Auckland Champs Night

I thought rain would be the winner this weekend but luckily for us WP was able to go ahead with their Auckland champs night for quite a few classes although the Superstocks title was dropped midweek rather than running against the 248 Global Challenge in Palmy that was ironically rained out and rescheduled for Sunday. They still managed to gather a great competitor base in most classes running but Stockcar numbers were low (9) and thankfully they were combined with the Supers (12) for three great races. The feature won by 66r Steve Hampton, 73a Bryce Marx second and I think 36r Kevin Free might have made it up to third or fourth spot in what apparently will be his last appearance at WP. I was interested to see Rick Campbell piloting the 63a Marx car and I assume it was Trevor Mason in the 99a Super giving some validity to the rumoured make-up of the Allstars team for Palmerston North in February. The 9r tank of Anthony Brown had great pace in heat 1 but lost the body which was reduced to a purple smear on the track by race end and he wasn't seen out again for the night.

Somewhat stealing the show were the Super Saloons continuing the epic Jennings v Hemi battle that started in Huntly, fortunately there was no dramatic ending for them this week. 8h Cardwell and 2nz MacIntyre joined in the action (particularly MacIntyre who's night went from fantastic to over in the course of two races) but it was local hero 99a Shane McInteer who won the final from 21h Steve Williams and 96a Jennings in third. I will also mention the eloquent speech Williams gave at the conclusion of the race acknowledging Lance Jennings that was well received by the crowd. An all in Saloon final produced an upset with 48a Phil Towgood showing the Supers a clean pair of heels to cap off a successful night for him including the Auckland title he won convincingly from 74a Scott Landsdown and 27a Steven Correy in a strong Saloon field.

Newly crowned 1nz Jamie Fox made easy work of the Auckland Modified title leaving the rest of the field fighting for the leftovers. 6a Brian Jesen taking second and 21a Garry Parker third from the hard charging 64a Grant Harris. Minisprints and MiniStocks rounded out the programme on another solid night for Waikaraka Park.

Meeting rating : 6.5/10

Auckland Champs
Modifieds 1nz Jamie Fox
Minisprints 32h James Cossey
Ministocks 75a Scott Tennant
Super Saloons 99a Shane McInteer
Saloons 48a Phil Towgood

World 240's

World 240's Superstocks, Paradise Valley Rotorua

This was a great meeting last year and usually one of the best weekends of the season, but for me this years version won't be featuring in my highlights. I made it to Friday's qualifying which was pretty good. Great to see Wayne Hemi back and most of the usual suspects got through to Saturdays finals but in a field as classy as this, many big names were going to have to take out the repercharge on Saturday to book their place, a mouth watering prospect. The stockcars provided good support for the BOP title won by 109r Jason Brown. As usual, a very promising lead in to the second night as long as the weather held... I did also have the ignominy of being ejected from a 'corporate area' that I didn't even realise I was standing in! Apparently I was in the NZ Welding corporate tent zone and got given a polite 'move along please' which gave me a chuckle. Troublemaker.

Qualifiers:
72p, 515r, 591p, 2nz, 77p, 85h, 37r, 16r, 4b, 135r, 89r, 52p, 7p, 58p, 96r, 23h, 38r, 52r along with 10p and the Overseas drivers who had practice runs during the course of the night.

Saturday rolled around and as most people now know, the weather didn't hold. I sat in the stands catching up with Pallmall (which was great) but the inevitable happened, the meeting was called and we were informed it was now a 'free' meeting on Sunday. How a meeting you have paid $25 for is deemed free is beyond me but as I had plans and would not be able to attend I headed to the main gates to see if there was a rainout pass or refund. By the time I made it to the gates (along with hundreds of others heading for the carpark derby) there were no passes being handed out and no chance I was hanging round getting even more soaked. Not good. As far as I am aware there is no chance of a refund (which to be fair it does state in the programme) and the club is not responsible for the weather but never-the-less I paid my money and got nought in return. There has to be a better way than this.

Just to make it EVEN worse the review on the Rotorua website and of course Macgors tells of a brilliant finals meeting on Sunday afternoon with plenty of biff and bash. For the record, the first major win of many no doubt for 52p Scott Joblin. 4b Joe Faram and 89r Dale Robertson took the other podium positions after a runoff. 87r Pat Westbury took the automatic qualification for next seasons 240's after winning the non-qualifiers 'Superstocks in Paradise' title. Lets hope for his sake - and ours - that it doesn't rain...

Meeting rating : 6/10 Friday night only

NZ Supersaloons Huntly

At the beginning of the season when I looked through Macgors calendar (all care, no responsibility) this wasn't one of the meetings I had pencilled in for attending, but after a few weeks away on holiday and hanging out for some speedway action, I managed to make it to the Saturday night finals and what an excellent decision it was, as this was one of the best meetings I've been to in the last few seasons. It was that rare convergence when drivers, track and crowd all seem to click and you leave the place buzzing. Twenty of the best Saloon drivers, a strong supporting programme, big crowd, a track that survived the onslaught and an awesome commentary team that had you updated with every aspect of the meeting from points to pits.

I've never been a huge fan of the three heats for position and one race final after seeing it used a couple of times at major Superstock meetings and I'm guessing Steve Williams is not a fan of it either after having a 10pt lead after the three heats that usually would crown you as a convincing champion BUT for this class and this meeting it really worked. All three heats were unique, heat one was a heavy track that had little or no movement for the first half and more of a keep your head and your grid position until the track dried a little and then a glimpse of the passing that would be witnessed later in the evening. Heat two best represented what most people expect of a Supersaloon title, mutiple incidents, many laps on yellow and a huge amount of retirements and of course this was the heat the really set up two of the major players for the night 21h Williams and 25i Verdoner who by virtue of avoiding the carnage ahead of them and managing to also pass a few grabbed massive amounts of points for the final grid positions. Heat three was something else. Flat out racing with little incident and multiple passing opportunities, the crowd got to see something special and what an entree for the big winner take all final heat.

I know there is no sure thing in Speedway but I bet the engraver had started writing '21h Ste...' on the winners' cup as he had just looked better and better as the night went on and was starting off grid 1 for the final. Unfortunately an incident just before turn 4 during the restart after the Cardwell/Flynn stoppage, the back cars came forward too quick and 63h Mouat was hit from behind leaving him unable to head for the infield he managed to crawl around the wall up into turn 1 and 2 fully expecting the yellow lights to come on and in Williams own words "he baulked" when he saw the ailing 63h, lost concentration and spun in front of the leading pack ending his magnificent nights work and his chances. From there on in it was a four horse race with 7m, 1nz, 25i and perennial favourite 96a Jennings. Reigning champ McIntyre held off 7m Emerson for a while but inevitably the outside line that 38h Hemi had been using to make huge gains on the leading pack opened up for 7m and the race was his. The enthralling fight for the NZ3 position ended dramatically when Hemi and Jennings speared off onto the infield and 25i Verdona somehow managed to avoid and finish for a hugely popular podium position.

As mentioned by the commentary team the first two rows on the starting grid contained 3 of the last four NZ champions and so this is one title that 7m Brent Emmerson can truly cherish as a 'best of the best' victory. It's a hard road being a track promoter but just occasionally a meeting like this happens and I'm guessing Red Wootton, Nigel Wilton and the team at Huntly are mighty proud right now, and so they should be.

I got to catch up with a few speedway people before the meeting and also by virtue of actually being in the right place at the right time scored a ticket to the NZ Superstocks at Kihikihi when Barry Brown was in the crowd offering the chance to win and was standing right behind me. Good score! Was great to finally meet Barry and well done KK on your generous promotion - cant wait to be there January 30th - 31st at Kihikihi Speedway which was the answer to the question by the way.

Meeting rating: (Night 2 only) 9/10