neville48get your facts write before you say anything .ken galvin has not bought the drag strip he is the new promoter for the drags at taupo .and for all u haters of taupo u mist a great meeting .
cuda.340,
Jan 2, 7:44am
maybe we did John but at least when we get to see it on telly, we wont have to put up with the down time, the timing issues & they'll put on a commentry we can all hear. add to that we only have to waste half n hour as opposed to a full day to watch the highlights & it will look like a great meeting. sorry John but not everyone who went is raving how great it was. Apparently the Nitro car entertainment was good, everything else was typical Taupo with the same old issues from the past. if the Zahrods had run the meeting & were unable to finish on time, how many of you would be bleating how badly run the meeting was!on the "other" forum if you say anything that can be slightly deemed anti Taupo it gets deleted but they never did that for the last track management. you're part of the "one eyed" brigade for sure. BTW you spelt "missed' wrong but you got "haters" right this time :)
les6,
Jan 2, 9:24am
first time I have been to taupo the other day and have heard all the old stories.Was really surprised at the the lack of timing boards or even a win indicator light for each lane!They have had a good few years to get the basics in place.Also noted the distinct lack of seating.still was a good day out and they could not be accountable for the previous day`s weather.One thing that did have me scratching my head was at the gate they said if I was a local i could get in for $5 less!I had just driven 2 hrs to get there ffs $5 extra in my pocket would have got me a hotdog!
kiwisparky,
Jan 2, 9:45am
there are drags on again this wed.wednesday is qualifying and thurseday is eliminations the 4 american cars will be there again
lookoutas,
Jan 2, 1:52pm
Just had one of the competitors in for a coffee and borrow of a welder etc. He was very happy with the day (even tho he went to sleep on the line and got eliminated) New regime as mentioned above, so he didn't mind putting up with some problems. So they must have been there before, but he was looking forward to the new broom. Funny - I went there to see two cars run that are owned by hombre's I know. The first one chewed up the diff on the start line, so after getting that one into a pit, I went to find the other one lining up, having discovered his shifter was falling to bits.
I told him today that he should paint that little Morri up like a cock-roach, coz it looked like one scorching off down the track with turps chucked on its arse.
kwkbrk,
Jan 3, 8:47pm
Masterton have signed up with NZDRA for 6 years exclusively. They and all other NZDRA tracks will not be accepting IHRA licences. That is a direct reflection on their last fundraiser in which they were given permission to . and only 3 IHRA racers showed up, 2 from Wellington and 1 from Nelson. This was seen as typical of the insular attitude of Fram racers and was of of no real surprise to anyone, and now they have paid the price. So, Fram and Ruapuna are now out on their own; with their 75 licensed racers between them; and the period of grace with IHRA nearly up so they can expect the costs of licensing and compliance to increase substantially. Be interesting to see how they plan on funding their long awaited and needed track improvements, especially being that they are threatening to not accept NZDRA licences, as if they can afford not to ! The mouse that roared anyone !
cuda.340,
Jan 3, 10:11pm
with the fact the track is booked out almost every weekend i don't think they'll have any problems raising the finances. they've already got enough to do the track, they're just looking to raise funds to also do the braking area at the same time. unlike the other tracks, Fram has the infrastructure already in place, i'd be more concerned how the NZDRA tracks are going to survive.
kwkbrk,
Jan 4, 5:20am
Well, whichever way it goes people have made their choices and maybe we should all move on and be done with it. For what it was worth the first day of the Summer Nationals yesterday was another resounding success; big fields, big crowd, great racing. The previously mentioned staging issues for some classes have been resolved. Unfortunately Todd Vincent had a parachute failure at 200mph +; luckily he scrubbed enough speed off through the sand trap so that when he hit the tire wall he was uninjured; unfortunately the Vincent Family dragster is considerably shortened. Woken up to rain today which is unfortunate.
mazzyz,
Jan 4, 10:01am
Please try not to bring the 'upheavals' of NZ drag racing onto this message board, there is a dedicated forum for discussing this stuff that we all know of. Not trying to censure any discussion or offend anybody, maybe a better 'look' if we discuss the positives here and the other stuff on the other forum is all.
lookoutas,
Jan 4, 12:05pm
The Chevy cracked an 8.9 with a new diff in it.
Don't need a forum for that. Seems like there's some inbreed fighting, just sort it out.
cuda.340,
Jan 4, 1:22pm
hey kwkbrk, whats the story aboutWhitiveen throwing his helmet at Slim & then packing up & leaving! i heard there was unfair treatment of some racers. do you know more! can't ask on NZDRAV8 forum as it's deemed anti Taupo by the head in the sand dept.
mazzyz,
Jan 4, 2:10pm
Oh, okay lookoutas & cuda.340, thanks. I have not been in there lately, our team has pretty much always been on the outer with the powers that be(we still are even now we're overseas) so I usually try not to say too much either way. ;o)
kwkbrk,
Jan 4, 7:19pm
Reb in all honesty I`m not aware of any poor treatment of racers who all seemed to be a pretty happy bunch . and my role these days is such that had there have been problems in that respect I would have known. Yes, there was an issue with KW . he had been called up to stage and took so long that his opponent was fired up and after more waiting was put into stage before KW had even made pre stage. After he had been told he was too late there were words but I`m not aware of any helmet chucking and I was watching. MW was back today and described the whole incident as unfortunate and that was pretty much it. Regards the other forum I think the issue is more to do with the simple fact that things are posted that are seen as being provocative; and you don`t see people diving into the Dragmasters thread for instance doing the same thing. As I said, people have had plenty to say in the past, including me, and surely its time to move on. Always happy to discuss genuine issues if you like in an appropriate fashion, TvB has my email address in you are interested ! Cheers Mike.
hotrodtodd1,
Jan 4, 7:46pm
Mike, there a lot of ill-informed rubbish in what you have written here.
1) that only three IHRA licence holders turned up to Masterton last year is not due to any insular attitudes as you claim. As you well know,, both Fram at Pegasus had meetings the same weekend, and the Masterton date was set well after those two had set their date.
2) I am unaware of any "period of grace": with IHRA. And given my involvement, I would think that my knowledge of such matters would be vastly better informed than your speculation.
You may be right that MMP has signed a 6 year NZDRA deal, but as I havent heard that from Bob, (and given that your other comments are well of the mark)I will just wait and see.
Cheers Todd
kwkbrk,
Jan 4, 8:00pm
Hi Todd . 1. Honestly . I didn`t know that ! But with that being the case I would wonder what the point was in asking at all then. 2. I accept this but had previously been told that full charges for the likes of licensing and the cost of IHRA safety compliancing would be delayed 12 months. 3. Announcement re MMP was made at the drivers briefing yesterday, which Bob was present at. Round of applause, etc .
Sorry Todd, not the first time I`ve got it wrong unfortunately, nor the first time I`ve had to apologize !
hotrodtodd1,
Jan 4, 8:04pm
John (kiwisparky) the Taupo drags were well promoted and well attended by racers. Certainly on the 29th, the public got a great show and left happy.
Operationally, they struggled in a few areas - not getting thru the eliminations does stand out as a shortcoming, but Im sure the organisers will sit down after the meeting is done & dusted and figure ways to improve it for next time.I had read that they were going to have new timeboards, so maybe they will be there for the february meeting!
trader_84,
Jan 4, 8:10pm
How many drag strips are in NZ and who are they aligned with!
hotrodtodd1,
Jan 4, 8:11pm
Thanks Mike. I got an email from Bob in past few days to say he was still working on getting dual licencing at Masterton. Will be interesting to see if anything comes of it now.
A couple of weeks back, NZDRA said they will consider it on a racer by racer basis, so I figured when I bring my bucket up to the Nationals at Fram, stopping off at Masterton on the way up will only be as a spectator.
hotrodtodd1,
Jan 4, 8:16pm
Theres only one proper dragstrip. Thats Fram Autolite dragway at Meremere and its with IHRA.
There are two strips that are the main straights of circuit tracks, Ruapuna in Christchurch is IHRA, and Taupo is NZDRA.
Then there are three strips that are airfields, Tokoroa, Masterton and Motueka. All three are NZDRA tracks
Masterton is building a proper dragstrip and hope to have it operational for next season
kwkbrk,
Jan 4, 8:18pm
Hi Todd . I shipped the timing boards and the lights from Wellington. so I`m pretty sure they will make an appearance sometime soon you would have to hope ! I have been told by "someone who knows" re dual licensing but due to my track record to date will simply leave it at that !
hotrodtodd1,
Jan 4, 8:29pm
I got a copy of the NZDRA email regarding the dual licencing and I cant see it happening either.
For the sake of our sport, we need all venues to hold safe and successful race meetings.
Why didnt the Vincent chutes open!
hyphen,
Jan 4, 8:52pm
wow, this thread still going! Just out of interest as I see some of the posters are active in the sport, what is the story behind the new track being built between Tauranga & Rotorua! Isn't it a little too close to Taupo for comfort!Cheers
cuda.340,
Jan 4, 8:59pm
hyphen, i seriously doubt we'll be racing on this supposed track in the next 10 years. it's taken years for Masterton to be able to build a track, a million bucks dissappeared into the ground & there's still no race surface to look at yet.the Tauranga track is still growing trees.
kwkbrk,
Jan 4, 9:19pm
Only thing I can say re the Vincent chutes is apparently they changed the angle of the cable. Either way it was a lucky escape for Todd. Masterton have $1.2 million raised of the $1.5 million needed to complete Stage 1, which is essentially something to race on.
hotrodtodd1,
Jan 4, 9:26pm
Hyphen, the new track at TECT Park (between Tauranga and Rotorua) has some great features going for it - the zoning wont be an issue and the land is there for noisy activities and stuff like that - but it has a couple of things against it too - its in a bit of a rainforest, and as cuda said, theres no money in the kitty yet. to pay for it all.
My opinion (and its only my opinion) would be that when Masterton is done, if Taurange got built, then drag racing would be abandoned at Taupo.
There are serious issues using a circuit track for drag racing - the lack of safety walls the full length of the track, the inability to put VHT (glue) down the whole length of the track, and any shared facility has issues with competing claims for the best dates.
Also, Tauranga has a bigger and growing population to support a dragstrip. Taupo doesnt have the local population to support the track year round.
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