On the subject of gate charges if someone had suggested a year or two ago that it would be cheaper to attend Baypark than Huntly I would have suggested they get real . Well as it turns out Baypark is now cheaper to attend than Huntly , the difference is the $2 parking charge at Huntly .

There were healthy fields in all classes with perhaps the exception of Super Saloons with 8 cars . 23 saloons , 17 Sprintcars , 26 Stockcars  and 30 Ministocks .

Best race of my short night was the Saloons . 5m Brent McClymont in his new car started on the front row and got left for dead by 45m Paul Cressy . As the race and track wore on though 5m picked up the pace to be a challenger for the lead by flag fall .

Ministocks were second out and  I was surprised at the mess they made of the track with their little wheels digging in on
turn 3 where I was sitting . Their race was entertaining though with a few nearly upending themselves . 55m Kyle Carter won .

Super Saloons were out next and the field looked too small on the big Baypark track . The car that mosted grabbed my attention was 71m Russell Donovan with his successful will to win . 26m Shane McIntyre was another to impress . One of the nicer looking cars was 76m Karl Hanlon  .

Then came the Stockcars . The most impressive and fastest being the lone outsider 291h Chris Brown . He won the race I saw and while there was a reasonable amount of action back in the pack it's pretty hard to keep track of them on the big track . There is a skill to watching stockcar racing , keeping an eye out for about to happen carnage is one of them , and like the drivers even us spectators take a while to get up to speed in a new season .
The worst aspect of the Stockcars at Baypark on this night at least is that they killed the track . The narrow tyres on the heavy weights just amplifying the damage done by the Ministocks .

Last of the classes out the gate were the Sprintcars and to be honest I was underwhelmed . Not strictly the classe's fault . it was their first of the season and the track was not too good but it all seemed so ho hum . The exception being 51m Rodney Wood whom I only spotted at about the halfway mark despite looking for him . Darn cars all look much the same from a distance . Anyway Rodney started giving his beast some stick and made some passes . He finished up fourth or fifth and looking at Mrs Macgor's notes I see 6m James Dalm won .

About this time I decided it was just too dang cold and I couldn't see the track improving any so figured the best course of action was to head for home .
I am sure I would have been much happier with this meeting if the weather or the track had been better .The weather can't be helped and I'm not sure the track can be either . I do wonder if moving the pole line out a bit might lessen the pressure on the turns somewhat . Something needs to be done that's for sure as I'm led to believe the track problem is situation normal for Baypark .

I bought a programe , don't often do that these days , it contained all the need to know info but was a bit overpriced at $4.00 . The  hot chips I ate were good but wasn't so keen on the cinders(bacon)and egg roll .

The actual running of the meeting seemed fine and the commentators concentrated their chatter on the racers and cars which is the way it should be done .