which can be a bit thin on the ground in the competitor count, WP had a pretty full pit area and lots of new machinery and drivers raring to go. Since I'm in a good mood, I'm going to gloss over the opening race which was 4 Minisprints that dropped to 3 Minisprints mid race, and perhaps point out that this isn't the way to start your brand new season! So let's imagine it didn't happen, and that the Stockcars were first out, 27 of them which must be some sort of record for opening night.

Gary Lonergan in the beautifully presented 95a did what he does so often and took out the first race of the season after 741a Craig Chatfield and 15a Mike Harris eliminated each other early in the race while leading. 14r Matt Nilsson started to stir things up but was rear ended by 27a Trent English after putting the 28a car into the wall, bringing on the reds and ending his race. Not to worry the 14r tank was back out for heat 2 and ran riot putting 69a Dave Seymour up the turn 4 wall, putting a huge hit on 441h Andy Weir before 169h Phil Mortenson (one of the standouts of the night) ended Nilsson's run with a shunt into the wall on the pit end of the track. 29a Scott Tennant held out Lonergan for the win. The feature was the race of the night with 2 rollovers,  7a Laurie Maber and 94a Brendon Ashton the unlucky drivers one courtesy of 169h and I didn't see the instigator of the Ashton roll. 29a Tennant looked good for a win until a front right tyre popped and that man Lonergan just holding out 741a Chatfield for the win. Only sour note of the night was the decision to put 23a Tony Baldwin on to the infield after putting the 25a Jason Rowe car up the wall in turns 3 & 4. Apparently this is a new rule that when the reds are activated both cars are removed. Hopefully common sense will prevail, the crowd reaction was unanimous with plenty of booing!

Superstocks numbered 9 and featured a few of the Baypark boys. Karl Ross in the 73m made his intentions very clear during the first heat while battling with 351a Paul Vasey and 5a Brad Ridland for the lead deciding to put Ridland into the wall and finish the Aucklander's night right there and then. Heat two it was Vasey pushing Ross out of the way on lap two and running away with the win from 99m Mark Decke and Ross recovering for third. The feature and Ross sat on the brakes to hold up Vasey on the start line and club mate Ross Ashby in the immaculate 38m tank powered away for the win again followed home by Decke and rookie 4a Sean McKenzie in third. 65r Mark Flower and Paul Vasey had a good race long tussle and it was great to see a fairly evenly matched field not afraid to mix things up a bit. Best of all for local fans was the sight of 7a Jamie Fergusson stepping up from the Stockcar class and the prospect that perhaps we will be seeing more of him in the Allstars lineup?

Saloons (9) mixed in with Supersaloons (4), Ministocks (24) and Modifieds (7) made up the balance of the programme, and the standout for me was the 9a Modified of Bryce McCall. What a great addition to the class this guy will be if that showing was anything to go by. The night was rounded out with a brief fireworks display. With Streetstocks and Six Shooters yet to have a run, the question has to be asked whether one of these classes or the Minisprints, have done their dash at WP? I think if you can't guarantee a good field you miss out. Streetstocks and Minisprints have failed to bring numbers to the track for some time, and Six Shooters are the new game in town - its going to be a tough call but it should be made at some stage. The food caravans took a pounding every time the Minisprints came onto the track so maybe its not all bad!

Waikaraka kicks off

Delayed a week due to the weather, Waikaraka Park kicked off its second season under promoter Bruce Robertson and immediately you would have noticed a change in the pits pre-meeting... Superstocks! What a welcome return, particularly for a number of cars that used to have the letter A grace the side of the car, falling back into the fold it would seem. Hopefully the promise of full fields of a class that all but died save the efforts of the Marx team and Paul Vasey. The programme had listed 15 drivers not including Tim Nicholls who ran the 63a Super last night. Bryce Marx, Phil Marx, Wayne Whittaker, Lance Ashton, Darren Short, Karl Ross, Gary Ellis, Kerry Remnant, Gavin Entwistle, Brad Ridland, Ricky Mitchell, Paul Vasey, Warwick Ansty, Aaron Headington and Ryan Harrison from the UK.

Anyway onto the meeting, similar to Huntly last week, WP decided to offer an incentive for the Stockcar class by running the City of Sails Stockcar title on opening night. Whereas Huntly canned their Waikato Title due to low numbers, the City of Sails title was contested with only 14 cars which is a pity as this title has been a huge highlight these last couple of seasons. One little nitpick I will throw in here that I have noticed happening at ALL clubs over the last few seasons, there is little or no history of the event being contested mentioned in the programme, no previous winners, defending champs etc. So just to fill in the gaps, last seasons running of this event was won by 59a Grant Littlewood ahead of Gary Lonergan and Bernie Fox. In 2010 it was a run-off between 81h Rod Smythe and 69a Dave Seymore to find the winner, Smythe taking the honours. This year Gary Lonergan improved one position and took the title from visitor and main threat 8r Scott Fredrickson, 29a Scott Tennant by virtue of a heat three win took third place.

Heat one was fairly tame as expected being the very first race of the season. 8r Fredrickson took an easy win although he did have to avoid a few attempts by 9a Cam Kenworthy to impede him, 29a Tennant, 95a Lonergan, 21a Dixon and 741a Chatfield filled out the top 5 places. 11 cars fronted for heat two. Spins for Chatfield and Tennant would cost them plenty of places and Bernie Fox almost had the win until riding up over the wheel of 33a Haydn Cossey. Lonergan able to take the lead and win. Fox finishing second ahead of a tentative Fredrickson who looked like he was waiting for the big hit that never came. 21a Dixon running well and getting his second 4th place finish ahead of 441h Andy Weir. This left 8r and 95a tied on 26pts, 21a and 29a on 22pts, 441h on 19 and 741a on 16pts. We were down to 10 cars although the 9a managed to get back on track and provided most of the action. With 33a sitting on the brakes at the start and 9a having a jab at Lonergan, Tennant took off in the lead. Lonergan saw an opportunity to end Fredrickson's chances and just missed with a big lunge in turn 4. Kenworthy had another go at Fredrickson and Lonergan paid back the earlier hit from 9a. Kenworthy had one more good go at 95a forcing him into the wall and a shower of sparks before the 9a car eventually died. 2nz Fox then took over the stirring and after holding up the Rotorua driver, Lonergan passed them and took outright second behind Tennant and the points win over Fredrickson. Chatfield finished 4th ahead of Dixon who was another target of Fox. Good stuff but at times with a field of only 10 cars it wasnt really going to set the park alight.

The support programme consisted of 14 Saloons, 24 Ministocks, 9 Superstocks and 6 Modifieds. Bodie Abrahamson in the saloons and Luke Brown and the Ministocks really stood out and the battle between 55s and 64a Modifieds in their feature race was a great. Superstock wins went to 11a Gary Ellis,115a Darren Short and 5a Brad Ridland.