Not being used to being without the internet for so long while on holiday… here are my belated thoughts on the 3rd running of the NZ Saloon title – and the Baypark format I ranted negatively about before the event…
Well, as plenty have already said on here, the final race was good (but then put 20 top cars on a big track for 20 laps with a 1NZ on the line and how would it not be???!) and yes, the cream rises to the top – as it always does.
But that much seems pretty self evident really – come up with any format you like and you will still have pretty much the same half dozen at the front and all the others behind them, that’s just the way it is!
How about the poor spectator though, were they really well served by the format and the “entertainment package” over the two nights???
I guess the answer is it was OK – but how much better would it have been with 60 cars, split into groups of 20, with three heats each group on their first night – it would have been something like 9 finals races I would say – with lots of overtaking and lots of excitement!!!!
But instead what we got was:
Four groups running around for 5 timed laps (with frequent yellows for the recovery of all the cars with popped tyres – Baypark really IS as shocking a surface as people say), not racing each other, and setting times which no one other than the officials with an ELS screen were aware of???
Grant Moffat, the commentator, manfully struggling to explain the “system” for the event, saying “it may be confusing folks, but it’s the way they do it in the States, so trust me its just best”… then promising to read out all the times as soon as he got a print out of them… but other than a couple of ones he mentioned – he never did – so anyone’s guess who was where from “qualifying” – nice one Baypark! (I wasn’t at all convinced that he meant it about how good it is… but then I guess he gets told what he has to say)…
Then eventually we got “Qualifying Heats” – starting roughly in lap time order (but with the top 6 inverted, but not the others) – so guess what – very few people overtook anyone – as it was basically fastest at the front, rest in descending order – so how would anyone overtake???
At which point Mr Macgor's prophecy started to come true – the fast guys were no further back than 6th place – but with some slower cars (unusually for the weekend…) ahead – so I watched Steve Williams make the first of I think 4 overtaking moves he needed to become 1NZ! (He started grid 6 – outside 3rd row, went past the two cars ahead of him in line on the first lap and cleared out for the win)… Game over, nothing much else happened…
Oh, except some more unfathomable stuff – Phil Towgood went into the wall… game over for the first 1NZ second year in a row… “But No!” said Grant Moffat – here is the beauty of the system – he still has a chance, he just has to win the D Main, the C Main, the B Main, then start of the back of the final – and he’s got 20 laps to overtake the rest!!!!
Now to my mind – with 3 heats, against 19 other cars, and then maybe a repercharge based on points – and THEN a three heat final – I can’t see anyway that Phil wouldn’t have still been at the sharp end on Saturday night after just one DNF – but no, this system was way better than that! Not…
And another unfathomable – and I heard drivers asking each other in the pits “so what happens next???” And it was never explained, so I’m still not exactly sure how the first lot of non qualifiers (not the first 16 from the heats) then got sorted out into which “Main” they then ended up in???
Maybe it was points, or maybe it was times, who would know???
All I know is Phil T had a DNF – and he was in the “D Main”, but others who also had DNF’s (like Todd Moffat 10W, who was closing in on a 4th and qualifying easily when the ruts snapped a 4 bar link on his car… what a track...) went into the “C Main”
How is that worked out – beats me, I still have no idea, you just have to accept this is “Better” somehow???
So – only real excitement until the final race on the second night was watching Phil Towgood carve his way through then D, C, and B Mains to get on the back of the final – and man was he having to work hard for it!!!
Its not often that 48A car seems to struggle, but at Baypark I think its age was catching up with the chassis – nothing too sophisticated in the suspension (got a feeling it might have been the only car there with OEM shocks even?!) so as he threw it around the outside, as he does so well, it was leaping from rut to rut and turning right more often than left – he really can drive Mr TOOgood!!!!
Other than that though – nothing much happened… cars starting in lap time order, so other than the few wild cards thrown out of sync, how was there going to be any racing???
Oh, but here’s a classic – for the “B Main” the program said “first 6 cars will fill grid places 17-24” – but hang on, that’s 8 cars??! So I heard drivers being told by their crews they had to get in the top 6 to qualify for the final – so how gutted would you have been if you were running 7th (and qualified) and threw it all away in a lunge to get the 6th place that you thought you desperately needed???!
What a system – even the people who write the programs have no idea how it works!!
Then on night 2 – the “A Dash”!!! Wow – now we’ll see some racing!
Nope… Take Steve Williams again, he was racing in the A dash that decided the outside grid order, some sort of inversion again, or maybe lap times, who would know NO ONE EXPLAINED IT… but he started 3rd and didn’t even bother to overtake anyone, even though he obviously could – starting order set, 21H 3rd row outside grid position – 2 cars to overtake for the title.
Which of course he then did, come the final, easily dispatching the two cars ahead and running off into the distance, then repeating it at each Yellow – pretty much a carbon copy of his 2006 Super Saloon 1NZ at the same track – Job Done, as predicted by Mr Macgor – 36 racing laps, 4 overtaking moves – 1NZ!
Yes there was some racing further back, but not a patch on what would have happened with a three heat final – NOT A PATCH!!!!!!
And don’t get me wrong, I’m not having a crack at Steve, he did a great job, cool, calm, professional – and if it was a three heat format he probably would have won that too as he did in Rotorua a few nights earlier for the NI’s – because he CAN overtake anyone, as he proved (but only had to 4 times at Baypark unfortunately)…
I can see why the promoter likes it though – no messy “RACING” to cause hold ups, protests, event running late, etc, etc, etc… I’m just sad that for my money I didn’t see the great event that 60 plus top cars SHOULD have put on over 2 nights.
Oh, and the format was running so “smoothly” that at 9pm, after only 2 hours “entertainment” they were all ready to run the final – so they threw on an extra race for the non qualifiers, to make it seem like the crowd were getting a bit more value for their entrance fee!! (A whole bunch of cars would have come a long way for very little racing though, regardless).
I remain convinced however that some drivers (Like Mr T) would have done a lot better under the traditional format – as well as the crowd getting a better deal.
I have to say though how good a 1NZ Steve Williams is – not just for his racing, which speaks for itself, but what stood out for me was that in his victory speech he took the time to dedicate the win to his friend Kevin Win (Wellington Promoter) in memory of Kevin’s wife Robin who past away recently, a very kind gesture and nice of him to think of others when he would have been still hyped up with his win.
And he took the time (along with Murray Guy) to take his car out to the 20/20 Cricket match the next day and have it on display – and had his photo taken with my son!
Despite all the moaning and acrimony we have about our class for far too much of the time – I can honestly say in my experience that the Saloon drivers as a bunch are all pretty top people!
Now let’s just do something about not EVER running important meetings at Baypark… just leave them with their Sprintcars which suit the terrible track and their unfathomable qualifying system…
How is that worked out – beats me, I still have no idea, you just have to accept this is “Better” somehow???
