Macgor's New Zealand Speedway

MACGOR'S NEW ZEALAND SPEEDWAY
Easy to remember address : www.zooming.to/speedways

17-11-2001 ITM Nth Island Series at Stratford Speedway
By Macgor For a full review and results of this meeting refer to the Stratford Speedway web site .
A good car count spread over six classes and what seemed to be a pretty good sized crowd all assembled at Stratford
to see in the new Taranaki speedway season .
The day stayed fine despite high cloud cover and the wind chill factor wasn't enough to cool the hot night of racing we
were treated to .
The ITM Series races were good value with the focus on the two points leaders Barry Podjursky and Neil McCoard
especially because they were both Stratford contracted drivers in years gone by .Barry still lives local but is contracted
to Palmerston North while Neil lives near the big city north of the Bombays . On this night it seemed that Neil had some
friends left in Taranaki while Barry was needled and a couple of times spun by local cars . All good value and combined
with some of the other dramas well worth watching .Stan Hickey was the other stand out performer and despite some
problems with gaining good traction he has left me in no doubt that before this series is over the title battle will be a three
way affair at the very least .
Modifieds
Started off with nine cars including the debut of Murry Gordge's new machine that just happens to look much like his
previous cars . He ran strong but wasn't dominant .Carnage reduced the field to four cars by nights end .
Ministocks
35 cars including visitors from Wanganui and Palmerston . One roll over and plenty of more minor incidents .
Streetstocks
Around a dozen cars and not really as aggressive as I would like , mind you I say that a lot about this class these days
TQ Midgets
Eight cars and a couple of good events
Std Stocks
A smallish field but a bit of a grudge match happening meant at least one good race and a couple of ok one's
Overall
A good meeting , started at 7.30pm and was over and done with by 10.30pm with 19 events run .
Stratford is one of the few tracks where the food selection includes the humble meat pie and to put it bluntly Stratford's
version is bloody good eating .
Roger Tonkin is still doing the commentating and still rates as one of the very best in my opinion , listening to him is
an entertaiment experience in itself .
Actually attending a meeting at Stradford is like a step back in time with the facility appearing almost unchanged as
the years have gone by and like a favorite pullover it still feels real comfortable . Try it sometime , you'll like it too .


Barry podjursky was points leader by one entering the meeting .	Neil McCoard was one point adrift at the start but by the time the evening was over his winning ways had him level pegging with Podjursky

This coming together of Steve Pribicevich and Shaun Pearson was the start of a night going wrong for 15a .	Certainly the incident caused a commotion although the ocean is nowhere near Stratford

This black beast is to be feared especially if Gary Worthington is in the mood for play .	81s Trevor Mason and Neil McCoard racing the blues .

"Tea's Up" in the Wade camp , I don't think .	Ross Thurston's race night was short .

Brendon Rowlands took over the other Worthington car for the night .	20 agraders started the night which was plenty enough for a good night of action .

It got a bit dusty at times ....	..... but the action more than made up for it ..

515r Stan Hickey had a good night climbing the points ladder	two ex-Scrappers scrapping , 41s Paul Urlich making life hard for Barry Podjursky

1nz Murray Gordge debuted new car ......	....7s Mike Jury trashed his

TQ's turned on a show worth watching although I still don't understand what these two were up to .	Good wheel to wheel thrills for the locals .

Ministocks were good value .	35 of the little cars meant little room for error

I don't think I have ever been been to Stratford and not seen Brian Booker turn out this well presented long lasting car Still towing in with the same antique Bedford too .	Nick Schimanski was one of a small field of Std Stocks that provided some laughs to remind us that stockcar racing is meant to be fun .

Streetstocks were the other class raced ....	...and had their moments .