The weekend started in an amusing way in the carpark at Huntly friday evening when an elderly Brit gent in a camper van pulled up next to me and after exchanging acknowledgements he asked me if it would be alright to park the night in the carpark . I suggested that perhaps he should ask the organisers because quite likely the carpark would be locked after the meeting and he might be stuck in there until they opened the gates sometime the next day . "Oh" he said ,"well what's on here tonight then?." 
Sensing my chance to assist a tourist to understand our unique form of motorsport I did a shortened explanation of stockcar teams racing to which he replied " and they do that right here then?." 
"Yes " I replied sensing something was amiss , "Oh heck" he said " I was just looking for somewhere to park the night and I've paid the $2.00 parking fee" . I told him he might be better off down at Huntly's campground and with that he chucked his van in gear and was gone . Oh well I did try .

By the time I got to my viewing position in among a smaller than I expected crowd it had cost me $22.00 , the meeting itself ran fine with no major delays . The six teams races were great . Auckland looked the goods in their first match but somewhat disorganised in their second . Rotorua looked strong in their first but got dealt to by the Hawkes Bay team in their successful effort to redeem themselves for their disastrous first round . Luckily for Rotorua new recruit Alan McRobbie managed to take the win as he did in Rotorua's first match .
Half or more of the Northland team didn't front so substitutes were used . This included the 'Black Widow' Juanita Leveridge 56a and she did her team proud by leading for several laps avoiding attacks . Eventually she was 'Got' but I'm think she has probably earned her place in the history books for being the first female driver to lead a stockcar teams race in a major event .
The home town team won one and lost one but because the whole round robin thing was done on points Hawkes Bay got through to the semifinal despite winning no matches . Can't say I'm too impressed with that sort of points set up myself . All those teams numbers on the cars were also doing my head in trying to figure who was who .

The support program was much as expected , Dull! . The exception strangely enough was the visiting youth Ministocks. They provided 3 excellent races to watch . 
Of course all the while through these Dull events I'm thinking 'do I want to pay $5 more to come back and watch again the following night?.' 
Production Saloons again , Ministocks again , Minisprints instead of TQ's , non Teams Stockcars and an unknown quantity of Superstocks . Cost $27.00
The alternative was Baypark's Super Saloon Gold Cup .an expected 15 Super Saloons , full fields of Sprintcars , Saloons , Stockcars and Ministocks . cost $20.00

I chose Baypark , I'm not moaning but really for $27.00 I expect a top quality all round show and I just couldn't see that happening at Huntly. There was a certain influence by those team numbers I dislike so much too .

Saturday evening I arrived at Baypark , parked for free in the carpark and paid $20.00 to sit in the best speedway stadium in the country .
The meeting started on time , was well run and produced plenty of thrills and spills . The track by normal standards was crap but it wasn't as crap as the last time i was there . There wasn't a lot of people watching but I guess somewhere in the 3,000 to 4,000 range . Hard to tell in such a large stadium .

I'm no great Sprintcar follower and the cynical side of my nature has really thought of the class as a retirement home for once great racers from other classes over the years . The field of 20 racing this night has changed my thoughts though , a quality field going hard out is a sight to behold . 1nz Jamie McDonald is a class act of his own but I assume there is plenty of dollars in the car that enables him to be . Most exciting sprintcar racing I have seen since Christi Passmore was in town

26m Shane McIntyre proved unbeatable in the Super Saloons despite the $500 bounty placed on him by the promoter but 1nz Brent Emerson was all class and excitement in his attempt to make his claim . Skinny struggled a bit in the 33m Paul Carter car but was coming good by the end of the night . I think he wound up 4th in the Gold Cup behind 71m Russel Donovan . I'm not totally sure on the 3rd and 4th placing as I have a nagging thought there was another car in amongst them . 

Saloons were also good value and not without incidents as was the slightly smaller than expected Stockcar field of 19 cars good entertainment . By the time they finished their feature I think there were only about 6 still mobile .
5 Stockcars were away at Huntly teams racing . Ministock were ministocks , good skilled racing by up and coming racers .

The sprintcar feature was the final race of the night and had a couple of stoppages so when the clock tolled ten o'clock the race was called .
I left happy with my choice of speedway viewing for the weekend and now will actually look forward to my next Baypark visit .