I will post everything in this post on an ongoing basis so keep checking back to this post as I add more and more but have decided to post updates here when done rather than waiting for the full thing to be completed
Race 1 KihiKihi 125 - 70 Palm Nth
15K Ryan Marshall 1, 667P Hamish McLeod 2, 544K Don Henderson 3, 667P Hamish McLeod 3, 79P Kyle Rowe 4, 922P Taylor Lampp (9 laps) 5, 1NZ Ben Ellis (8 laps) 6, 95K Caleb Hayes (5 laps) 7, 13P Lucas Hey (4 laps) 8.
Kihikihi looked anything but threatening during the warm ups but how wrong were I to be proven. 1NZ drove a simply magnificent race from grid 7 where he took care of menacing P cars whenever running K cars need help and at the same time he also attracted attention of P cars who seemed to have the plan that was "stop 1NZ and we will win this". Again how wrong that proved to be with 1NZ skillfully managing to survive numerous attacks. The decisive moment came when 1NZ took race leader 79P to the wall right on the SF line with the white flag being waved and 15K shot through and completed the remaining 400metres without much trouble to bank the valuable 100 points for winning.
Race 2 Meeanee Maulers 25 - 160 Huntly
27H Brett Aiken 1, 361H Clinton Cheetham 2, 16B Brett Loveridge ((6 laps) 4, 88H Justin Hutchby (4 laps) 5. DNFs 41B Cameron Swift (8 laps), 19B Caleb Ireland (1 lap), 65B Royden Hynd (0 laps), 24H Brad Philpott (6 laps).
I am a HB supporter so not much joy here from the moment 65B DNFd less than half a lap into the race followed by 19Bs right front becoming somewhat lacking in air. That did not stop him in putting his car and body on the line with some heroic attempts to use his crippled car to deal to opponents. 41B went ok and led for a period but the Huntly blocking tactics put paid to that and he eventually got rolled courtesy of 88H on the last lap. No real grumbles from me, Huntly simply read the race better and with their superior number of relatively unwounded cars and timely interventions when needed took a decisive victory.
Race 3 Auckland 110 - 85 Stratford
267S Karlin Painter-Dudley 1, 4A Brad Simpson (8 laps) 2, 94A Sam Wright (8 laps) 3, 84A Mike Mac (4 laps) 4, 84S Haydin Barker (8 laps) relegated 2 places for an over the pole line pass. DNFs 99S William Hughes (3 laps), 87A Chris Shingleton (0 laps). DQd 617S Mason Woods (contact after the chequered flag)
A real tight and tactical battle this one peppered with some nice hard hits from time to time from the likes of 267S, along with one special hard hit on 94A by 99S that impressed me, as did one by 617S on 84A (always a risky move doing something like that to Mike Mac!). Auckland gave a few back too of course but deciphering them from my scribbled notes was rather difficult
Race 4 Orange Roughies 120 - 75 Gisborne
14B Jemma Holloway 1, 26G Kaelin Mooney 2, 128G Trevor McArthur 3, 85B Willy Stevenson (relegated 2 places for attacking from over the pole line) 4, 29G James Clarke (4 laps) 5, 8G Bruce Harding (4 laps - also relegated 2 places for attacking from over the pole line). DNFs 81B Darren Yaxley (2 laps), 46B Brett Kelly (0 laps)
I'm buggered if I know how Gisborne lost this one. The Roughies were down to just the two cars from quite early on but those two just happened to be in first and second places, which changed from time to time thanks to Gissy attacks. The block cars did ok for the home side but did not last much more than about a third to a half of the distance. Somehow or other the 14B and 85B just seemed to push their way through the Gisborne cars or survive attacks from behind without too much trouble. Despite losing, 26G (26V) and 8G distinguished themselves with some very pleasing hits handed out.
Race 5 KihiKihi 125 - 70 Huntly
15K 1, 27H (9 laps) 2, 1NZ (9 laps) 3, 361H (8 laps) 4, 24H (6 laps) 5, 544K (6 laps) 6, 4H Josh Humble (5 laps) 7. DQd 513K (4 laps) - Reversed against race direction
This was probably the race of the night with a large amount of skillful blocking and use of bumpers being used that saw places swapped a number of times. It was probably one of the slowest races as well but that did not detract from the spectacle one little bit as there was plenty going on all over the track, so much so that I found it had to keep track of who was running where after missing passing moves when watching action elsewhere on the track. 1NZ again showed he was a class teams racer with another memorable performance. Give yourselves a big pat on the back both teams from this enthused spectator.
Race 6 Meeanee 55 - 140 Palm Nth
278P Kyle Taylor 1, 79P 2, 91B Zayne Pullan 3, 16B (9 laps) 4, 65B (6 laps) 5, 992P (5 laps) 6. DNFs 13P (2 laps), 19B (1 lap)
I'm biting my tongue on this one. Palmy ran first and second for pretty much the entire ten laps. For too long the Maulers chased them in vain but at least by mid race they realised they were on a hiding to nothing and did slow and try to bring about an improbable win by DNFing the Palmy cars. Admirable though that might have been the visiting drives were just a bit too clever and managed to use good skills and tactics to see off the dangers posed by 16B and 91b, the latter who pulled off a gorgeous reverse spin on 992P. Just to show I can appreciate good hitting I was impressed by a big hit from 13P on 19B that pretty much DNFd my guy, not appreciative enough though to cheer wildly next time 13P came round past me!
All in all Palm just too good but at least I got the satisfaction that they did not win well enough to progress through to the semifinals. A moral victory to the Bay, I am really clutching at straws there!
Race 7 Orange Roughies 00 - 185 Stratford
Sorry somehow forget to get the result of this one (and it was not a case of sour grapes on my behalf) but the teams lined up on the grid as per the following and most of the HB cars were gone by about the fourth lap even though there were not many hits given out by the Stormers drivers.
84S - 78B
81B - 617S
267S - 45B
14B - 98S
In fact I am seriously thinking about claiming a nil nil draw given the reluctance of both teams to line up on the grid. The referee should have ruled that the time allowed for that function had been used when the five minute mark had been reached whilst only three cars were on the grid. And that comes after Stratford somehow lined up on grid two and then decided that they really wanted to be on grid one!
Race 8 Auckland 165 - 30 Gisborne
94A 1, 4A (9 laps) 2, 62A Tyler Robertson (9 laps) 3, 29G (9 laps) 4, 128G (9 laps) 5, 26G (6 laps) 6, 84A (4 laps) 7. DNF 71G Ethan Bruce
A spectacular drive from 26G after he got taken out early courtesy of a big smack from 4A. He (26G) was into everything after that handing out punishment, including a lovely reverse spin of 62A near the start finish line about lap 4, as well as being on the receiving end. All the other drivers in the race were not scared to use their bumpers, both front and rear, in what was another very enjoyable race to watch
Overall
Stratford 295pts
Kihikihi 250pts
Auckland 250pts
Huntly 230pts
Palm Nth 210pts
Orange Roughies 120pts
Gisborne 105pts
Meeanee Maulers 80pts
General
There were two very different sorts of tactics used on the night, one was a lets try and DNF the opposition by hitting them hard and often, and the other was a skillfull shunting cars out of the way to advance your own team cars. Both worked to a certain extent but on reflection the Huntly and Kihikihi teams were those that did not set out to destroy other cars and they did well as a result. Stratford were a combination of both, as were Auckland. Having said that I much preferred the smash them off the track style but sadly it proved to not be the successful style on the night.
There was one spectacular highlight in the final consolation Stockcar race (which included a couple of cars that had raced in the teams races earlier on - so good on those cars for fronting up again). 124R Richard Waty and 10V Caleb Gosney had a private battle right from the get go that involved a good deal of hard bumper work and contact with the concrete in this last race on the night before Waty turned his attention to 572B driven, I think, by one of the Adie guys and fair snorted him into the wall exiting turn one. Such was the force that both cars leapt a good deal higher than the concrete wall before rolling with the 575B car having a little fire under the bonnet that looked rather scary from where I was standing down the other end of the track.
A good number of cars also raced with green right rear wheel guards with the number 59 painted on them. No more need be said about that heartfelt gesture and most the the HB cars raced with roof flags bearing the number 71 (Peter Barry's number), again no more needs be said about that wonderful gesture.
Overall a very good value for my $25.00 admission but it was not all good as it was tempered by the disappointing news that Bruce Salisbury is retiring from running his Chixieland shop at the end of the season. Hopefully the space/business has been sold to someone that will keep up the tradition of decent tucker that Bruce always managed to stick in my box whenever I spent money there.
That's it for the night, hopefully will run into a few of you trackside tomorrow (starting time is again 4.00pm) but if not then be sure to purchase the live stream
www.kiwimotorsportmedia.co.nz/ (there was a darn drone whizzing all over the place a great speed throughout the night, hopefully it gave viewers a different view of the racing than we get in person at trackside!)