Exactly John. Easy to find when you look or ask instead of knocking it. Very disappointing comments from Paul and his friends. Incidentally Paul is VP of Puke Car Club so even worse in my eyes.
On to the up side - you did well John. Kept that bloody Red GM Behind you I see until they reversed the grid to give him a chance lol
Hi TonyG- Good to hear from you mate, you would have loved it- Barry Algie arrived with THE Monaro, he will be fully ready for next week,
had 3 flat tyres today, 3 bonnet hold down pins pull out in 3 races -still better than the best day in the office.
Great weather, just look at the beautiful photos, isnt it so neat the track is so accesable for them.
Every car out there was someone pride and joy, and everyone was trying to the best of their abilities.
Scotty fitted an in car camera so we can keep enjoying the moments.
Last edited by John McKechnie; 01-19-2014 at 09:06 AM.
There is some stuff on Paul's Facebook that is probably valid, but this is not the best place to publish our criticisms.
On the TM message board there is also a thread about reduced numbers at Kumeu. What we have to accept is that this the high season and of course there are going to be many events on at or around the same time. That is never going to change.
May I suggest that valid criticisms of the Festival are channelled to the organising committee?
I have my own take on the Festival and I know that many others do, but this is a local initiative and we should applaud the fact that we even have a Festival that draws a far better crowd than almost any other motorsport event in NZ.
The only statement on Paul's post that I would challenge at this stage, is that the Lyon's family make this annual pilgrimage (as do one or two others) and I have no doubt that they wouldn't bother for just one weekend. Two weekends is fine by me but having Taupo immediately before certainly affects many locals.
This news is the greatest thing I have heard today, I am just so damn excited to see this thing.Originally Posted by John McKechnie
Signed - someone who was born well after the days of these incredible cars
Richy
I would love to be able to be at home at the moment. I have been checking in every half hour since 3pm my time (Qld) for updates and photo's. So many cool memories.
ERC - The only reason I mentioned Pauls Facebook posts were because I thought it poor form that a Car Club VP should #1 Criticize an event on Facebook rather than go to the organizers and #2 have no idea of what was involved in the way of costs and classes.
Maybe Paul should have a good look round the facilities and the view that the crowd has access to at HD before he opens his mouth and spouts some uninformed crap. All sounds like sour grapes to me. And besides they have had so much money spent on their circuit by the Government and Auckland Council and it still fails to draw that many punters. I wouldn't go back there again.
If you are heading to HD next weekend go and see Graeme and introduce yourself. This car is literally a time capsule after being welded into a container for the last 30 years. It is pure Lola T190 from the engine back. Graeme is so pleased with the support and enthusiasm that is being shown towards the car and himself - so talk to him and encourage him the keep working on the car and racing it again.
A big 'thank you' to John Ure and Crunch for the work they put in on the Friday to get the paperwork completed so that Graeme could compete. This really makes me feel good to see such co-operation. Thank you both and the other behind the scene people involved.
I had the privilege of being on track in Mike Coory's Nissan 30ZX during the ride period when Graeme amongst other was on track with the Charger so I managed to get a couple of unique photos from the on track action.
Mike
Last edited by kiwi285; 01-19-2014 at 07:51 PM.
For those of you (like me) who have never met him, this is Crunch, a gentlemen who has done so much behind the scenes to help get these historic classes running so that we can all enjoy seeing the car doing what they do best.
'Thank you' from us all
Mike
Thanks for the photos Mike. Now I have had my morning fix of car porn I may make it through the day.
Cheers from Oz
Tony
TonyG- if you cant get through the night, pm me your email address and I can send you some in-car video footage from my car getting through the field.
I dont' know what Paul had to say. Not on facebook. The Festival is not perfect but it is pretty damn good. Lovely cars being well driven with respect for other cars. Most impressed with Michael Lyons, watching him power sliding the F5000 over the hill at turn three bought back memories of Keke Rosberg. Thanks to Rod Grimwood for his advice on my car. The problem turned out to be a brake binding not the diff. A easy and cheap fix, not like a normal race car problem.Once again thanks to all those for their advice and assistance.
I for one will not be going back to Puke. A shame because it had some nice corners.
Roll on the second week of the Festival, and congratulations to the organisers for putting it on.
Even with this little drama on Friday damaging several HMC cars including the PDL it was one fantastic event, we patched it up and carried on. The Ferrari side took the attention away from the smaller fields and so they should as their effort was simply amazing, but besides that the racing all-round was just fantastic and we tried some different handicapping in our HMC/HSC group which worked well but most important for me was not one car ran into another the whole weekend and some of the racing was close, especially the reverse grid starts!! The last race yesterday after the chequer we done a formation cool down lap to give the flaggies and spectators a wave and big thumbs up in appreciation, they luv’d it.
I also got hammered on the whole weekend and im pleasantly worn out today!! lots of different views on how the festival should be run but mostly by those either not racing, without a race car or have never raced!! Seems to be a pattern there!! Hmmmm. I learnt many years ago there are 3 types of persons, 1 – Those that make “it” happen(John McKechnie) 2 – Those that watch “it” happen, and 3 – Those that “Wondered” what happened.
Bring on this weekend. Dale M
Your grid may not have had any panel damage Dale, (thank goodness) but there was one very upset driver whose immaculate car was damaged by an overly aggressive driver in one of the other races.
This is not championship racing, but sadly, there are still one or two drivers out there who still don't understand.
I'll certainly be out there again Friday and probably Saturday but the smaller fields are a genuine worry for paying spectators and there is always some attrition which doesn't help.
Dale it was a real thrill to see the 104 replica, it brought back lots of great memories of the original. Congratulations on a spectacular addition to the HMC grid
As a member of the paying public, I was disappointed at the quantity of cars in some of the fields, compared to previous Festivals I have attended. Was it because Kumeu was on the same weekend, was it because Taupo was the week before, or was it because the focus was for a marque? I dont have the answers to any of the questions, but I will admit that this years festival didnt appear to have the same kind of "vibe" that every other I have been to had.
I read on another website this morning that the crowd yesterday (incidently the only day I went, or will be going), was said to be the largest so far? I noted a lack of trade support relative to other years, and the timetable was a bit slow.
Dont get me wrong, I appreciate the massive effort to promote and run this event and I know we are damn lucky to have an event like this in NZ. But I was still disappopinted, given the price to attend, the fact that its the only motor racing event I take my teenage son too, and that some classes were appearing a little thin for quantity, or depth of vehicle content.
Oh yeah, yes I've raced, and I know what it takes to prepare and run an older vehicle, and have assisted with promoting and running motorsport events previously..........just saying
Ray, as always great to catch up, I know there was damage in some of the other class’s which is never good at these events but like you Im trying to be proactive in making sure this is on the mind of every HMC and HSC racer, still doesn’t mean it won’t happen but we have to at least do our best as group managers, it’s about establishing a “mind set” for our particular class!! Im less concerned about numbers as this will always be up and down depending on the state of the economy and various other reason’s people have, speaking with Jim and Chris they were happy and sure it would have been nicer with more but we all got thought it regardless. We can always learn and try an make it better next time!!
For HMC this event was a cross roads, with firm rules in-place we wouldn’t let one racer in because he won’t fit 15” wheels and yet his car is otherwise HMC correct, I don’t understand it but its his choice and we’ll leave it at that!! it was also great to have quite a few future racers with us over the weekend and I enjoyed talking to them to see were they’re at, spoke with Andrew Sinclair at length about his 70 Cuda build and will be finished mid-year, Brett Pearce with the HK Monaro was gutted his car wasn’t finished as he saw the smaller grid as a positive to race and test his car at the same time without concern of a larger field, our future 69 Camaro racer spent time in our camp checking out the opposition in which we had a few laughs, his Camaro gets shipped in 2 weeks and will go straight to the paint shop for an ex Chamberlain American Airlines colours and that will be cool, Craig and Shona Stacy came out to support us so I had to be the “Skid King” instead this weekend!! so really the future is looking positive but we still need to keep the momentum building.
Shoreboy57, thanks for the comments, very much appreciated and the PDL did attracted huge pit interest considering its really only paint and stickers, Tony battled all weekend with 2 flat tyres, camber bolts coming loose and in the last race when we had it all working he “Elbowed” the seat belt cam-loc lever causing his belts to fly undone, still, I knew it would be a 1:20 car for HD and Tony just missed out on a 1:19 so was pretty happy, it’ll be ready to go again this weekend.
Dale M
Cheers Dale, but please read and take note of Habu's post above. Whereas all other events we participate in throughout the year are totally competitor financed and spectators are often admitted free, the same rules do not apply to the Festival.
This is a very commercial enterprise and therefore I believe, rightly or wrongly, that in this case, we must seriously consider spectator appeal ahead of one or two other considerations. It is probably the only event around here other than the Aussie V8s that gets decent press coverage and a good paying crowd and is certainly the premier classic event in the area.
Habu, if you want to send me a private message with your email address, I would appreciate your comment on a suggestion I have for next year and I need feedback from paying spectators before I formally put it to the Festival committee.
As one who remembers Howden Ganley in F1, I know that he is less well known than McLaren, Amon and Hulme, BMW or Ferrari, so I think it is critical that next year, that we can guarantee spectators get value for money both on and off the track.
Cheers Mike...as you can see from the photo I had to bring my Grandad with me!
For those of you (like me) who have never met him, this is Crunch, a gentlemen who has done so much behind the scenes to help get these historic classes running so that we can all enjoy seeing the car doing what they do best.
'Thank you' from us all
Mike
Thank you for the reply - PM sent.
Habu
I am sure that the festival was well worth the $40 ticket price but by the time the petrol, parking, food etc was also taken into consideration it was beyond my post-Christmas discretionary income for the wife and I to attend. Like I say, I'm sure it represented good value for money but organisers will have to accept that higher prices will reduce numbers. I can understand that fewer people paying more money is often preferable but it doesn't feed the sport.
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