Waikaraka Park Rides Again (Read 5,645 times)

[bernie]

www.waikarakafamilyspeedway.co.nz/site/modules/content/index.php?id=20
We are trying some thing new , above is the link to the up coming events page, which has a list of competitors, who have told us they are coming to race on Saturday night. Its in its early stages but we reckon it could be good a thing.

Idea is to update it with each event.

Theres a swarm of mini sprints coming out to play, numbers are slowly stacking up , and the weathers looking good, so it will be another great nights racing.

Speedy recovery Macgor, keep on keeping on.

Bernie

[rebel1]

Good stuff Bernie, thank you !

[salooncar]

What a waste of space the skid cars were. They were boring, the drivers were morons (not stopping their burnouts when told to) and the squealing of tyres whilst not overly loud within the venue carried out into the surrounding area much more loudly than the ordinary racing noise. Add to that the meeting running very late because of the time lost to this programme item and it's clear they they shouldn't be invited back.

Otherwise it was a very average meeting with fairly small fields in most classes. The saloons put on a good show with the standout of the night being Phil Towgood's outside passing manoeuvres.

Overall meeting rating 3/10.

[bernie]

Nov 29, 2008 23:29:50 GMT 12 salooncar said:

What a waste of space the skid cars were. They were boring, the drivers were morons (not stopping their burnouts when told to) and the squealing of tyres whilst not overly loud within the venue carried out into the surrounding area much more loudly than the ordinary racing noise. Add to that the meeting running very late because of the time lost to this programme item and it's clear they they shouldn't be invited back.

Otherwise it was a very average meeting with fairly small fields in most classes. The saloons put on a good show with the standout of the night being Phil Towgood's outside passing manoeuvres.

Overall meeting rating 3/10.

Now you wouldn't be a bit one eyed would you saloon car, I agree it was our finest hour , but we have to keep trying new things, some will work and some wont.

You've got to admit though the crowd loved the little brown Nissan shopping basket wit no bonnet, the bling bling turbo cars with blow off valves popping while doing donuts got ignored when the little Nissan did a lap of honor.

Saloons put on an excellent show as did the street stocks, especially the last race , which by the way resulted in some pretty heavy breathing by SNZ due to the amount of hitting.
I thought the referee was going to blow a fufu valve at one stage.

Over all tried something new, lets review it , lets learn from it, keep our chins up and go for gold again next week.

Bernie

[sammy1]

Thanks W/P.The minisprint boys&girl enjoyed the track and night.Was a farst track all night.There was a track reacored broken,wheels coming off,the feacher winner spinning and still won the race,cars on fire what more could you ask for? ;D Thanks again W/P and thanks to the minisprint teams that came up to race.Reece minisprint rep.(sorry about the spelling but the wife is not up yet to check it ;D ;D ;D)

[Action-Man]

Nov 29, 2008 23:29:50 GMT 12 salooncar said:

What a waste of space the skid cars were. They were boring, the drivers were morons (not stopping their burnouts when told to) and the squealing of tyres whilst not overly loud within the venue carried out into the surrounding area much more loudly than the ordinary racing noise. Add to that the meeting running very late because of the time lost to this programme item and it's clear they they shouldn't be invited back.

Otherwise it was a very average meeting with fairly small fields in most classes. The saloons put on a good show with the standout of the night being Phil Towgood's outside passing manoeuvres.

Overall meeting rating 3/10.

A bit harsh on the Skid Car guys, admittedly the promoter didn't do the math on the time needed to include them in the program and failed to get started on time... but there shure was a lot of yahooing going on around me when they stood still & lit them up.. one smoking on the spot & the other doing rings around the stationary one.. in fact a lot more cheering than any of the saloons got.
Thanks to the Skid Car guys, it was an experiment, and the crowd from where I was sitting enjoyed the change.. Cheers from the crowd at Waikaraka. I honestly think a burn out comp would have been more to the crowds liking with some grunting V8.
Good commentary all night, the cars that were there gave 100% & it wasn't raining.

Show 7/10
organisation 2/10

Not a big fan of Skid cars, love the 180kmh drifting but the pad seems too slippery more smoke required.

Wow almost forgot a very big part of the meeting..


Big Up's to the team at PICKAPART for there sponsorship of 3 new drivers into Ministocks.. Well done, great forward thinking
10/10

[mrstttttt]

Didn't have a good night. Alas, it happens now and again.
Firstly Rossco decided to investigate Phils' rear end and not in a gentlemanly way, (not all your fault Rossco,) yellow light was left very late
and the resulting flat tyre ended heat one.
Race 2 was fine. The track by the way was superb, very drivey and lots of hook up.
Race 3, could have made it but once again had tyre problems, and that was the end of that.
Hopefully will have better luck next weekend.
Huntly Friday and Saturday Night!!!!

[Geoff public]

I didn't go this weekend because skidcars do nothing for me. To be fair as a speedway supporter of 40 years & Waikaraka for 25 I see only a little to attract me there on this years calender. Waikararka will not succeed if as stated the crowds cheered most for the skidcars. Waikaraka needs to start getting it's core products right before looking at alternative products. It needs to follow the Palmerston/ Rotorua models where they control highly competitor patronised meetings. They need a better track unity so it is far harder for out of town cars to win Auckland titles (especially in contact classes). Too often out of town cars appear to have easier races than locals. There should be no acceptable reason EVER why an official Auckland team was not present at Huntly for the teams event last weekend or other similar meetings. Successful clubs often seem to have higher representation at major meetings. Auckland needs to become a track where it's locals stay & others leave their track to be at. Do these things & I & others like me will be at Waikaraka more often & a proud track will not be reduced to skidcars getting the biggest applause of the night.

[eddiek]

As Laser from V8 Kindergarten once said...
"Drifting is like homosexuality. I accept it, but I wouldn't convert'.

I agree fully with that sentiment, and watching donuts, burnouts, patches, and all that other crap I grew out of several years ago by Japanese imports is not going to lure me in through any gate.

I agree with Bernie though, experimentation is a good thing, some ideas work and some ideas don't, but combining saloons with rice burners is not going to be a marriage made in heaven.

If they wish to cater to the louts who do that up and down Nielson St all night anyway, they may as well pave the lot now and send the faithful down to Huntly.

[chairman]

Drifting is fast, it has a professional image, it involves a huge amount of skill to do it properly, if it's done well it's spectacular, and I like watching it. Idiot boy racers doing burnouts is something I regularly call the cops down on in my local neighbourhood. It disturbs us, it annoys us, it leaves a huge mess on the roads and car parks and grass reserves, it doesn't require a huge amount of anything except space between the ears, and shows a complete disregard and lack of respect for other people. You're not seriously equating drifting with burnouts are you ?

The last time I was at WP a couple of weeks ago (c.f. my sig) it was a nice meeting, we enjoyed it, and we were going to go back this time. Then Bernie said that the skid pan stuff was going to be boy racer cars. Pass ........

Nov 30, 2008 21:21:53 GMT 12 @eddiek said:

If they wish to cater to the louts who do that up and down Nielson St all night anyway, they may as well pave the lot now and send the faithful down to Huntly.

Sure that hasn't happened already ?

Three or four years back when I wasn't scraping mud off of our stockcar in the pits at WP I'd be sitting with one of a couple of groups of friends who were there every night. Now when I'm not taking photos on the infield I still have the option of sitting with those same friends who still go along to the track every night - at Huntly.

Sure Bernie you have to try new things to see if they're going to work, and good on you for trying them, but don't lose sight of the fact that as well as attracting a new audience you're trying to win back the increasing number of people who've drifted south to spend their speedway dollars.

Cheers
Gary

[BarryB]

It's a bit like a bar owner diluting the drinks at your local really isn't it? Eventually it will come back to bite you on the buttocks, and all your patrons will be getting their fix next door. Surely the "core fans" at any meeting held at a speedway track have to be speedway fans, upset them at your own peril.

I don't agree with many that Waikaraka have to try new things. What they need to do, in my opinion anyway, is pretty much what Geoff Public has stated above. Get the key ingredients of promoting a speedway right first, and everything else will follow.

[mike004]

So WP is trying some different things! Good on them. Like has been said some will work some wont. Cant shoot them for trying. IMHO they should be building a couple of big events a season, ie the superstock team nationals, and really promote them to the max. How about a North Island teams event?? Look at Palmy with their teams, Rotorua with the 240s and World of stocks. Get a couple of big events, promote them heavily,look after the drivers and crews, and go from there. If there is action the crowds will come.
But I dont think drifting is the way to go.

[eddiek]

You're not seriously equating drifting with burnouts are you ?

One leads to the other - granted people have been spinning their wheels like idiots for decades longer than drifting's been around (When Ug invented the first wheel from rock around 30,000BC, his teenage son was already trying to figure out how to make it lose traction and spray mud all over their neighbours' cave), I freely admit I used to be one of them. It wasn't anything that turning 25 didnt fix though ;D
But that quote was put in there more for humour value than anything else.

I think what WP SHOULD be aiming for here is sticking with the formula that every other speedway in the country... stocks, a-graders, saloons and things that the floods of speedway people are wandering to other clubs instead to see . Experiment with formats. Run a few guest classes including proddies. (despite what's said about the class, I think casuals do like seeing road cars in action) - but keep it speedway.

If they use their heads then they can run the lout-a-thon meetings on non-speedway nights. they can even play "dum-dum" music
(So called because all the people inside their houses 50m away can hear is Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum...) on the PA and give them little Mazda and Honda flags to wave.

If providing a regular spot for the hoons may get them to do it inside the park instead of outside of it, it can't be a bad thing - but keep it away from the stockies...

[bernie]

Its just occurred to me, I'm so close to 50 it doesn't bare thinking about, but the older I get, the more we all sound like my parents , especially when comes to trying new things.
My grand mother told my mother that rock and roll wouldn't last, Elvis was the devil reincarnate, he was a one hit wonder, that wouldn't amount to didly squat.
My dad said the Japanese would never build a V8 and Cliff Richard was straight.

I'm holding my judgment on the skid pad /drifting thing.

[eddiek]

My dad knew nothing about pop music when the Beatles were at the top. Well marketed rubbish, will be forgotten.
I said the same thing about the Spice Girls.

This is slightly different as you're dismissing the input of experienced speedway people.

If I were you, Bernie, I'd listen to the fans who make up the core of your audience. The people like Gary who enjoy good speedway meetings. He's been around motorsport for a long time has Gary. The people like Barry who go onto publications and write about it.. an ex photographer turned journo, has been around the sport since before the invention of the motorcar. The people like myself who aren't being attracted to meetings in my own city when not required to be at a track in a different province.
They're the ones who would end up returning week after week, not the little boy racers who only go there for the one offs.

[epmurc]

Didn't really get to see the skifters (skidding drifters) in action but the crowd response suggested that one car at least was very well received.

The question now is how many people were attracted to the meeting because of the inclusion of the skifters, if you didn't try and measure that you have no way of knowing how successful it was. Nice novelty event but I wouldn't put it in front of Speedway regulars more than twice a season.

The drivers of those cars stayed in their own little group in the corner of the pits all night, never watched a single race and left well before the meeting was finished. I don't think you could rely on them to spread the Speedway Gospel and encourage their fellow skifters to go along and watch.

Something different was tried, jury is still out as to the degree of success and a post on here last week suggested the committee had other options to try. Maybe the next one should be more appealing to the target audience which these days isn't what it was 15 - 20 years ago, the under 25 male. That demographic has changed dramatically and it is more the age groups either side of that where there is more potential. How many of you have mentioned to work colleagues that you went to Speedway on Saturday night and got the reply, "Geez, I used to go there years ago, haven't been in ages"? They are the ones we should be chasing.

[chairman]

Dec 1, 2008 22:55:24 GMT 12 epmurc said:

The question now is how many people were attracted to the meeting because of the inclusion of the skifters, if you didn't try and measure that you have no way of knowing how successful it was.

Actually there are two questions, the other one of course being how many people passed on going to the meeting because of the inclusion of the skifters.

I notice that everyone (except BB ;D) (in this thread) has said good on WP for trying new things, the criticism has pretty much entirely been because they tried to attract speedway fans to a speedway meeting at a speedway venue by including a non speedway class.

Personally I don't see the logic - the fact it was there at all puts the core audience off going, and the fact that it was only a minor part of the evening would presumably have meant it didn't attract the idiotsboy racer set either. But hey, worth a try.

And make no mistake - attracting casuals with fluff events is short term good, but in the long term we diehard speedway fans, the "core audience", are what Waikaraka NEEDS to win back. We don't have to think about what we're doing each weekend as it comes, it's a foregone conclusion that one speedway track or another will be getting our dollars, and that we'll be taking mates, and that we'll be telling people what an awesome meeting it was and inviting them all along, and eventually we'll convert some of them into diehard fans too. Once you get us hard core lot back on board and loyal to the track again it's virtually a guaranteed income stream.

I don't see the negativity towards WP here that there was a year ago. It's almost as though people are actually looking for things to like about the place now. Come on WP, win us back. Just remember, we're speedway fans.

Gary

[rebel1]

Well said chairman.
I started to put together a list of things that I thought needed to happen but decided against it and deleted it.
I like you am looking for things to like about WP and will remain open minded as I look at what WP has to offer against the other nearby tracks. If we are well informed and it sounds interesting enough we will be there

[Deleted]

G'day, I think trying out new things is ok but WP need to spread their wings further when it comes to the advertising of the place and its regular events. I believe it comes down to the marketing department, something WP obviously doesn't have. Thats not a criticism its simply a fact. Take a look at the sponsorship first, you have a radio station that never goes live to the track pre first race to ask the commentary team how its stacking up on the night. Theres not a single bit of interest on their behalf in whats going on at the track named after them. Sure they will run adverts at a cut rate or for free but after that your on your own buddy. Its not hard, I did radio in the Republic of Ireland on an FM station , we used to cross to the grey hound racing for a quick report from the track before racing started etc, so simple, very effective in raising awareness of whats going on there. Then take a look at your printed marketing if there is any, pick an area you have never advertised in and hit it in the local papers, most of the regionals or locals are owned by one group and are always looking for a new customer.make the people aware of the fact there is a park, and then where it is and when it runs. It amazes me as a speedway lover that so many hundreds of thousands of people dont know Waikaraka park exists. All the new NZers British and jaapies, offer them a taste of kiwi evening motorsport! Spread the advertising round various stations, round various areas and pick up the passive market, those who are not looking but could be enticed! There needs to be more presence in the media, whens the last time you heard about stocks or saloons on talk back radio sport shows? Really what WP needs other than wind netting, advertising hoardings and the infield wet down so we dont get covered in dust is a proper marketing campaign, get an expert in and get some guidance. There's a million people here, surely we can get more than 3 or 4 hundred through the gate. End of Bleat.

[Aaron Drever]

Dec 2, 2008 21:55:26 GMT 12 @zitadel said:

G'day, I think trying out new things is ok but WP need to spread their wings further when it comes to the advertising of the place and its regular events. I believe it comes down to the marketing department, something WP obviously doesn't have. Thats not a criticism its simply a fact. Take a look at the sponsorship first, you have a radio station that never goes live to the track pre first race to ask the commentary team how its stacking up on the night. Theres not a single bit of interest on their behalf in whats going on at the track named after them. Sure they will run adverts at a cut rate or for free but after that your on your own buddy. Its not hard, I did radio in the Republic of Ireland on an FM station , we used to cross to the grey hound racing for a quick report from the track before racing started etc, so simple, very effective in raising awareness of whats going on there. Then take a look at your printed marketing if there is any, pick an area you have never advertised in and hit it in the local papers, most of the regionals or locals are owned by one group and are always looking for a new customer.make the people aware of the fact there is a park, and then where it is and when it runs. It amazes me as a speedway lover that so many hundreds of thousands of people dont know Waikaraka park exists. All the new NZers British and jaapies, offer them a taste of kiwi evening motorsport! Spread the advertising round various stations, round various areas and pick up the passive market, those who are not looking but could be enticed! There needs to be more presence in the media, whens the last time you heard about stocks or saloons on talk back radio sport shows? Really what WP needs other than wind netting, advertising hoardings and the infield wet down so we dont get covered in dust is a proper marketing campaign, get an expert in and get some guidance. There's a million people here, surely we can get more than 3 or 4 hundred through the gate. End of Bleat.

I agree with you on all points- but really are all speedways not guilty of this? I for one market peoples bigest assett day in and day out, i believe it doesn;t come down to who is the most clever at marketing, but what works. I think if you look at the marketing that Speedway Track Promotions did in the 80's for WS it was effective and worked, Willy Kay did good print adds for Outlaws but left it there - Agree in what you are saying 100% but it comes down to money. Perhaps if prize money that was paid was halved and that spent on marketing WP the crowd would come, but would the drivers?