After and ordinary start to the International Midget Series, night two swung into action. A crowd which was slightly below expectation turned up for what is the second biggest night of the year. It was a shame the place wasn't packed to the rafters as tonight was the best night thus far in the Springs season. It had everything. Big crashes, noise controversy, terrible officiating and some exciting racing. The fans were into it, sometimes out of their seats in appreciation at the action.

Pre meeting the surface was much drier than the Wednesday meeting. Subsequently the track opened up early and the heat races produced some top action. But the high line failed to build up. We did see a water truck appearance to put some moisture on the high line. They had the right idea but given the amount of water they put on the track they may as well have spat on the surface. The track did get fairly bumpy as the meeting progressed. By the end of the night the high line was there but only because of the bumpy nature of the pole. If they can do a track half-way between tonight and Wednesday they will be on to a winner. 5/10

Two races tonight for the Quarter Midgets. 4a Taylor Clarke was the class of the field in both races. He ran away with the opening heat and made a good run through the field in the second heat.
Winners - 4a taylor Clarke, 78c Matthew Leversedge

Another car fronted tonight, making for a field of six F2's. Their race featured a bit of drama as a couple of cars almost took each other out. I was hoping the whole field would wipe itself out. The class ran their feature off the B-main and did their best to provide stoppage after stoppage. Infact the driving from the class was that bad I would have had no problem with the officials sending the entire class to the infield so we could finish the race.
Winners - 51a Neven Bowman, the yellow light (feature)

The TQ's put on a real show tonight. 5g Dylan McGregor showed he is another contender for the NZ title. McGregor was on the pace from the drop of the green. 56a Ross Linklater was an early retiree in the opening heat. Up front a fierce battle raged that ended in disaster. 71a Gavin Hamlin got into the back of 61a Ron Smith. 15a Lawrence Baker got caught up in the mess and all three went spinning onto the infield. Hamlin kept going to resume in last place but was promptly black flagged.

The elbows were out in race two. In particular 16a Shaun Cooke had a right royal tussle with anyone with the surname Warren. Up front 81a Mark Blakely was holding his own. Blakely is normally a car that struggles with the pace at Western Springs so it was pleasing to see him footing it tonight. This race featured a bizarre incident. 29a Dave Bennett cut a right rear and 11a Aaron Wrightson ran over him, went airbourne in a serious way, landed on all fours and carried on!

After an impressive Wednesday performance 9c Ricky Brett had a night to forget. 27a Hayden Williams made a big run through the pack in heat three to confirm pole position for the Shane Turner Memorial feature. Heat three was marred by a nasty looking crash. 12a Anton Johnson went flying into the wall coming out of Town Bend. Williams shared the front row of the feature with the visiting McGregor. It was the Gisbornite who got the jump into the first corner. Williams tried to make a gap when there wasn't one and made contact with McGregor who was immediately off the pace. With 22 TQ's coming through it was a disaster waiting to happen.

13a John Hopewell rolled and got punted by another car coming through. Hopewell rolled 8-9 times!! Holy heck it was a huge crash. While he was rolling away, 33a Amanda Warren and 15a Lawrence Baker also rolled. There were cars rolling everywhere. McGregor couldn't make the restart and nor could 3nz Shane O'Conner. From the restart 19a Brock Mascovich took to the high part of the track and powered to the lead. 14a Paul Le Cren then passed Williams for second place.

The action was fast and furious back in the pack. Coming out of turn four 41a Jared Taylor found one of the holes in the track. It looked like something broke as he powered off into the wall. Ouch. The race restarted and as the laps wound down lapped traffic became a factor. Le Cren closed right up on Mascovich. The youngster used every last smigent of time to pick his way through the traffic and maintain his lead. As he crossed the start/finish line another crash ended the race. 99a Darren Warren was on his side as fuel poured from the tank. Special mention goes to Blakely and 66a Shaun Rose. In finishing 4th and 7th these two punched well above their weight tonight.
Winners - 19a Brock Mascovich (2) incl feature, 27a Hayden Williams, 14a Paul Le Cren

We were joined by 6p Nelson Hartley as the Sprintcars put on better racing than they did on Wednesday. 4a Glen Torpey led away in the opening heat with 1nz Carl Wilson in hot pursuit. Wilson harrassed Torpey for several laps before making the move around the outside entering Town Bend to the appreciation of the crowd. 71a Jamie McDonald also made up a couple of spots. Heat two was dominated by 10usa Ricky Logan. Logan reeled off a few passes to make it into third spot. 19a Jamie Duff appeared to tag the wall down the front straight and flipped. He landed on all fours and proceeded to drive calmly off the track with a fair bit of damage!!

Heat three was a little down on action compared with the opening two. 11a Raymond Griffin had a night of misery, spinning in this one after a poor finish in his opening heat as he was spat out the side of the pack. 21a Mark Browne and Torpey spun in the final heat. 45a Corey Haigh got by 9a Havard Daniels. Logan was top qualifier and pulled a three to invert the first three rows.

It was all go on the opening lap. 75a Tommy Rusher clipped the back straight wall. 78a Daniel Eggleton spun in Town Bend and Logan had nowhere to go. The two collided and both ended up on their sides. Sensationally Eggleton was able to restart albeit with a bent wing. 27a Alan Wakeling got the jump from the start and set off into the distance. Lapped traffic became a factor and second placed 71a Jamie McDonald and third placed 8a Ryan O'Conner came into contention. Just as things were getting interesting, a yellow interrupted proceedings. 18a Greg Pickerill DNF'd and shortly after the restart Griffin and Hartley joined him on the infield. The race was declared.
Winners - 1nz Carl Wilson, 96a Jeremy Halpin, 78a Daniel Eggleton, 75a Tommy Rusher, 27a Alan Wakeling (feature)

We were one American down. 12usa Henry Clarke received a mandatory three week stand down for concussion and has flown back to the USA. Hopefully we see him back in future years. Davey Ray had a new ride after the engine expired on the #88 car. He now rides in a bright yellow 1usa car. I think it was mentioned that the car is the ex Bryce Townsend car. Ray put it to good effect in the opening heat in taking a win. 11a Shayne Alach was also in good form, prevailing in a tussle with 87a Lance Beale.

Heat two featured little passing but that was due to the super-competitive nature of the racing rather than a lack of excitement. 33a Graham Standring had a whale of a time in midfield with the likes of 25a Scott Buckley and 47usa Cory Kruseman. 12usa Dave Darland came into the reckoning from a rear grid just to make life interesting! Race 3 saw 3usa Jerry Coons Jr lead from the front. 54a Michael Pickens was in fine form, as was 81a Michael Kendall and once again Davey Ray.

Darland led from a front grid in heat four until he was sensationally black flagged for noise. This came after a noise testing session in which Darland's car was not selected for noise testing. He wasn't impressed. 96a Chris McCutcheon led away from the start in heat five. With 10a Wayne Green in second McCutcheon was able to build up a lead. Pickens made his way Past Green and up to McCutcheon. The youngster withstood the pressure, driving some nice lines. Pickens took a huge lunge around the outside in the last corner and powered out of the corner to make the pass and take the win!

The grids in the test race made much more sense tonight. Alternating and fair. The crowd was into it as the Kiwi's made pass after pass to destroy the Americans. Davey Ray got the jump at the start but could only manage a DNF after he drifted backwards. Standring and Mosen were the standout kiwi's. The B-main was one of the longest ever due to the F2's bringing on the yellows. The main point of interest was if 2nz Bill Clarkson Jr could make the transfer spot. Clarkson Jr managed a couple of passes after a mid-race relegation for a jump start, to make the World Midget 30 Lapper.
Winners - 1usa Davey Ray, 13a Brad Mosen, 3usa Jerry Coons Jr, 43usa Brad Kuhn, 54a Michael Pickens (2 incl test), 25a Scott Buckley (B-Main)

Michael Pickens was off the pole with Davey Ray alongside. Pickens wasn't about to see a repeat of the test race start and took off early. The officials let it go and we were underway. Ray quickly caught Pickens and threw the kitchen sink at him. Pickens withstood the pressure and established a small lead. Back in third 11a Shayne Alach was unable to hold off the hard charging 3usa Jerry Coons Jr. After giving Alach a poke a couple of laps earlier, Coons Jr made the move up the inside to take second. Coons Jr took off in pursuit of Ray and passed in one of the most physical passes you will ever see.

With close to 20 laps of green flag racing we were into lapped traffic. Pickens went to the high line to effect some passes. Coons Jr closed quickly and made the move for the lead as some of the lapped cars were trying to battle side by side. It was exciting stuff as Pickens and Coons Jr tried to negotiate each other as well as the lapped traffic. The yellows came on as 43usa Brad Kuhn spun. Pickens was put back into the lead much to the disgust of Coons Jr. From the restart it all went pear shaped. Pickens threw it into one and two and began bouncing across the surface. Pickens went sideways, leaving Coons Jr and Ray nowhere to go. Both the Americans rolled as Pickens left the crime scene!

Pickens promptly received a blackboard, I couldn't see what was on it. In any case Pickens retired to the infield as Coons Jr found an official to argue with over the restart order. I will suggest that Coons Jr was riding his luck after one of the most blatant barges you will ever see in passing Davey Ray. Alach assumed the lead from Darland and 1nz Shaun Insley. The three put on an exciting battle as Darland looked to the high line. Insley passed him for second, only to be re-passed a few laps later.

With four to go the yellows made a bizarre appearance. 47usa Cory Kruseman was clearly over the noise limit with muffler issues. This is normally a black flag but the officials used the yellows. From the restart it appeared Alach had a problem as Darland made an easy pass up the inside. Coming out of turn four to complete the lap 33a Graham Standring was forced infield. Standring came flying back onto the track and collected 25a Scott Buckley. Standring was able to take the restart from the back, Buckley was not. Alach re-inherited the lead but once again Darland got by. Insley followed into second place. Alach was able to hold off Kuhn who had made his way through from the rear after his earlier spin. Kuhn was eventually able to secure the third spot.
Winner - 12usa Dave Darland

After a poor performance on Wednesday the officials backed it up with some perplexing decisions. The return of the chalk at the start line was a positive but it might help if they recalled starts where drivers take off before the chalk line. The opening heat saw TQ 71a Gavin Hamlin black flagged for his part in an incident. As cause of the incident, had Hamlin caused a yellow he would have been off the back and that was where he re-joined yet he was sent to the infield. Contrast this with the Sprintcar feature where Eggleton was clearly the cause of the opening lap crash yet was able to re-assume his grid on the restart. Then contrast it with the Midget feature when Standring came flying off the infield and collected Buckley yet gets a restart off the back. Surely that was worse than the Hamlin incident?

Of was this a brilliant piece of officiating? The advent of water cooled TQ's gives an advantage to the self-starting version if they were to spin to the infield. The self-starting TQ's could simply fire up while the push starters can't make it back to the track. Hahaha who am I trying to fool! (Yes I know Hamlin is not a self-starter and came back on to the track of his own accord). There was also an incident in the B-Main when 21c Phillipa Melrose didn't give 95a Tony Fabish too much room along the back straight. Fabish rolled and Melrose went infield after a few laps under yellow. I didn't see if she was sent there.

Noise was a problem throughout the evening, we even had individual noise testing at one stage. 11a Shayne Alach was black flagged for noise, ignored it and finished the race. Hang on, surely that's ignoring the black flag? How can you black flag someone and let them ignore it? It sets a precedent for all other competitors to ignore the black flag. Judging by feature grid position both Alach and Darland were classified as finishers in their heats despite Darland also copping a black flag and pulling off. Then in the World Midget 30 Lapper Kruseman has muffler issues and a yellow flag is used rather than a black flag. Figure that one out!!

Filling in vacant grid gaps is also a problem. The format being run should require vacant grid gaps to be left vacant. Yet in some races they are and in other races they aren't. No penalties appear to be handed out. The Bill Clarkson Jr relegation in the B-main was another weird incident. He was clearly disputing position under yellow yet the officials decided to restart the race. Talk about causing problems for yourselves! I also couldn't believe the barging that was missed. The Coons Jr pass on Ray was blatant, the Hayden Williams effort on Dylan McGregor wasn't much better yet neither incident incurred a penalty.

The key to officiating is consistency and I saw little evidence of that tonight. At least the officials created some drama which added to what was an exciting night at Western Springs Speedway. 2/10