Black Friday Biff & Bash

One thing you can say about Auckland is that not only is the weather fickle but so are the crowds going by the sparse turnout for WP's second meeting of the year. The Black Friday 'Biff and Bash' was essentially a club night meeting and I thought that car numbers would be light given the fact is was being run on a Friday but although down on the opening meeting the pits was still very full and included a number of new cars.

Paul and Craig Chatfield made they first appearances in a while sporting what can only be described as "Chatfield Racing Green" on two very slick looking cars. Also debuting was 9a, 82a, a very welcome return of 441a Andy Weir and 24a Trevor Cook. Numbers for the stockcars (19 in the pits) are very impressive this early in the season. Superstocks managed 9 cars which isnt too bad considering Rotorua only pulled in 8 last night at their meeting. Huntly cars took out all three wins but 61a Nicholls looked promising in the first heat although gremlins appear to have ended his night early ("We burst a pressure line from the oil pump, nothing sinister, we will be back next week") emailed from Tim. 85h Jared Wade learned the hard way that if you take on one Marx car (there were three of them racing: 53a, 63a and 73a) you will be punished and so the honour of first rollover in this class for the year was his after a perfectly timed hit by 63a. Don't mess with the Marx! 28h Glen Drabble won heat one, was second in heat two and took out the feature.

Supersaloons managed a very decent field of 10 cars and once again 99a McInteer was the one to watch although 38h Peter Hemi kept him honest. Keep an eye on 51a in the beautifully presented Mainline car, this guy has really stepped up a gear. 61a Roy Walker took a clean sweep of the Saloons and looked the goods in a field that could only muster 11 cars. The rest of the racing included a whopping 35 Ministocks, 8 Modifieds and 9 Streetstocks in some pretty tame racing. My only real gripe perhaps is the starting grids for some of these races with Jamie Fox barely tested with front row starts, likewise for McInteer in the Supers.

So a another small step forward in regards the actual show being put on, I'm sure the crowd will be huge at the next meeting being a Demo Derby. Special thanks to whoever was in control of the flow of events as there wasn't a single break in the programme and the 21 races were completed before 10pm giving the Modifieds a bonus race at the end of the night. When its as cold as it was last night, simple things like this make a huge difference. Also putting up stirrers money for all three Stockcar races made them the standout class for the night. Not sure of who took the money but 441a Weir, 007a Fergusson and the real surprise of the night 21a Brett Dixon who found his inner mongrel must have been contenders. Onwards and upwards then for this new promotion hopefully.

Meeting rating : 6/10

Cracker!

WP Opening Meeting

If ever there was an important meeting this season for WP, this was going to be it. A lot of pressure and expectation for the new promotions team and club who perennially under-perform each season, usually giving a glimpse of how good the place can be at only a few meets during the season. Fortunately they delivered with a quality show, fantastic fireworks display and decent fields in most classes even requiring some of the cricket grounds for the abundance of MiniStocks in attendance. More noticeable than the on-track action (which was great) was the HUGE crowd and excellent atmosphere (yes atmosphere!) that has been missing for several years.

From the moment you went through the public gates the new signage signalled change. The amount of competitors in the pits (probably double any figure a usual opening night has drawn in) and a quick look through the new-look full colour A5 sized programme which is very spectator friendly, confirmed that indeed, change is happening.

The four man commentary team (Howe, Drever, Duff and new man Chris Lawrence) gelled well although there were a few hiccups with driver info and results that can be overlooked on a normal race night. There were some hilarious jokes at the expense of John Duff who put the commentators hex on EVERY car he mentioned to the point that he refused to even say drivers names towards the end of the night. He must owe Nigel Ross a drink such were his powers of destructive suggestion! The flow of the meeting was pretty good although the fireworks usually means a late night - starting promptly at 6.45pm and finishing just after 11pm stretching it a bit. The programming of a teams race between Auckland and Gisborne (win to the Alleycats), a Rock FM promotion infield, a chance to win a season pass and the complete lack of pointless downtime for a crowd that would have included many families probably only there for the fireworks meant that for once the club were taking advantage of the opportunity to convert a few first timers and get them coming back for the speedway viewing.

The Gisborne Gladiators made the long trek up for a match-up with the local Alleycats team who haven't made a home appearance since the disastrous cancelled encounter with Rotorua last year. The race was essentially settled in turn three of the first lap as Gary Lonergan took out Gladiators runner 66g Sam Hughes leaving 5 cars on to 4 for the rest of the race. The visitors never gave up, which is becoming a hallmark of the new era Gizzy teams but with a polished looking Auckland team including new cap Dan Martin performing clinically and without too much need for mega hits, Gary Lonergan took the win from a late charging 65g Andrew Powell. Lets hope this is an omen for the Alleycats big season ahead at the Huntly and Wellington events.

The rest of the programme included 8 Modifieds, a big quality field of Saloons, a mixed field of SuperSaloons and Saloons with some spectacular if unpredictable driving from 99a Shane McInteer, 30+ MiniStocks, a very big field of 26+ Stockcars, a strong field of StreetStocks, MiniSprints and the Sidecar rigs who raced on the big track (another good decision that gets a thumbs up from me) plus the feature race photos and interview with the winning driver to finish the night off. As I left I heard over the pit speakers the drivers all being thanked for their efforts and no doubt relief that the first date was done and dusted.

Mission accomplished for the first meeting then, the big challenge now is to repeat it and keep the crowds coming through the gates. Having the big crowd there really makes a difference. Even when the winning driver went on their chequered flag lap people were cheering on the backstraight like in the old days. The old days... now there's a hard act to measure up to, nobody has been able to even get close in recent years, but if we remember massive speedway fan Rachel Hunter's sage advice "it wont happen overnight,..."

Meeting rating 7/10

WP Practice 2

Just a few photos from Wednesday nights practice.

WP Practice

With the unusual sight of sunshine on a Saturday morning I headed over to WP to take a few shots of the cars that turned up for todays practice. I had to leave at midday but the weather was closing in so not sure if they got to turn any laps. Good numbers in most classes too.

Blurb

Blurb have changed their policy on viewing books they publish. Previously you could only view the first 15 pages, but starting from today they have now made the whole book available to view in the preview mode. This means you can now see the entire contents of the first book I did. My review for last season is nearly finished and should be online soon...

Click on the link to the right for a flashback to 2007/08.