What a contrast to last week, a beautiful Auckland day without so much as a cloud in the sky. But there is nothing like a speedway meeting to bring on a few clouds and although the odd spit was felt the meeting was never seriously in doubt. The night started with a minute's silence to mark the sad passing of former Sprintcar driver Noel Goodwin and concluded with some pictures of Noel and his various cars being beamed across the stadium courtesy of the big screen.

A lot of moisture early on in the racing surface that stayed throughout the night. Early racing was tricky, particularly Pine Tree Bend. Crucially the track did develop early lines and this greatly improved the quality of the heat racing. The track retained the moisture and developed into a fast, bumpy track that had both spectators and drivers on the edge of their seats. 7/10

The juniors put on a much better show than the previous week. In particular race 1 saw an exciting three way battle between 4a Taylor Clarke, 7a Andrew Hanson and 16a Ryan Barry. The second race didn't quite reach the same heights but at least the class made a positive contribution to the entertainment.
Winners - 16a Ryan Barry, 4a Taylor Clarke

15a Lawrence Baker continued his domination of the field in the opening heat, racing through the pack to a credible third. The man quickly becoming his arch rival, 19a Brock Mascovich, showed he was up for the challenge by storming to victory from the middle of the pack. 9a Hayden Williams had another night to forget. The sheer stupidity of the TQ format (see last weeks meeting report) was shown in heat two when 56a Ross Linklater took to the track. How did he end up outside the top 14?? The bloke was leading the feature last week with two laps to go and this week he's not even in the top 14??

Linklater duely crushed the opposition along with fellow hot shot 14a Paul Le Cren. Race 3 saw Baker once again show his dominance along with Maskovich. Fighting back for the rest of the field was 64a Gina Harris who was giving Maskovich a hurry up by the end of the race. 18a Shane Phillips and 4a Steven Smith got together at the end of the front straight, the left rear departing company from the 4a car before it rolled. The feature went from green to chequered with little seperating the top 6.

Linklater and Le Cren made their runs through from mid-pack but could not penetrate the top 6. Maskovich took an early lead from Baker but it was last weeks feature winner, 98a Chris Gwilliam who appeared to be the fastest man on the track, passing Baker for second. A couple of times Gwilliam got right up to Maskovich but Maskovich drove a mature race and held on to take a deserving victory.
Winners - 19a Brock Mascovich (2 incl feature), 56a Ross Linklater, 15a Lawrence Baker

Midgets always produce exciting racing and once again tonight they were the premier class on display. 5h Alvin Cobb drove a great race in the opening heat to hold off 25a Scott Buckley and 11a Shayne Alach. A masterful performance by 33a Graham Standring lit up heat two. It was the Standring of old who picked off several cars to take a fantastic win while 21a Carl Worboys and 54a Michael Pickens failed to make the same progress.

It was from hero to zero for last weeks feature winner Brad Mosen in heat three. Mosen didn't last a lap tonight, the car pivoting on it's right rear entering Town Bend and violently rolling. Such was the ferocity of the roll the Mosen machine hit the fence above the concrete wall which is quite the feat given the size of the concrete wall at Western Springs. 81a Michael Kendall continued an early season run of bad fortune, retiring in this heat. 11a Shayne Alach smashed the track record in this heat, registering a 13.76 second lap.

It took three attempts to start the fourth heat but once we did 54a Michael Pickens was untouchable. The fifth and final heat was a good one. Worboys got out in front but lapped traffic allowed 95a Tony Fabish and 87a Lance Beale to catch up. Beale was making a pass for the lead but got boxed in behind a lapped car. He surged up the inside to take the win but in doing so earned himself a relegation for use of the grass. The B-main and F2 feature gave the fans a chance to use the amenities before the big feature.

Alach got the jump on Worboys with Pickens in third. Pickens got past Worboys but it was back in the pack where the action was. 33a Graham Standring was off the back but was doing everything to become a factor in the race. With the track being a little unpredictable it was an exciting ride for Standring. A yellow brought the field closer together but Alach quickly set about rebuilding his lead until disaster struck.

Coming out of Town Bend Alach went into a series of barrell rolls not that disimilar to the Mosen crash earlier in the night. The high risk 100% style of Alach and Mosen was not conjucive to track conditions tonight. Pickens took over the lead and aside from a couple of wheelstands was untroubled in taking the win. Notable performances from 96a Chris McCutcheon and 88h Angus MacLeod had them punching well above their weight in the final results.
Winners - 5h Alvin Cobb, 33a Graham Standring, 11a Shayne Alach, 54a Michael Pickens (2 incl feature), 21a Carl Worboys, 32a Jason Bunyan (B-Main), 35a Jesse Porter (F2 Feature)

It was a night where the favourites came unstuck in the big bangers. It started off well enough with 27a Alan Wakeling taking the opening heat. Things went horribly wrong at the start of heat two. 71a Jamie McDonald and 75a Tommy Risher were going toe to toe down the back straight when contact was made. J-Mac's car was spun around and proceeded down the straight backwards before disengaging from the Rusher machine and spinning back in the right direction! Although J-Mac finished the race his night was over.

78a Daniel Eggleton was just about the best driver in heats two and three and thoroughly earned the top qualifying spot (only to pull a three from the hat and get the first three rows inverted). Heat four featured a crash of monumental proportions. 35a Hans Boere got it slightly wrong coming out of Pine Tree Bend as Wakeling tried a move around the outside. Contact was made and Wako went over in a big way.

4a Glen Torpey was a surprise polesitter with the first three rows inverted. He had nothing for Greg Pickerill on the start line. But the story of the race was Rusher, who brushed the wall off the start line. It seemed to inspire Rusher who set about driving the rest of the race like a man possessed. It was effective and hair raising at the same time, definitely the most exciting Sprintcar performance we have seen for some time. While Rusher was making up spots so was 22a Dean Brindle, albeit in a slightly more consistent fashion! The two of them caught Pickerill in the lapped traffic and Rusher made the move into second place.

Unfortunately he had to go back a spot as before the lap could be completed 8a Ryan O'Conner rolled down the end of the front straight. From the restart Rusher lost momentum and ended up self destructing courtesy of a spin onto the infield. Pickerill got wide in Pine Tree Bend, possibly due to the large lump of track arising from the O'Conner incident. Brindle assumed the lead and was quickly followed by 1nz Carl Wilson who consistently made his way forward.
Winners - 27a Alan Wakeling, 75a Tommy Rusher, 78a Daniel Eggleton, 11a Raymond Griffin, 22a Dean Brindle (feature)

The boys in blue had a good night considering their disasturous display on opening night. A little inconsistent on pulling back starts but they did get the worse ones. Two justified relegations for Lance Beale (Grass) and Havard Daniels (Barging) respectively. Re-ordering of the field proved to be a little problematic but the most perplexing moment saw 27a Lance Fox relegated to the back of the field and then re-called to the front after two problematic starts.

It was most disappointing to learn of the reason behind last weeks TQ feature debacle. Apparently the Springs offcials have decided that any driver involved in a yellow (cause or not) will restart from the back. The rule has been around for years and has proven effective but no, the Springs officials know better. But what really has me worried is the safety perspective.

Lets take last weeks TQ feature for example. The crash was dangerous in that we had a flipping car with traffic behind it. Both Baker and Maskovich slid into the car and the driver walked away. Given the impending relegation to the back of the field we may see drivers do everything possible to avoid stopping. In this situation we could see drivers try to drive around the incident. This would be very dangerous as the roll cage of the flipping car was exposed for a period of time to the likes of Baker and Maskovich.

Baker and/or Maskovich could have driven into the roll cage of the flipping car at full speed had they tried to avoid the incident. Driver safety should be paramount and this rule change has the potential to compromise driver safety. It's potential impact has not been considered. Hopefully sense will prevail and before the next meeting on November 29th this rule will be changed. At least the offcials had a decent night tonight 7/10

This was a step up from last week in the entertainment stakes. The meeting had a bit of everything, a few big crashes and some good racing. So it's off to other tracks for the next couple of weeks until we return to the Springs on November 29th.