John Webster / Glen Turner Memorials

John Webster Memorial, Glen Turner Supersaloons
Waikaraka Park, Auckland






The John Webster for 2011 had looked a little shaky during the week leading up to Saturday. No Sprintcars or Superstocks on the agenda and fairly vague numbers being tossed around for most classes. But upon entering the pits you could see there were going to be full fields in most classes. Also the feel of the meeting would be different from previous years with the open wheel classes more dominant having Midgets, MiniSprints and TQ's present. I was a little alarmed with Streetstock numbers (which have been low all season) and predictably they were the only class that failed to fire on a night that's original intention was to showcase the best of speedway in Auckland. This is a class that really need a shot in the arm, or a shot to the head depending on your enjoyment of Streetstock racing.

Overall I thought the racing was pretty good, the SuperSaloons completely stealing the show up until their feature race, when we were treated to a four wide salute in honour of Glen Turner, a stalwart of Auckland Saloon racing. The field of 14 cars was top quality and the feature was going to be something really special. 8h Craig Cardwell absolutely overcooked the start of the race and looked to have blown all chance of winning before they had even reached the first corner. He slipped back to about 8th place from his front row grid but little did we all know that within a lap it would prove rather fortuitous as a spinning 99a Shane McInteer would be involved in a melee that would take out six cars and pretty much rip the guts out of the most anticipated race of the night. The remaining contestants basically left a 24h Harding v 8h Cardwell battle that could never reach the heights that the pre-race hype had built. It was a pity but take nothing away from Harding, he powered his way to a great victory.

I didn't quite get the gist of the way the Midgets were doing the qualifying for their final, then the cars that seemed to have been most successful on the night didn't start off the front. The feature was action packed with a few changes of leader and although their were a few yellow light incidents, it didn't turn into a marathon of endurance for the spectators. The big guns didn't quite get to the front of the field resulting in a great battle between 27a Hayden Williams, 9h Angus McLeod and 4a Dave Gick. Williams picking up the win. Of interest to a lot of WP regulars was the performance of former commentator Aaron Drever who was racing the CRC 71a, and huge respect to the guy for having the kahunas to get out there and then put on a pretty decent performance! Apart from a spin in heat two and a few tentative first laps in heat one he was on the pace, drove clean and looked very capable, great effort dude!

Stockcars were the other standout class. Twenty four cars turned out including 898s Sandy Flett and 16h David Ingram in the old Vic Neal chassis looking pretty cool. Lots of contact and good fast racing with 137a Jamie Fergusson and 168a Billy Neill doing most of the stirring. Wins went to 95a Gary Lonergan, 69h Callum Whiter and the feature to 29a Scott Tennant who is having a brilliant debut season in the class. The 74a stockcar was given to Streetstock pilot Jody Hooker for the feature but just as he was getting into his stride a red light incident that he was too slow to stop for meant he was sent infield robbing the race of some action.

So that was another Webster "Speedway Expo" (as it was originally called) completed. Five of the six classes on show were great and compared to a normal nights racing, $20 for all that action and quality fields was a great deal. Whether the promoters take on board comments about the intent of the meeting - the 'best of the best' concept (which the Huntly club have embraced with the Speedfest meeting) is anyones guess. I hope they do, John Webster was a huge figure in Auckland speedway and any meeting bearing his name should be something a bit special.

Ready for John Webster XII?

Are you ready for this years version of the John Webster Memorial? Here are a few reviews from the last couple of years:


8th John Webster 2007 Here


9th John Webster 2008 here


10th John Webster 2009 here

11th John Webster 2010 here

...and a bit about John Webster here.

World of Stocks

World of Stocks
Paradise Valley, Rotorua








Hard to believe, but yet ANOTHER meeting affected by rain! My plan had been to miss qualifying night and just head over for the finals which is pretty much what has happened over the last few seasons. The heavy downpour on Friday meant my plans changed and not being able to stay on for Sundays finals just summed up my spectating season this year. Some speedway is better than none so I headed for Paradise Valley not expecting the world to be set on fire going by the last few 'World of Stocks' qualifying nights but was pleasantly surprised by the action that was served up. Perhaps the difference was the inclusion of 12e Zac Thompson who basically spent the night stirring up trouble in the bright yellow flat chassis that was at the centre of most incidents in his group. 83h Steve Gray also added to the dramas and is fast becoming a stirrer of note with a tank that can actually go fast when needed. One of the other standouts was 24m Karl Daniel also in a tank that was deceptively fast and only narrowly missed out of qualifying after a runoff but would be given the wildcard to get through.

When the dust had settled, the field of 60+ entrants had been narrowed down to 12 qualifiers, 4 from each group with a last chance repercharge adding another one, and the wildcard entry of course joining the 14 already confirmed starters. The results for finals night can be found on the Rotorua website here with 8r Scott Fredrikson finally landing a big title, so often missing out with little support when he was registered to Baypark. It appears the Rotorua drivers really did band together on this occasion which is sometimes not the norm. This was the fifth running of the World of Stocks title I believe, and its future seems assured with a good mix of action and good hard racing. It has been an expensive few weeks for stockcar drivers with the amount of meetings they are expected to travel to for what is essentially a budget class. I did have a fear that after four or five weeks of titles in a row that the field would be depleted, but luckily it wasnt the case. Just from a spectating point of view, I know the amount of Fridays I need to take off work to get to these titles and wonder how many high profile meetings a class like this can sustain before the bubble bursts, just food for thought. Also (small gripe warning) what happened to the awesome programmes that were coming out of Rotorua? Maybe a cost cutting measure but I miss those AWS graphics...

Finally, Peter Ress may not have made the podium for this title but he did take out the BOP Superstock title on Saturday night despite a great effort from 37r Ken Hunter to take him out in the third heat. Has any driver ever had a season as spectacularly successful as Rees is having this year? Its almost a privilege to watch him drive. So a qualifying night that I didn't think would offer up too much excitement presented Rees at his best and the much vaunted Zac Thompson from Blenheim living up to the hype that we in the North Island have heard so much about.

8r Scott Fredrickson 80pts
95r Dale Stewart 76pts
17b Aaron Iremonger 69pts
71w Benji Sneddon 67pts
2nz Peter Rees 63pts

Related links:
2010 review here
2009 review here

Team Nats Night 2

Superstock Teams Nationals
Waikaraka Park, Auckland



With a fairly successful first night, not only were the weather Gods playing the game but also a much bigger crowd turned up for finals night and most would have left well pleased with the teams racing at least. The support programme included the Minisprint GP, 18 Modifieds for the Auckland title and 10 Supersaloons.

First Semi Final
Palmerston North Panthers v Waikato Wanderers
Waikato were going to have to really raise the bar if they were to beat the Panthers and just a lap in it was looking good when 96h Aaron Headington managed to roll 8p Scott Joblin in turn 4. At the same time 95h Ansty was being blocked by 7p Bengsten. The red lights came on for Joblin and there were good signs for the Wanderers but unfortunately 93h Karl Ross who had been put into the wall on turn 1 would remain stuck there for the rest of the race, so any advantage had just been lost. Upon the restart Palmy assumed its usual tactic of 2 runners with Bengsten left to do the blocking. 97h and 96h both ran for Waikato and only Ansty slowed to block. The hallmark of this Panthers team is that they never seem to panic and no matter what happens in the first few laps they seem to have a composure and sense of purpose that other teams lack. Shane Penn took the win with 97h, 96h and 5p Rees all on the same lap. Win to the Panthers and a place in the finals.

Second Semi Final
Rotorua Rebels v Hawkes Bay Hawkeyes
Personally I wanted Rotorua to win this because they looked the stronger of the two teams and it would make a better final in theory. HB's chances were looking shakey after the warm up laps with smoke coming from 31b Long's car resulting in a 3 minute bell before withdrawing from the team. This meant 34b Mike Mac would take his place and he had been a massive asset to the team so far with his blocking. From the green light 32b Palamountain stayed on the brakes blocking the entire row while the other row almost completed a lap (which would be a huge talking point later) 95r Hewson was leading but was taken out by 34b. This gave the lead to 35b Steve Jude and then a passage of the race where hits were going in everywhere. Easily the most action of any race from the whole weekend. It ended with a group of cars piling into each other by the start finish line resulting in Jude being spun and facing the wrong way where upon he was hit by two Rotorua cars. Now I'm just guessing, but one of the hits was by 95r Hewson and a red light was activated and he was removed to the infield. With 8 laps still to run there were plenty of damaged cars. It appeared at this point that 98r was leading from 33b and 97r Horse in third. 32b Palamountain spun 98r giving the lead to Foley which set up a nail biting finish where Foley was held up just metres from the line while the tank raced passed for a great win to Rotorua, or so it seemed. The flag was given to Foley and the win to HB with the news that 97r was a lap down.

5th and 6th Place
Auckland Allstars v Kihikihi Kings
Essentially the fight for the wooden spoon. Auckland only had four cars with 9a Hammond out. Paul Vasey took on the blocking role and 8a Bryce Marx did the running. 7a Mitchell was off early and although the Kings had many attempts, particularly Dion Mooney, Marx was able to continue on and take the flag for the Allstars first win of the weekend. No disgrace either for the Kings, as both teams had been worthy additions to the weekends racing.

3rd and 4th Place
Rotorua Rebels v Waikato Wanderers
With both Ansty and Hewson as reserves both teams had lost a potent team member. 97h lead early by was held up by the omnipresent tank of Ross Ashby, giving the lead to 98r. In fact the tank was really the difference between both teams, Ashby seemed to have a hand in everything. The lead changed a few times but Waikato seemed unable to capitalise and the structure of their race fell away. Rotorua's Bryce Steiner coming home for the win ahead of Karl Ross and Mark Decke.
Another strong result for Rotorua but as with the teams meeting in Palmy, they showed alot more cohesion than in recent years and this team really does look the goods for next season.

Final
Palmerston North Panthers v Hawkes Bay Hawkeyes
The odds-on favourites up against fierce rivals Hawkes Bay who really had quite a challenge ahead of them. Perhaps wisely, maybe not with hindsight, the stockcar of 34b Mike Mac was reserve along with 6p Wayne Hemi. From the green flag 7p Peter Bengsten took the lead followed by 9p and 8p. HB's usual runner Steve Jude walled Peter Rees but then had problems and went to the infield. 31b Long blocked Bengsten until being put up the wall leaving 4 Palmy cars running against 3 as Jude had rejoined the race. Before the green light was activated 32b limped to the infield effectively ending HB's chances, 4 v 2. From there on Rees blocked Gary Foley and Bengsten blocked Jude leaving 9p Penn and 8p Joblin reeling off the laps towards an inevitable Panthers win. It almost felt as though the drivers orchestrated the finish with Penn winning the race in his last teams appearance for the Panthers, a fitting way to go out with the chequered flag for one of their strongest assets.

So that was it for another year, 5 wins in a row for the most successful race team in the sport for many years, possibly ever. Was the meeting a success? Well I guess the acid test will be whether it runs again next season, hopefully it will and the noises since the meeting seem to indicate it didnt make a loss, lets hope that is the case. Roll on next years Teams Nationals, hopefully with at least 8 teams and a full house!