Kihikihi
Winter Bash - 23-08-2009
Delayed a week and as a result lost a bit of interest
from the travelling fans and drivers but still worth a look as it turned
out . Meeting started on time at midday and the derby was rolling out at
3pm so a good effort on the organisational side of things . The crowd watching
was quite reasonable in size too despite a very cool breeze so perhaps
this winter meet may happen again next year.
The track I expected to be grippy and soft given
the time of year, not so as it turned out to be hard and dry on top offering
little traction and soft underneath which encouraged lots of ruts to appear
in the turns , not quite a goat track but it was leaning that way . I kept
trying to image a full field of Superstocks at Kihikihi going hard
in the middle of summer for the NZ Champs and it wasn't a pretty vision
. if you are going to be there then make sure you bring your dust protection
gear with you . Hopefully the Kihikihi club has a plan or a magic wand.
Macca(Shane McInteer) had his 'new to him' Super
Saloon 99a out for his first real run but unfortunately missed the set
up for race one and then oil pressure woes sidelined him . Saloons were
pretty good though and there was a good tussle between 98h Greg Powell
and 10m Kevin Moore in one race and then between Powell and 99m Steve Walling
in the feature . The Steve Williams donated trophies went to 1st Steve
Walling , 2nd: Greg Powell and 3rd 13r Murray Guy .
Stockcars featured a bit of argy bargy with one
stockcar giving 3 times NZ Superstock champ Kevin Free a bit of stick .
Free retaliated which made for some interesting viewing . Sadly Free trailered
after this race . Great to see cars up from Stratford .
Solos and sidecars fronted with 4 each but the
highlight for me was seeing 61a Barry Free . The earliest result I can
find for Barry was 2nd in the NZ Grand Prix during the 1979/1980 season,
hadn't realised he was still riding so to have the two Free brothers competing
at the same meeting was a rare treat .
Chances of it happening again are pretty slim
I guess and I suppose even slimmer to have 3 times NZ Modified champ Glen
Free join them as well .
Other classes on the day were a million Ministocks
and a handful of Production Saloons . Ministocks from Gisborne dominated
with 19g Jarrod Allen winning all races and somehow the Gisborne cars managed
to come home 1 , 2 , 3, 4 in the feature . What's with that?.
Commentary was supplied by the very able and informative
Jamie McCarthy.
Full
results from this meeting are on the Kihikihi site
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