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Post by openwheelfan01 on Feb 8, 2024 13:10:07 GMT 12
Was shame turned out to be one lane track in the final. you could see everyone diving down the bottom, get to the front was going to be winning and loosing of the race. in comparison heat races had more racing especially Jack Low going from 12 to 1st. Aaron Hodgson going where no man fear to go. came un stuck
Needed some great passing like Stratford previous championship final. congrats Mosen/Greenway team had let last 2 slip by. had feeling got out in front gonna be tough to beat on that track.
winning of the race going to be who got the jump at the start stayed on the bottom.. running up high was undoing of few . thats racing. hopefully meeting for gold cup have better track.
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Post by BarryB on Feb 8, 2024 14:11:31 GMT 12
Was shame turned out to be one lane track in the final. you could see everyone diving down the bottom, get to the front was going to be winning and loosing of the race. in comparison heat races had more racing especially Jack Low going from 12 to 1st. Aaron Hodgson going where no man fear to go. came un stuck Needed some great passing like Stratford previous championship final. congrats Mosen/Greenway team had let last 2 slip by. had feeling got out in front gonna be tough to beat on that track. winning of the race going to be who got the jump at the start stayed on the bottom.. running up high was undoing of few . thats racing. hopefully meeting for gold cup have better track. That's arguably the only thing wrong with that format; the only really important race, and definitely THE MOST IMPORTANT race of the weekend, gets the worst track of the weekend, being the final race on the second night. But then there's really no fix either. It's an amateur sport on a dirt track at the peak of summer. What are ya gonna do? Barry B |
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Post by midway on Feb 8, 2024 14:24:29 GMT 12
A volunteer, who at times works night and day especially a two night meeting for his club doing track prep often gets more criticism than the meeting itself .
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Post by energypower on Feb 8, 2024 17:17:18 GMT 12
A volunteer, who at times works night and day especially a two night meeting for his club doing track prep often gets more criticism than the meeting itself . That is why Speedway New Zealand has to step up and help and assisit the clubs in track preparation. Good racing generally depends on a good track. |
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Post by percy on Feb 8, 2024 21:02:27 GMT 12
A quick summary from the weekend that was
Thought the commentary team really shone. Historically it's been AJ Batt and not much else but this year was different. AJ was well supported in the box and Louise does a great job on the infield. They did particularly well when faced with the extended delay to fix the track on night two. Given the field was north island dominated they displayed excellent knowledge of competitors.
There will be a lot of discussion about the track and the track preparation crew but for me the prime problem was the schedule. What was the track crew supposed to do with so many laps and so much racing in sunshine hours? The promotion sure made it hard for the track team. Also not helping was the social media response from a member of the track staff. If ever there was a time to stay off social media this was it!
Neither night threatened the advertised 5:30pm start time. Night one apparently due to rain, not sure what the excuse was on night two. With the Midget grand parade and talking to every driver, 30 minutes needed to be allotted. Midgets were also first on the schedule so they needed to be off track at 5:15pm. They should have been out on track at 4:45pm to make the advertised start time. They went out the gate around 5:10pm.
Travelling around Christchurch you wouldn't have known the meeting was on. Only speedway related promotion I saw was for a show at Woodford Glen the following week. Though the night two crowd was better than night one, it was still a touch disappointing.
Ultimately it was being high point man that allowed Mosen to control the race. He could minimise his risk whilst others had to take on risk to beat him. That led to a few drivers coming unstuck.
Hopefully plenty of learnings are taken to be applied to future NZ titles.
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Post by mod46c on Feb 9, 2024 6:04:32 GMT 12
A volunteer, who at times works night and day especially a two night meeting for his club doing track prep often gets more criticism than the meeting itself . That is why Speedway New Zealand has to step up and help and assisit the clubs in track preparation. Good racing generally depends on a good track. I'm curious what makes you think that SNZ would do a better job with the track preparation? |
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Post by mod46c on Feb 9, 2024 6:07:40 GMT 12
A quick summary from the weekend that was Thought the commentary team really shone. Historically it's been AJ Batt and not much else but this year was different. AJ was well supported in the box and Louise does a great job on the infield. They did particularly well when faced with the extended delay to fix the track on night two. Given the field was north island dominated they displayed excellent knowledge of competitors. There will be a lot of discussion about the track and the track preparation crew but for me the prime problem was the schedule. What was the track crew supposed to do with so many laps and so much racing in sunshine hours? The promotion sure made it hard for the track team. Also not helping was the social media response from a member of the track staff. If ever there was a time to stay off social media this was it! Neither night threatened the advertised 5:30pm start time. Night one apparently due to rain, not sure what the excuse was on night two. With the Midget grand parade and talking to every driver, 30 minutes needed to be allotted. Midgets were also first on the schedule so they needed to be off track at 5:15pm. They should have been out on track at 4:45pm to make the advertised start time. They went out the gate around 5:10pm. Travelling around Christchurch you wouldn't have known the meeting was on. Only speedway related promotion I saw was for a show at Woodford Glen the following week. Though the night two crowd was better than night one, it was still a touch disappointing. Ultimately it was being high point man that allowed Mosen to control the race. He could minimise his risk whilst others had to take on risk to beat him. That led to a few drivers coming unstuck. Hopefully plenty of learnings are taken to be applied to future NZ titles. I suspect the Ruapuna club will be pretty happy with the crowd, Midgets aren't a big draw in Chch especially when compared to Sprintcars. |
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Post by energypower on Feb 9, 2024 8:00:12 GMT 12
A quick summary from the weekend that was Thought the commentary team really shone. Historically it's been AJ Batt and not much else but this year was different. AJ was well supported in the box and Louise does a great job on the infield. They did particularly well when faced with the extended delay to fix the track on night two. Given the field was north island dominated they displayed excellent knowledge of competitors. There will be a lot of discussion about the track and the track preparation crew but for me the prime problem was the schedule. What was the track crew supposed to do with so many laps and so much racing in sunshine hours? The promotion sure made it hard for the track team. Also not helping was the social media response from a member of the track staff. If ever there was a time to stay off social media this was it! Neither night threatened the advertised 5:30pm start time. Night one apparently due to rain, not sure what the excuse was on night two. With the Midget grand parade and talking to every driver, 30 minutes needed to be allotted. Midgets were also first on the schedule so they needed to be off track at 5:15pm. They should have been out on track at 4:45pm to make the advertised start time. They went out the gate around 5:10pm. Travelling around Christchurch you wouldn't have known the meeting was on. Only speedway related promotion I saw was for a show at Woodford Glen the following week. Though the night two crowd was better than night one, it was still a touch disappointing. Ultimately it was being high point man that allowed Mosen to control the race. He could minimise his risk whilst others had to take on risk to beat him. That led to a few drivers coming unstuck. Hopefully plenty of learnings are taken to be applied to future NZ titles. I suspect the Ruapuna club will be pretty happy with the crowd, Midgets aren't a big draw in Chch especially when compared to Sprintcars. |
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Post by energypower on Feb 9, 2024 8:31:07 GMT 12
Why do I think SNZ should become involved in assisting with track preparation.
I stayed around for a while after the first night of the meeting. and was some what surprised just to see a tiller working the track. Not a grader in site.
Previously, Ruapuna had a grader that push the clay down from the fence line. Also they had a digger that removed clay from the edge of the fence.
Surely there must be people in Speedway who as a group / committee could help and advise clubs in track preparation.
There must be a lot of knowledge in Speedway track preparation throughout New Zealand.
For national championships drivers and spectators deserve the best.
I have been going to Speedway for over 70 years and have visited a number of tracks. Arriving at the track on Sunday afternoon it was obvious the track was not well prepared.
I did not go to Speedway to watch push trucks circulating for over an hour wheel packing. This was after only 6 races. Those casual visitors to speedway it will be difficult to get them back to the sport.
You can have the best race cars, the best announcers, the best organization and if the track is poorly prepared it lets the whole team down.
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Post by magilla on Feb 9, 2024 8:31:50 GMT 12
it wasn't the worst track for a championship final either Agreed. But the track preparation was poor. Because of the poor track conditions prior to the final it became a lottery if a driver made it into the final. Sadly the final was raced on a one lane track. For first time visitors to speedway it was not a good look. Proves whst I said earlier about the heats being important. When you end up with a one lane track for final being top qualifier is huge. The season when Sat night was rained out and Ruapuna ran final on Sunday afternoon on slick one lane track Puckens won cruising around the pole while Alach who was faster couldn't get past because there was no track off the pole. |
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Post by midway on Feb 9, 2024 9:20:57 GMT 12
Some people think track building is as simple as learning A,B,C,
just stop and think how many people have you seen over the years doing track prep ,for either a club or a promoter ,and are still doing it ,few and far between the years i would say ..
So why is it they bugger off well there are a number of factors ,but one sticks in my mind is when you encounter oh they use this in there track ,lets do it in ours ,but the clay we use doesnt suit the need for it ,,well wot do you know you are only the track prep team and yes we have ordered this burnt lime ..The dust bowl is created
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Post by nerfbar23 on Feb 9, 2024 18:41:43 GMT 12
I agree the track conditions where not the best.However to be honest Ruapuna in the last few years has had amazing flat smooth tracks with nice cushions and 2 to 3 lines every weekend.It's a shame that it was not great for the title, Like MIDWAY said it is not as easy as looks preparing it to perfection. Also the weather over the 2 nights did play a big factor in why it turned out that way.
It is what it is.
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Post by nerfbar23 on Feb 9, 2024 19:02:56 GMT 12
Theres a very fine line between too wet and too dry.Saturday night if people remember it teamed down with rain up to an hour before the meeting started and the track that night was relatively smooth and tacky, By the end of the night up top was still tacky, You cant grade tacky dirt it's clearly not possible.Sunday night it was 30 odd degrees the moisture was still there from the previous night.The heat from the sun and wind also dried the top layer of dirt however underneath still had alot of moisture in it,That is what caused it to breakup into pieces and created the ruts and unevenness.
The weather played a big part in this, There's not much else that could've been done, Putting more water on it also wouldn't have solved the problem. It was already gone.
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Post by energypower on Feb 9, 2024 19:57:46 GMT 12
They put a heap of water on the track at the town bend just before the 2nd meeting started.
It was not sprayed on to the track. It was squirted from a truck on the pole line at the fence. I lost count on how many circuits this happened on the town bend.
The prison bend did not get the same treatment and did not cut up as much as the town bend.
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Post by nerfbar23 on Feb 9, 2024 20:37:58 GMT 12
Correct, The town bend also gets an extra hour and a half of sunlight due to it's position. It's clearly the heat/wind and moisture content underneath that's to blame here.
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Post by magilla on Feb 11, 2024 10:32:41 GMT 12
part of problem was they put a heap of water into the track expecting the heat and wind to dry it out.
If they hadn't people would have moaned that they should have put more water on.
The track then was very soft at the start so rutted up badly.
Once they worked the track again it was still soft there so they didn't put water on it.
At Western Springs when they need to rework the track they do bits between races while cars are going on and off the track so lose a couple of minutes at most between each race instead of stopping and doing the whole lot at once.
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