It's a Gizzy thing!

They may be thin on the ground but one thing about Gisborne stockcars is that they are usually some of the coolest cars on the racetrack! Check out some of these fine examples and lets just hope that the number of cars with a 'G' next to their number increases this season...

Mint

A mate I work with was heading into Manukau yesterday and volunteered to check out the new Vasey Superstock and take some photos. Great to see two confirmed starters for the new season at WP (along with the Mac chassis piloted by Wayne Whittaker) this early in the build up to the 06/07 season. Is it too early to get excited?

Computer says no

If you've moved house recently, you'll know exactly how I feel right now! Don't get me wrong, it's great finally owning a house, but the fact that it's really old and has about 6 power sockets in total means the computer is just an ornament standing in the corner until we sort out a few 'technical problems.' If you watch Little Britain you'll appreciate the character above, that's how I feel right now!

--------------------

19g

The only stockcar I've ever had the pleasure of sitting in (sad I know, the photos are worse, I look like a kid on christmas morning) when it was in the hands of Neil McCoard. Andrew Harvey bought the car off Neil and these photos supplied by PallMall are taken at the New Zealand Stockcar Champs at Gisborne 2002.

It's one of three sister cars built by Neil McCoard, here's the background from Brent Morris from Macgors 'Missing In Action' page:

The 99s was the first Tank built by Neil McCoard nearly 20 years ago I believe. It was first raced out of Stratford and then Auckland. It is longer and wider than the 2 later cars. This is the car Tony Collins races at Temarua as 74w.

The car has always been Ford V8 powered up until a 4 litre falcon re power for 05/06. Has had a lack lustre season with lots of niggles up until last Saturday when it was really cranking in the first race. We have been flat out on it all week and are hoping for a good run this weekend. TC's a driver who can get the best out of a Tank.

The other 2 cars were built around 1994 and were basically the same as each other chassis wise. Neils was Ford V8 powered and the one he built for Frank had a Ford 6 in it.

Neils car went to gizzy and was raced as a Superstock for a while. I believe it is still there, but is being converted to a Stockcar with Rover power.

The other one (Frank's) is sitting at my place and is ready to race - Just needs me to have some spare time and find someone to bank roll it, LOL - next season? In the mean time I like to help TC when I can.

Thanks for the interest guys - If any one has any more photos, stick them on. Its great to see the following these cars have.

Brent Morris






Previous 'Cool Car' postings:
21a
19m
76a
92g

Competition winner

The Auckland Superstock Teams DVD and Weekend Warriors book winner was:

Mark Flower
Whakatane

Congratulations, I will send them out this week.

Tank 3

Just as I was going to do a posting about Tank number 3, I see it is for sale in the latest NZDTR magazine for $12,500. Great to see that it will still be out racing rather than earlier suggested plans of retiring the car to the Historic stockcar class. Built by Dave Evans, the car debuted in 1983 in the hands of Peter Woods and has in it's history been driven by Murray Long, Tony Whittaker, Noel Hawthorne, Weston Hemara, Tony Gavin and Evan Mooney amoung others. It was of course the car that Evans took back to back NZ Stockcar titles in 1983 + 1984, and made the car a real piece of Speedway history.





Previous 'Cool Car' postings:
19m
76a
92g

25p

A couple of emails with suggestions, so far it appears it may have been Allan East or Brian Parfitt. Allen transported the Pumas cars up there whether he drove it or not he could not remember. The photo below is Allan East's 15p. The car itself looks like it's something out of Wellington.

Rewind

With Kihikihi running their last meeting on Sunday, effectively the 2005-06 speedway season came to an end. It actually ended for me after the Tiger Woods meeting in Huntly which was a pretty good way to finish, leaving you wanting more. This was the first 'season' of my website too, and one spinoff from that is being able to look back and see how many meetings I actually went to and what I thought of them. Yes, this posting is going to be like one of those episodes of Happy Days when the scriptwriters couldn't be arsed writing something fresh and so they have lots of flashbacks and dream sequences and tweak it so it all looks new!

Doing a quick recap of my reviews, I went to 17 meetings, more than I thought I'd gone to but way down on past years. It seems I've left my "go no matter what" speedway persona behind and I've started to pick and choose... not great news for the promoters if that sort of attitude takes off but after years of sitting through some pretty ordinary meetings it was inevitable. Yes I've become one of a new breed of mouthy casual visitors! Now get ready for some flashbacks...here are the meetings and the ratings they got and if you're really keen you can click on them and relive the moment.





Opening Meeting WP 4/10
Fireworks WP 4/10
Huntly Stockcar Teams 6/10
Demo Derby WP 5/10
City of Auckland Classic WP 4/10
NYE Modified GP WP 4/10
NZvAUSvUSA Midget Series Western Springs 7/10
NZ Supersaloon GP WP 6/10
NZ Stockcars HB 8/10
NZ Superstocks WP 6/10
Palmerston North Superstock Teams 9/10
Saloons Gold Coast Travel/15k Superstock Series WP 4/10
Auckland Superstock Teams 7.5/10
North Island Modified Series WP 4/10
Rotorua Easter Champs 7/10
King of the Park WP 6.5/10
Valvoline Celebrity Teams Huntly 8/10


Now there's a few mean scores there and sometimes as the review stated it wasn't the headline act that let the side down (the North Island Modified Series for instance) but if you get all Krypton Factor-ish and work out the average score per meeting it was (drumroll) five out of 10. The top rated meeting for me was unsurprisingly the Palmy Superstock Teams and the biggest disappointment was probably the NZ Superstock title, but only because I probably hyped myself up beyond reasonable expectation. It's one of the few meetings we travel to no matter where it is and it's a pretty good way of touring the country (we've been doing it since Rotorua 1998) and maybe the fact that we didn't travel away which is part of the fun dulled things a little. I think a great promotional idea that could be started is perhaps a badge or medal sold at each NZ title unique to that event and track for speedway types like me who make it a mission to attend these titles every year...very collectable and a great reminder of each championship, almost a 'badge of honour'. Having looked at a few of the 'souvenir huts' at tracks I've visited the pickin's are pretty slim.



Although the Palmy Teams got my highest score I think the NZ Stockcars at Meeanee was my favourite meeting of the season by far. A huge turnout of competitors, heaps of action and a worthy winner. As far as tracks go, I went to Waikaraka Park, Western Springs, Palmerston North, Hawkes Bay, Huntly and Rotorua. All but one track have improved but The Springs still leads the way in presenting a professional and welcoming environment (if you ignore the neighbours that is). The night I went was the first round of the International Midget Series which was great BUT if I wanted to follow the series I'd have to go to Christchurch to see the final rounds which was a no go. It's the only meeting I went to that I didn't review and I was disappointed that it was not completed in Auckland like previous years but thems the breaks. It's always been one of the best series of meetings of the Christmas/New Year speedway calendar for me but with all the problems the Springs have been having with noise and the locals something had to give.

My local track Waikaraka Park lurched from good to bad every week it seemed, but their final meeting of the season 'The King of the Park' was a cracker and proved that the place is capable of great things. Next season they host the NZ Stockcar title and hopefully it will be as good as this years effort at Hawkes Bay. It deserves to be because the Stockcars were the standout class at WP with healthy numbers of cars and great action. The Modifieds are another class that really entertained and will only get bigger and better.

The Speedway awards are coming up soon and so I'll give a few of my own out for what it's worth:

Stockcars Peter Rees
Superstocks Rodney Wood
Modifieds Jamie Fox
Streetstocks Bill Peat
Super Saloons Lance Jennings

Yeah I know, way too many Auckland cars in there but you have to base it on something and these are the ones that stood out for whatever reason to me particularly Lance Jennings who just seems to become more exciting every season.

Some new things that appeared this season that got the gregobro thumbs up...

Macgors "Missing in Action" section, my absolute favourite part of his site and the first point of reference for me (followed by the buy and sell, always dreaming) whenever I log on. The photos and stories that have been posted on there are brilliant. Special thanks to both PallMall and Wal86 for their outstanding contributions. Whoever came up with this idea was on to a winner. I dont know if any of you remember Pete Frame but he used to do Rock Family Trees for NME magazine years ago following the history of bands and now having seen some of the amazing histories of cars a book done in the same style with photos would be a great thing.

The continuing growth in Driver Websites like the Harwood Racing site that are great reading and a real insight in to what goes on just getting a car to the track. Also good to hear what's happening in the South Island Superstock scene.

The Teams Champs Greatest Hits DVD put out by SMS. A celebration of 25 years of Palmy Teams champs and worth every penny.

Biggest downer of the season had to be the fact that I noticed alot of action happening on the far side of the track was out of focus... I knew the cars weren't going that fast, so off to the optician and sure enough a dodgy pair of spectacles later... at least I can see whats happening now.

Well that's my quick recap of the season, not all 'happy days' but still good enough to make me count the days until the new season starts. To celebrate the one year anniversary of my site (June 2) I'm going to give away a copy of the "Weekend Warriors" book by John Webster and a copy of the Auckland Superstock Teams DVD. Woo Hoo! Alls you have to do is send an email with your name and postal address and I'll pick one name out of a hat and post them off to you. Easy.



Thanks to anyone who has emailed and offered photos, words of encouragement and feedback, it makes up for the fact that I have to wear Joe90 glasses now. It's great just being a part of the internet speedway community which is thriving. Back in the 80's we actually had a union meeting at work to vote on whether we would allow 'computers' into the workplace... seems absurd now but we thought they were a fad!

Oh, and the email address for the giveaway is: greg.parsloe@mgnz.co.nz

Cheers!

Flashback 008

NZ Standard Stock Teams
2000





In 2000 a powerhouse team of Pumas came to Auckland and took the Standard Stock Teams championship (and the right to host it) with them, something they and the Wellington Young Guns have basically had a stranglehold over ever since. Two memories of this meeting that I need help with are the members of the Gisborne team who bravely fronted with a driver who had not only never been in a teams race before... but was making his very first appearance at a stockcar meeting! Talk about thrown in at the deep end. I've got a photo of the car above (numbered 91g) but have no idea who it was or what happened to him and his car. The experience either made him stronger or scared him off for life. Any info appreciated. Also who were the other members of the team, I assume 8g was Bruce Harding and 69g was Glen MacIntosh but 5g and 9g are a mystery.

The other fading memory is of the 25p coupe that is in the background of the Palmy team photo (still on the carrier, I've done a magnified version below of that pic to help identify) that appeared in the consolation races on the second night. I can remember the commentator making jokes about how rude the car looked in it's bright orange and green paintjob but when it hit the track he had the last laugh as he laid into the locals and won one of the heats with ease! Who was driving and what happened to this 'ugly duckling' car?

I've had a small search around the internet and found some photos on Ian Abrahams old site of the Standard Stock Teams Nationals in 1998 where it appears the Huntly Raiders won the title.

If I've got any of my dates or info wrong, let me know by email or put it in the comments box at the bottom of this posting. As always thanks for any help or photos.





Photo supplied by Wal86, Allan East.
"Hi Greg, talked to Graeme Ward and he said he thinks it was Allen Easts car because Allen transported the Pumas cars up there, whether he drove it or not he could not remember. "

Previous flashbacks:

Flashback 007
Flashback 006
Flashback 005
Flashback 004
Flashback 003
Flashback 002
Flashback 001

Torque & Track Magazine

After I read some comments about this magazine on Macgors, I checked my 'speedway library' to see if I had any and luckily I had five issues. They are from 1983-84 and if you want to know more read the informative comments posted by nzrscene who used to supply the publishers with photos.

During the 70's + 80's there was a boom of sorts in independent magazines including the NZDTR launched in 1986 but the market has proven that there only seems to be room for one at a time which is a pity. I'll dig out a few of the other titles and put up some other covers over the next few days.

It's Speedway Jim, but not as we know it...

If you were completely oblivious to the goings on this past week with Tiger Woods appearing at a charity celebrity stockcar meeting in Huntly, then reading the international websites reporting on the event might leave you wondering what actually happened.

My favourite so far is from MSN "...(Woods) won the second of two celebrity stock car races on a dirt track in this small coal mining town...to raise funds to provide sporting careers for disadvantaged youth, Woods forced his way from the back of the grid to the front..." it sounds more like a script to a tear-jerker movie of the week but in actual fact the whole night felt a bit unreal and definitely a bit Hollywood. No matter what the reason for the event the Huntly club were on to a winner here. I've been to many speedway meetings but nothing like this, a 'drivers-by-invite-only' showcase of the sport featuring some heavyweight celebs that received positive front page newspaper coverage and even the leading story on the major TV networks. You can't buy that sort of exposure and Steve Williams and the Waikato Stock and Saloon Car Club should be commended for their achievement.

I will admit though, at some stages during the buildup last week and specially during the meeting, I had some 'ownership issues' to deal with. My usual seat gone, my complete and unrestricted access to the pits and cars suddenly removed! People at work talking about Tiger racing at Huntly and telling ME what was happening and how great this was for speedway, I just wanted to shout "you dont know the first bloody thing about speedway... I'm a REAL fan!" Funny how possesive we become of something we've supported for years through the good and bad just to suffer these fools... hold on, isn't the whole point of this exercise to get these people coming every week? Do we take for granted that speedway will never grow bigger, that we will always be this secret society that gathers in 'small coal mining towns' across the county to enjoy something as special as teams racing? It's an odd feeling knowing that you're in on something great before the masses know about it and sometimes that's the feeling you get sitting at a speedway meeting that is just 'going off' wondering "why isn't this on TV?"

Two teams of stockcars (the Tigers and the Tanas) were the main feature of the night and in a promoters dream ended up locked at one win each (race one Paul Radisich, race two Tiger Woods) requiring a run off third heat that the drivers were keen to see happen and the crowd even more so. The surprise for me was that the ability of most of the celebs was much better than I thought they would be but how hard must it have been for the 'real' stockcar drivers involved not to show them how it's supposed to be done and on one occasion the restraint it must have taken for Carlos Chestnutt not to put Tiger up and over the wall when he had the opportunity...

The crowd was huge and vocal and even though the weather and traffic tried hard to spoil the script, we were well entertained and lucky to be part of something a little bit different and a little bit special. I would have killed for a pit pass and the only time I was close to a celeb was when Tana Umaga walked right past me and as usual I was stuffing my face with an eggburger. If I was part of this 'movie' I just had my Jimmy Olsen moment...Doh!

So as 'novelty' events go, it was rather well executed, and hopefully not a one off. Getting someone with the star power of Tiger Woods was the key to the success and also the problem, there aren't too many tigers in this neck of the woods so to speak and without Steve William's connection I doubt the idea would have got off the ground. Maybe it will be a one off, if that's the case I hope the Huntly club will be able to capitalise on the exposure the club and speedway in general received.

From a spectator point of view, things went smoothly, the track and facilities looked stunning and the commentary team outdid themselves (Paul Hickey, Ken Sines and Mintie). Tana's team proved they weren't playing tiddlywinks and won the challenge but Speedway was the real winner... oh, and the disadvantaged coalmining orphans of Huntly.

The Tanas:
13AB Tana Umaga
21 Paul Radisich (1st race 1)
1nz Tony Galbraith
64a Carlos Chestnutt (1st race 3)
206r Bill Keijzer

The Tigers:
1 World Tiger Woods (1st race 2)
21h Steve Williams
51 Greg Murphy
96h Kevin Ngakai
98h Justin Hutchby

Meeting rating : 8/10

King of the Park

Late Saturday afternoon and luckily I checked the WP website and realised the meeting started earlier than usual at 6pm. Arriving a bit late, a quick check of the pits revealed a large turnout for the final meeting of the season. In fact there were quite a few visiting cars from as far a field as Gisborne and Meeanee. Also a few new cars in the pits, early purchases for next season getting a last chance run.

The crowd size was better than expected and I wonder if the high profile speedway has had this past week piqued the interest of a few punters who wanted to check out WP? Well if that was the case, Waikaraka Park turned on one of it's best meetings in ages. I'm one of the many people who seem to take every opportunity to point out every little thing that's wrong with the place, so get ready for a review full of praise... it's only fair.

I dont know what happened on Saturday night, (I'm still a bit dazed and confused) but apart from a small understandable delay to the start of the meeting because the ambulance was late, there wasn't a single holdup for the rest of the night. Every class has decent numbers beginning with 22 ministocks who not unlike the ministocks last week at Rotorua, were determined to go out with a bang. The Saloons were a little light on numbers but the combination of 9a Steve Louden, 12a Nevano Cowan and 58a Gavin Hinsley provided plenty of thrills with Hinsley taking out the final heat and title.





The stockcars were amazing. Boosted by visiting cars 37g, 49b, 78m & 137k the action started from the first corner of the first heat as Paul Vasey driving 93a was rolled. Now this is where one of the innovations of the night was played out, instead of 93a being towed off he was put back on his wheels and allowed to restart. This happened throughout the night to any car that caused a red light and what a difference it made. Immediately the car that had been rolled or put up the wall had the opportunity for revenge! This was an inspired move, and should be done on any club night or night like this if the drivers agree to it. Although the King of the Park title was up for grabs, a number of drivers were only out there to cause trouble, which we love. 137k Paully Rawiri performed his usual antics and probably was the stirrer of the night, he gave a great interview about his driving style too. The hits in every heat were full on and sometimes you didn't know where to look so much was happening. 45a Daniel Knight was another who seemed to be constantly in the action along with Carlos Chestnutt in the 14a.

The Modifieds capped off a successful season with three heats of superb racing with Jamie Fox and Scott Lane absolutely flying. Fox claimed the title with a brilliant performance, he was just awesome to watch. With the Mods holding the NZ Title here next season this class will only get better and better. The programme listed the title dates as January 1 + 2, 2007 so another quiet New Years eve for these guys! Streetstocks have been a bit average this season but not tonight. Finally a bit of biffo and 45a Bill Peat was paid the ultimate compliment when he decided not to run but stir and had a group of cars queued up behind him unwilling to pass. 89a Shane Waldon took out the title.

Superstocks had a field of 11 cars, not big numbers at other tracks but for WP it was large and also a fairly even group too. 11a Gary Ellis had the car really firing in the first heat for the win but it was 99a Mark Decke who won the other two races and the title with ease in a car that is for sale. Supersaloons also provided some tight racing between 11m and 3nz and a spectacular crash for 16a John Parlato in the last race with 3nz Lance Jennings taking the title.

Summary

The sound system functioned (at last!) and the combination of Mike Howe and Aaron Drever's commentary worked well. They managed to get some comments from the drivers, give out results and even the infield mic was working. The most notable thing for me about the whole night was the lack of delays. In between races they had a novelty ramp jump thing happening but instead of the usual mucking around, the next class was being assembled ready to race immediately afterwards... this is exactly how it should be done. A great meeting with plenty of action, and most importantly a professionally run, entertaining night. This is how Waikaraka Park should present it's show every week, it proves that the combination of decent fields + good organisation = happy punters. Hopefully there were a few new spectators who would have been well satisfied...

Kings of the Park
Superstocks: 99a Mark Decke
Stockcars: 34a Mark Wearing
Modifieds: 11a Jamie Fox
Supersaloons: 3nz Lance Jennings
Streetstocks: 89a Shane Waldon
Saloons: 58a Gavin Hinsley

Meeting Rating : 6.5/10

Hot and Cold

I wisely chose to drive down on Saturday and so avoided the traffic nightmare on Good Friday that other family members got caught up in resulting in a five and a half hour drive to Tirau for them!

Anyway, it's been a while since I've been to Paradise Valley, in fact the last time I went down I think they had just finished the first lot of terracing on the back straight, so I was looking forward to seeing what else had been done. The improvements are great and the look of the place is a credit to everyone involved. I usually sit in turn three, in front of the food stand (of course), and now there is the option to lean on the wooden rails at the top of the bank which offers a fantastic view of the track. Perfect.

Before the meeting started I had planned to meet up with Mike from Superstock 21r to check out some old Rotorua photos of cars from years ago, and can I say it was a pleasure meeting you and hopefully at a later date I'll be able to post some of the amazing photos he had (specially of a bright yellow 83r Wayne Houston 'Sherman Tank-like' standard stock from years ago, I've never seen a more solid looking car)!

Then as I was about to leave the pits, I saw Neil McCoard who I hadn't spoken to for ages and managed to chat for about half an hour. He's always been one of the nicest guys in the sport and very approachable. We talked about the old 14a tank, the 'Concoard', racing injuries and his plans for next season. What a great start to the meeting and the racing hadn't even begun!

Night one of the Easter Meeting featured Superstocks, Stockcars, Production Saloons and Mini Sprints. Now two of these classes I love and two are not so lovable, can you guess... the minisprints had good numbers and did what minisprints do, so no real gripes about them. Productions saloons are less interesting. There was a bit of biffo though which made them bearable but it offered me the opportunity to test the theory offered by Barry Brown about the popularity of classes and the numbers of people ordering food and I can say the woman cooking the hamburger patties at the food caravan was getting her panties in a bunch because she was overwhelmed by the masses during the production saloon racing! During the Superstocks and the Stockcars there was virtually no one ordering food. This survey has a plus or minus error rate of about 5 burgers.




The Superstocks and Stockcars both had massive fields of cars with the Stockcars being split into two qualifying groups. The cars were mostly from Rotorua with a few W, P, K, M, a couple of H and one token Stratford entry. From the get go Wellington cars were set upon and dealt to. This made for great viewing! Also the two tanks in attendance, 33r and 26k were constant targets all night and perhaps because 26k used to be 26m the Baypark cars specially 91m, took to him. It proved that Bill Peat style tanks can take the hits!

The Superstocks were running a best pairs meet along with the knowledge that this would be Rodney Woods last meeting before the jump to Sprintcars, so I knew at some point there would be some paybacks. Most of the action for them was kept until night two but the stand out performers and points leaders after the first three heats were 1nz, 51r, 515r, 62r and Jeff Mohi in the familiar green 74r.

So night one over, the overwhelming feeling was that I had no feeling because of the cold. Fortunately I ate my body weight in food (to keep warm) and looked forward to more of the same for night two. The meeting ran smoothly and was over pretty quick which was fine by me.





I knew night two would be better because of the addition of Modifieds and Saloons. Ministocks were also on the programme, hundreds of them it seemed, in two bunches, I had grave fears for the hamburger lady, I hope she took some V or Red Bull because she was in for a big night...

Modifieds have a love/hate relationship with this track and when 16 of them rolled out of the pits I thought there is no way this meeting is going to run smoothly. In actual fact, although there were some rollovers and some 'incidents' I thought they were great. 10s Willie Noonan is one of my favourites and seeing him back on the track was a bonus. The eventual winner was 9w Tama Arapere from 11a Jamie Fox. A bit of a dust problem was the only negative from this class.

The Ministox were not on their best behaviour and I would imagine some harsh words were said to a few of them afterwards. Made them more entertaining if anything and some infield action also got the crowd going.

The saloons were alright, stand out for me was 98h who seemed to have no fear in attempting the outside pass when others hugged the pole line hoping for an error so they could jump inside the car ahead.

In the Stockcars only four non Rotorua cars made the final 26 for the three heat finals and were put upon fairly early. 77p was harder to stop but they got him in the third heat. 16r Clive Pritchard took the win and was well deserving. The non qualifiers though really turned on the action and were great to watch. Quite a few cars were 'sponsored' by FOR SALE, so it will be interesting to see how many changed hands over the weekend.

The Superstocks turned things up a notch for their final three heats and what a great spectacle it was. The noise and atmosphere that 26 Superstocks create is the drug that keeps me coming back time after time. I sort of hoped 51r would get the fairytale ending he deserved, but this is stockcars and so he ended his career with three wheels and a second place finish, which really sums up his Superstock racing, always in the top finishers and a never say die attitude. Quite a fitting end I thought. Apparently the crew were wearing black armbands! 1nz Darcy Hunter took the title with 515r Hickey in third.

Overall I was well pleased, heaps of cars on the track, good sound system and commentary, improved viewing and seating, good food, a great catch up with some speedway people and the chance to wear four layers of clothing at once. I don't think I've ever been to a disappointing meeting at Rotorua which is a pretty good record to have.

Meeting Rating : 7/10