It was off work and down the Highway to Placemakers Huntly Speedway. A big crowd gathered to watch night 1 of the 8 team Stockcar Teams event. It turned out to be a night of two halves, some very good teams racing and not much else. It was great to bump into SNZ CEO Tim Savell, although the contents of our conversation wont be making it onto the internet!!

As you would expect the track was in a substantially drier condition than the previous week. It was actually a bit drier than what I was anticipating but given the classes on display it was close to the mark. The track got slightly bumpy but it was nothing that troubled anyone. The local car wash companies will also be happy as the carpark was coated in dust! 9/10

Another good field of Productions took to the track. Race 1 was the best as race leader 26k Glen Crawshaw was run down by the exciting 8k Ryan Johnson. Johnson was aptly described by the commentators as "The Skinny Colson of Production Saloons". Lapped traffic allowed Johnson to take the lead but as luck would have it Crawshaw was able to use the lapped traffic on the last lap to take the win.

Last week I said that 6h Nick Sparrow was one to watch and just to prove I'm not an idiot (no e-mail replies please) Sparrow drove a mature race in the second heat to take the win. 48h Dave Pilkington started to dominate proceedings although by the fourth heat I found more interest in trying to find Barry Brown than the racing.
Winners - 26k Glen Crawshaw, 6h Nick Sparrow, 34k Craig Robinson, 48h Dave Pilkington

The dreaded combination of Production Saloons and Ministocks, when will we learn? The highlight of the racing for me was the lack of contact in the capacity field of 30 cars. 63r Luke Dilworth was the pick of the drivers but luck wasn't on his side. Dilworth is clearly ready to step up to the adult classes and will be one to watch in the future.
Winners - 7k Tania Brockelsby, 14h Matthew Kiddie (2), possibly 72h

20 TQ's made the trip down from Western Springs and tried to produce their own episode of Survivor. The first heat saw no fewer than half the field retire to the infield. There was a rollover as a tire came loose and a car rolled on it's own tire. I would tell you the number but in all honesty I couldn't read it from all of 50 metres away. Huntly requires a different style of driving to Western Springs as 19a Brock Mascovich found out. Keeping it tight is the key.

14a Paul Le Cren was the man to beat and was the only driver who looked to be making consistent progress through the field. The likes of 56a Ross Linklater and 15a Lawrence Baker were always there or thereabouts.
Winners - 3nz Shane O'Conner, 56a Ross Linklater, 14a Paul Le Cren

Disaster for Baypark in hot laps as 14m Scott Gallop limped onto the infield. From the drop of the green it was Huntly in front with 11m Scott Fredrickson in pursuit. Baypark promptly self-destructed with little shape other than Fredrickson running. Unable to protect him or block meaningfully Baypark never looked likely. 93h Tyson Wooton put in the most meaningful hit, down the end of the front straight on 15m. After the intial hit Wooton put him up the wall and onto his side in a classy piece of driving.
Winner - Huntly

The "Manawatu Steelers" were hardly Manawatu with two Palmy drivers, two Aucklanders and one Huntly representative. So lets call them what they are!! The Ninja's took control of this one early through the Auckland connection of 64a Carlos Chestnutt and 168a Billy Neill. The Maulers took themselves out in the first corner but the crucial moment came when they isolated Chestnutt. 2 cars took him on and 2 cars failed to move any further. Chestnutt too good and the Ninja's annihilated the defending champions.
Winner - North Island Ninja's

This race was a bit of a lull after the action in the first two. After the initial exchanges both teams lost the plot and decided to drive around the track. 509s Chris Knight read the race well and went into block mode. He actually did a favour for Wanganui as it forced a couple of their cars to slow down. They ended up providing protection on the last corner for 55v Allan Levein who was being slowly caught by Stormers flier 510s Jay Knight
Winner - Wanganui Vulcans

With two teams almost identically coloured this one was tough for driver and spectator alike. The race was a good one and although the Gladiators are new they did themselves proud with a level of organisation that made a few of the earlier teams look like newbies. The highlight of the race was a Rotorua car launching off the pole line to attack 62g Jason Jones who went heavily into the fence and up and over! 63g Bruce Harding drove well in a running role but it wasn't enough to get past 202r Alan McRobbie.
Winners - Rotorua Rascals

Once again 509s Chris Knight was in an aggressive mood but with him out so to went the chances of the Stormers. A couple of big hits in Placemakers Bend failed to stop the Huntly team and when 510s Jay Knight got crunched in Turn 1 it was all over for the Taranaki boys.
Winners - Huntly

The Rascals took the lead from the start but once again Chestnutt and Neill exerted their influence along with 99p Ron Tye. Chestnutt was in outstanding form and was the only runner all night who could spin the opposition blockers whilst maintaining his speed. Rotorua looked a shadow of their former self, although when you are up against class opposition sometimes that happens. This race featured a bizarre incident with race winner Chestnutt passing some cars after the chequered flag who were still racing. The last remaining Rotorua car attacked Chestnutt on the final corner and subsequently failed to finish.
Winners - North Island Ninja's

This was one of the less memorable races as both teams failed to fire. Then again perhaps Wanganui were saving themselves for night two. The best passage of racing saw Fredrickson and Levein trying to out fox each other. Other than that's it's hard to recall anything about this one.
Winners - Wanganui Vulcans

Some good teams racing in the first couple of laps saw both sides highly organised. Things exploded as 65g Simon Allen, who couldn't hit anything in the opening two laps, absolutely smashed one of the Maulers. But things were to get better as 85b Ricky Kuru put the hit of the night on poor old 62g Jason Jones. It was the sort of hit that defines a weekend but it wasn't enough as the Maulers disintegrated against a team which was very well organised.
Winners - Gisbourne Gladiators

A top performance by the SNZ crew. They were sensible with the lights although they might want to hit the greens for hot laps because the cars on the back straight were struggling to see the flag. The only thing I would say is that I was totally confused with respect to the timing of the yellows after the race is completed. It seemed to be a little all over the show. Gisbourne did have a car relegated in the final heat after reversing to trap a Mauler. Nothing I haven't seen 100 times before in teams racing but apparantly illegal. 8/10

Huntly are quickly developing a reputation for dropping the ball on the big meetings. Tonight provided another fine example. Huntly are running un-opposed (after Bayparks cancellation) in the upper North Island this weekend and as such several classes aren't running. Super Saloons, Saloons, Superstocks, Streetstocks, do I need to continue? So with that in mind spectators get to watch Productions Saloons, Ministocks and TQ's. Tomorrow night is almost as bad with Vintage Stockcars and Golden Oldies Stockcars on the menu.

Lets hope the old buggers get a bit grumpy and turn on the action because night two has the potential to go pear shaped. The efficiency was also very poor tonight. First race was late at 7:15pm and the green flag didn't drop on race four until 7:55pm. Yet there was no urgency whatsoever until 10:30pm. Instead fans got to sit through some bloke checking the Production Saloons were in their correct grid. Thank goodness the teams racing was of a high standard.

So a night that should have been an 8 or 9 out of ten managed to register 6.5/10. A number of people on Macgors forum wrote that Waikaraka Park missed out on a opportunity to attract new spectators with their Fireworks meeting. The same applies for Huntly tonight. With several big meetings coming up the promotion should have done better but unfortunately settled for mediocrity.