Saturday night sees the opening meeting of 2012-2013 Speedway season at Western Springs, racing starts at 6-45pm but fans that arrive early will be able to check out the Fan Zone just inside the main gate, look for the red container.
The pits will be filled with cars. Booked to race are 36 Midgets, 20 Sprintcars, 14 F2 Midgets and 32 TQs.
American’s Jonathon Allard and Ricky Logan are both at The Springs for a whole season, impressive young charger Jamie Larsen is set to do the season at Western Springs as is the South Island contingent who fly in to go racing, including Jamie Duff who has as crew chief Tim Clark who last season spannered the #1NZ midget.. Also expected to race in the Sprintcar section on Saturday night is Australian Alan Wood.
The first visiting American for the new season will have his first run at Western Springs on Saturday night, Alex Bright. Bright who has been racing in Australia over recent weeks. #1NZ Michael Pickens will be running the BSL/Esslinger that he used to good effect in America, winning a USAC feature in it. Chris McCutcheon will be looking for another good year in his Bearing Wholesalers #2NZ Aggressor/Hawk and Brad Mosen will be as quick as ever in the King chassis powered by the NZ designed and built Synergy V8 engine (which has been banned by USAC as too revolutionary.) Also racing on Saturday night is rookie midget racer Chris Gwilliam who has started the season off with two wins in the two midget features raced at away tracks in October. Michael Brunt will have two #9a Midgets at the track, His Beast/Mopar powered midget and a Nissan powered F2 Midget.
The field of F2 midgets is expected to increase to around 20 later in the season including a lot of drivers new to the sport. Word around the pits at practice is that this will be the best year ever for TQ racing at Western Springs. With the New Zealand Championship for the pocket rockets being raced later in the season it is expected that there will be quite a few visiting TQ competitors coming North to get some track time at Western Springs and experience the close frenetic racing that is normal for TQs in Auckland.
Gates open at 4pm, check out the ticketing page on www.springsspeedway.com or call the office (09) 588-4050 for special admission prices, and the racing is scheduled to finish around 10pm.
