It was called a Spectacular, the John Webster Memorial Speedway
Spectacular, and it was.
There was a big gold cup on offer at the meeting, The John Webster Trophy
awarded to the most outstanding competitor on the night.
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The trophy was awarded to
Skinny Colson for his spectacular driving in his Sprintcar. There were other
contenders for the trophy.
The New Zealand #1 Sprintcar of Jamie McDonald did a spectacular dump in
Cemetery Bend. McDonald got sideways, floored the throttle, got grip, pulled a
massive wheelstand, then got side bite and went a-tumbling.

Ross Holton dumped his TQ after getting too much bite on the track, at
the end of the straight. In about the same place Gavin Hinsley got it a wee bit
wrong and a little tap had his #58a up-ended and pointing it’s wheels skywards
on the last lap of one of the Saloon races.
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In another Saloon race, that for the Super Saloons, Warwick Taylor’s
cornering went amiss, he danced over the sodden infield, clipped a drum marking
a no-go zone, bounced up in the air, landed fair square on top of another 200
litre drum, and there the car tettered till the end of the race. In fact in the
Super Saloon class there were other contenders for the most outstanding
competitor, Shane McInteer was spectacular, he won a race, was leading another
when the car broke, he smoked up real bad, he took Peter Hemi out of a race, it
was a racing incident but the #99a dove, admittedly under brakes, into the #38
and took out the Holden’s left front wheel. In the first race for the Supers
McInteer, clipped the wall, understeered badly some laps, bounced both wheels
into the air in a power wheelstand in some corners, blew smoke, caught fire, but
ran fast laps. Paul Carter had an outstanding night and in the final race
couldn’t have had the car more crossed up without having to drive eyes peering
through the rear vision mirror such was his spectacular broadsliding. The Caddy
Shack Mustang had the crowd enthralled especially as Steve Williams fought on
with a disintergrating left rear tyre in the second heat.
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Williams was also spectacular in the Saloon class. Getting around the
phenomenal Phil Towgood, round the outside, in one race, taking out the whole
Auckland team in one of the 4x4 inter club challenges then running over Gavin
Hinsley whilst disputing last place in the final 4 lap race of the series. The
crowd’s voices still rose in unison to show approval to Steve Williams and his
spectacular efforts to win as the perched atop his spare car, his fellow team
car for Huntly, driven on the night by Mel Hills, as the 121h car did a victory
lap after beating the locals.
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Even in the Mini Sprints there was a contender for the big trophy, Shaun
Cooke was unbeaten on the night and was running quicker times than the lighter
and more nimble, albeit wingless, TQs. Neville Stanaway was outstanding in
winning the Auckland Super Stock Championship and Jared Wade provided plenty of
thrills in his tank, especially in the final race when he took to all and sundry
to ruin their runs for the chequered flag.
In the Stockcars one outstanding move by Steve
Fox sent Gary Lonergan skywards in a crash that on other nights would earn the
accolades as most spectacular of the meeting.Â
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The meeting started,
delayed by rain, on a sodden track.
It finished,
prematurely, with rain pelting down, straight after a spectacular Fireworks
display, with four races, including two twenty-lap features, washed
out.
The delays during the night played havoc with the Firework display. The
dew was coming down and wet gun powder is not ideal for explosions, the head
honcho in charge of flicking the switches to make the bangs was due on a flight
out of the country in a short while, the rain it was a coming and because there
were mortar shells to be launched that were at the absolute maximum permitted
size allowed from inside an arena, the permit to fire the rockets had a proviso
that they could not be launched over public. There would have to be a delay
before letting the fireworks go skywards whilst a section of the crowd was
cleared to provide the prerequistite people-free zone over which the mortar
shells could be launched. Fortunately the crowd co-operated, unfortunately there
was rain falling and some of the fireworks didn’t launch as intended, they blew
up but much closer to the ground than anticipated. One complete frame of flamers
didn’t fire at all and another needing some extreme bravery in the form of a
human hand’s intervention to reset the fuses whilst there were explosions going
off all around. Fortunately all the mortars fired on cue and the huge shells
went high into the skies.

After the Fireworks the
Sprintcars came out for their feature but the clay surface was a skating rink
and the big winged cars were never even fired, simply returned to the pits. A
smaller than expected field fronted in the Sprintcar class. Paul Blakeley was
having a run in one of the Phillip Game machines and got to grips reasonable
well with the big grunt on tap, well enough to win one of the six lap dashes. In
an interlude
Marty Rostenberg, a very
accomplished Rally driver, had a few laps in the #77 Elf machine that Phillip
Game himself drove in the races.Â
Game a veteran of Waikaraka Park when he raced Modifieds ran a 13 and a
bit second lap on his last round of one of the six-lap dashes. That time around
the 460 metre oval that is Waikaraka in spite of the track having been saturated
by heavy overnight rain the night previously, and, earlier, having so much
standing water on the pole line in the top bend that the floating high-volume
pump was still trackside as the patrons came through the gate prior to the
meeting.
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The Sprintcars were all
spectacular, fast as, and although the brake rotors were glowing cherry red the
first time the Sprintcars took to the track, the drivers were lifting the
throttle but by mere millimeters and then for only mere moments. During that
race James Dahm was pulling wheel stands down the straight, Skinny was pulling
well away from the field, Game was glancing off the wall and of course the NZ
Champ was flipping after pulling his front wheels too far skywards. Jamie
McDonald
was back out after is spectacular flip, with a
white wing rather than his mangled black one, and won the very next race he
contested.
Another to win a race after he had rolled in an earlier event was Gavin
Hinsley in the Saloon class. The red #58a went over on the last lap of one of
the Saloon heats then came out to replace the stricken #63a of Nigel Mouat in
the final two 4x4s of the Waikato versus Auckland Challenge. In the first go
around Hinsley and Steve Williams tangled, the #21h getting a bounce over
Hinsley in the run to the chequered flag coming off pit bend. William’s car was
done, a flat right rear and he couldn’t take his place on the grid, on pole, for
the final 4x4. Hinsley made no mistake in winning that final race but the
Waikato pairing had enough points to take the challenge. In the first go around
in the inter-club rivalry, (although latte sippers from Jaffaville point out
that both Mal Hills and Steve Williams live in the Auckland region even though
they register to tracks beneath the divide that is the Bombay Hills), Steve
Williams had a moment. Leading the race his car understeered so severely after
the apex of Pit Bend it did a partial reverse spin and Williams had to hit the
picks hard to avoid spearing head first into the wall. Both the Auckland cars
following Williams towards the last lap flag crunched into a nose to tail
prang.

As the three cars all reversed out of the crash, what looked like a
broken rotor (it wasn’t a rotor but a mount) was spotted lying on the track,
meanwhile Mal Hills raced to the win in the other #21h car. Fortunately Mouat
realized that there was something amiss with his car before he tore the blue,
much-traveled Saloon apart and the #63a was taken infield. Mouat was out for the
rest of the night hence the recruitment of Hinsley to represent Auckland in the
next two four by four dashes.
Steve Williams
has an aggressive style of racing that
makes him a favourite with the paying fans. In the first Saloon race Williams
who had tried in vain to haul in lead cars during the race, on a track that was
fast but had patches that caused severe understeer mid-corner, had smote the
wall after the chequered flag. Back in the pack the most spectacular drive was
that of 61a Roy Walker,
unitl he damaged his right front, meanwhile Phil Towgood had an
outstanding drive, even when he caught the lappers, to take the win. In the next
Saloon race Williams hunted down Towgood and went around the outside to take the
win. The Saloon feature was one of the races that fell victim to the downpour
that called a halt to the entertainment, five full hours after the meeting had
started.
Williams was only one of the entertainers in the Super Saloon section
that had three races on the night but lost their twenty-lap feature. McInteer
won the first heat but had to get around Lance Jennings to take the lead. The
#99a started to blow smoke and coming off one turn had a huge tongue of flame
under the car, fortunately the fire went out, but the smoke returned later in
the night and the engine started to make sounds suggesting the oil smoke weren’t
just a little leak onto the headers. McInteer had the lead in the second heat
when a right front tyre went flat in hurry and left the #99a stranded on the
high line and needing a towie and a hooker for relief from being stranded coming
off a turn.
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The Auckland Super Saloon
Championship was raced over three heats. In the second heat Kevin Salle had
headed off in the lead until Shane McInteer went around the outside.
Paul Carter was chasing the #99a and also went past the 31h but
after McInteer had retired Salle went under the chequered flag in second place.
When the points were tallied after the two heats, going into the decided,
Carter, Jennings and Salle were all tied up on 21 points. One of those three
pedallers would be Champion. Salle’s hopes went awry when he got clipped by a
car squaring off the corner and the right front tyre went flat. Carter would finish 4th and
Jennings behind him. Glenn Turner had followed the winner Williams home in the
third heat and scored enough points to be level with Salle when all was tallied.
A run-off was required for third but after Salle didn’t front at the get-go
Turner in the #45a ran his last four laps, he retired from racing after the
meeting, around Waikaraka by himself, but as smoothly as ever.

Although the fire under the hood of the Super Saloon #99a blew itself
out, a fire caused by oil on the headers on the Super Stock #44r of Jason
Riedinger needed a puff of powder to be extinguished. Twenty-two Super Stocks
fronted to try for the trophies that were on offer for the Auckland Championship
and John Webster Memorial. Wayne Whitaker took off in the first heat. There was
lots of speed, lots of rubbing during the race. 52a Scott McEwen brought on a
red light stoppage. McEwen was struggling when his car stalled, sideways to the
traffic, against the concrete exiting Pit Bend. After the restart the 17a of
Deon Ansty stalled in the same spot, but rear bumper to the on-coming traffic,
and he was left to await his fate by the referee, correctly judged as the
maybe-collision never happened. When the mud stopped flying it was Neville
Stanaway who had won the race, Whittaker was second and former Auckland
Champion, several times, Dave Tennant was third. Stanaway won the next race from
John Booker, up from Stratford for the meeting, with Gary Ellis taking third. In
both races Dayne Wright had finished fourth. The #7r was second on points going
into the deciding race and at the head of a pack of eight cars all within seven
points of each other.
 
The final race was a win for Aaron Headington. The tank of Jared Wade was
the entertainer of the race. In the second heat Wade had tried to run the #36a
of youthful Blair Mitchell up the wall in front of the crowd.
A crowd that disappointed in numbers, the meeting deserved much more, but
the rain that had fallen, the rain that was promised, the nip in the air and a
Radio Station telling their ears that the Speedway was cancelled had combined to
keep people enscounced lounging on couches in the comfort of their homes rather
than butting their behinds on the cold concrete of the grandstand.
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 In the third heat Mitchell was delayed by a
spin at the start, then another spin, in front of the pack, a few laps later. As
the #36a was barreling down the straight, the back straight, in front was the
slow moving Wade tank. The #85h was seeking out cars in the top ten to deal to,
but Mitchell decided on payback and never bothered to spare the gas as he rammed
hard into the rear of the tank.
The Wade machine spun and the bonnet lifted but both cars continued. Inevitably
when the 85 and 36 were next on the same part of the track more contact was
made, but that time Mitchell’s race was run, a wire from the coil was dislodged
in the impact.
The tank continued, making hits, and had a decent
shot at the Stanaway machine on the straight as the 62 headed for the chequered
flag. Both finished the race, Stanaway in second, Wade as last placed finisher.
The Tank had done but eight of the fifteen laps but those circuits had been seen
by all as it was where Wade was that the action had happened. Third across the
line was the other Tank in the race, that of
Ross Ashby which seems to have a liking for the
surface at Waikaraka and is a genuine contender for Championships based on speed
around the big clay bowl.
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The Stockcar class
was fully subscribed, 28 cars fronted, all
locals,
there was no room for non-club
members. It was the wily old veterans who frothed to the top after the racing
was done. The first heat had been raced with the pole line a mud bath.
There had been plenty of contact but
the bigger hits were to come in the third race. Whilst Steve Fox was barreling
Gary Lonergan, a rookie who has had a great first season, Rose Halfpenny was
being stranded on the wall on the back straight. Rose who was booked to fly out
to the UK the day after the meeting, got caught on the outside of an attack by
CJ Chesnutt, who is always in the thick of the action, on 69a Richard
Fletcher.Â
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Going into that race only four drivers had more than fifty points in
their tally. 89a Tony Gavin, 441a Andrew Weir, 81a Rodney Smythe and 168a Billy
Neil. In fifth place after two heats, with 48 points, was Carlos Chesnutt. The
64a won the race but Weir won the trophy by finishing second in the deciding
race.
 
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It had been a good night, racing-wise, to finish by not being able to
complete four feature races however was a disappointing end to the season. Now
the Speedway is in hiatus till October.