12-04-2003
Waikaraka Park
City of Auckland Stockcar Classic and Auckland Modified
Champs
plus
Mark Goodyer Sidecar Memorial and Auckland Minisprint Champs
By Macgor
The weather packed sad making it two meetings in a row to
be dampened at Waikaraka Park although at least this meeting managed to
survive with delays .
Agrade Stockcars .
23 cars I think in total . Rodney Wood had a hard time
in the first heat , getting sqeezed against the wall and then accidentally
nailing 15a Steve Pribicevich who was stalled in turn one .
4r Neil McCoard took the first heat win driving Dane
Wright's car . 97r Pat Westbury pulled infield smoking badly and if the
noises I heard were coming from his car then his wallet won't be happy
. 18m Bryce Steiner debuted his new car although there are still
bugs to be exterminated from it . The car looks the part and once it's
sorted is bound to be one of the forces to be reckoned with .
Impressive was Blair Neal in the 24a Vic Neal owned car
that has been campaigned in recent times by Shay Hambling . Blair excelled
in heat three to record a 3rd place finish but impressive was his spin
of 15a Steve Pribicevich when he couldn't find a better way of getting
past .
For the third heat Neil McCoard was two points ahead
of Rodney Wood . McCoard was starting near the front and Wood well back
in the pack . McCoard got to the front and Wood was hammering it to get
within striking distance by about two thirds distance . McCoard had seen
Wood coming and buttoned off to let Wood go by . Wood thought McCoard had
a problem and didn't serve up the 4r car too hard on his way through .
After Wood had passed McCoard settled into follow the leader mode knowing
second place points would earn him the Classic title . Wood realised this
and slowed hoping to deal McCoard out but other cars arrived on the scene
to upset his plan .
Wood carried on for the heat three win , McCoard was
second and Blair Neal third .
City of Auckland Stockcar Classic winner Neil McCoard
, second Rodney Wood , third Lazlo Mezaros (I think)
Modifieds
12 or 13 modifieds were on hand for the Auckland Modified
Champs which was won by 1nz Jamie Fox . The racing was fast and mostly
clean with most of the field on the pace making the win no easy feat for
the NZ Champion .
Streetstocks numbered 16 for their season swansong
and for the most part entertained well enough . Their most popular race
was a five car one that was run on a wet track with the cars basically
out of control . Good Fun .
6 Sidecars made for a rare sight at Waikaraka these
days and while they weren't overly thrilling they did prove the track surface
suits the class . If they get to run more laps next season I'm sure the
quality of racing will improve and gain them some fans . I know there were
several people in the stands that normally attend Rosebank Speedway for
their bike racing and would be added attendees at Waikaraka if the bikes
ran more often . Nick Edmonds and Aaron Mitchell won the Mark Goodyer Memorial
Minisprints numbered 13 and reduced from there
thanks mostly to a decent sort of bingle in heat 1 . Final placings
in the Auckland Championship were decided by two run offs . The first for
3rd and 4th resulted in a tip over for one of the cars . The crazy thing
about this was the one remaining car still had to do the four laps
to cement 3rd place in the championship . It didn't happen that way for
the NZ Mod Champs at Rotorua so gosh knows why we had to suffer it for
a local minisprint champs . Dull racing from a dull class is my summary
.
The run off for 1st was won by Nathen Le Flemming .
Overall
A well run meeting considering the inclement weather
and a problem with the back straight lights that caused a delay . Commentating
was first class including reports from the pits . Could have been a great
meeting with Std Stocks instead of Minisprints especially as the
agraders didn't actually thrill me . I sort of missed seeing Saloons racing
too .
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The weather outlook to the south before start time
was more than just a little bit of a worry |
Ltd Saloon drivers Doug Torrey was behind the
wheel of Mark McNabb's 12a Streeter |
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29a was a new one on me but he was involved
in some of the rugged action anyway |
The start of an incident that was to become
much bigger |
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When it got this big the officials bottled out and
red lighted the race |
The tail end of the deal .
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81a Merv Lewis knows what streetstock racing
is meant to be about and is a crowd favorite . |
One of the six Side-Cars having a run for the
Mark Goodyer Memorial |
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51m Rodney Wood had a hell bad first heat of
the Auckland City Stockcar Classic |
Here 51m has just cannoned into a spun and
stalled (obscured) 15a Steve Pribicevich |
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| 65m Mark Thompson and 17a Rick Campbell . |
the ever impressive 12h Chris Bear at the mercy
of 15a . |
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First heat woes for 97r Pat Westbury that looked
and sounded expensive |
Debut time finally for 18m Bryce Steiner and a
chance to sort the gremlins . |
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| firat turn skirmish |
Plenty of polluted air about on this night |
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| 13 Mods started the night |
1nz Jamie Fox had to work for the Auckland title |
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| Modified racing was good |
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