surely tagging someone while he is water skiing is more spectacularOriginally Posted by Rod Grimwood
surely tagging someone while he is water skiing is more spectacular
What a Joke at what i saw on tv3 sport last night,did i hear right one driver say a river running over the track.As i said its a JOKE what the hell are the owners doing putting their cars out there with all this standing water,what are they on K2 or something,i think the time has come that someone maybe from nzms shut this track down before someone is killed, and tell the owners to get there shit together and fix the problem with this water on the track.
Custaxie50- thank you, thats exactly what I also have been saying here.
The issues with the drainage were raised here on TRS over 4 weeks ago. Maybe this is the answer to Steve's funding issues, turn the site into a highly paid consultant group, clearly the Council and others have more money than sense. Pity no one was listening.
Is anyone from Pukekohe track maintenance listening now?
Yes the council does,but its rate payers money after all and needs to be used the right way.
I posted this back on 301:
{You guys don't get it!! this is ONLY a one weekend a year race track!! if for the other 51 weekends others wish to take to this dinosaur track and destroy their vehicles, themselves, no matter what the conditions are, im sure the track owners and others involved couldn't give a S^*T!!} and this includes the Len Brown council.
NOTHING will ever happen to maintain or repair this track unless the water issues affect the V8 supercar circus!! Its enter at your peril. You have been warned.
Dale M
I hear what you are saying,i understand there is water running across the front part of puke if they know where it is coming from,what plan needs to be put in place to stop this, would like to hear if you have a view on how to fix this problem.
About 1986 or 1987 I ended up with our car sitting on the start finish line jacked up as high as I could get it onto axle stands as water rushed down the straight and through pit lane al the result of about 20 minutes of very heavy rainfall around the Pukekohe area. Basically the main drain for Puke town runs under the straight and this could not cope with the volume of water hence the overflow so water overflow is not a new issue.
From what I have been lead to believe about development of the area is this (1) the race track area is amongst the lowest lying land in the vicinity. (2) it is basically a drained swamp. (3) When urban development occurs and such things as roads, houses, driveways etc are constructed the rain that would normally be absorbed by the ground that these development cover now has to run off via drains and/or soak into the land that is free to do so which means that it gets very localised into the lower lying areas.
Now a question for all the people with far more knowledge than I on this subject, If the ground surrounding the track was not all ready full to the max with run off water from the town area would it be able to drain off the water that falls onto the track?
Maybe they should have just spent some of the millions creating a lake (same as Mallory Park...) in the centre of the horse track...
Well, I got to Puke yesterday to flag for the first time at the "Circuit Mark Skaife Hamilton at Pukekohe", and can safely say that, with the exception of the 6 Hour race, and maybe the V8 Supercars, um, I won't be flagging there anymore.
It is an absolute joke that at many flag points you have to climb up the wall and clamber through the actual openings that you flag out of, to get on point.
It is also hard to see just where the actual flag points are, unless you see a flag waving (ok, that wasn't a problem yesterday, I waved the red flag more times yesterday then I have for the last 5 years!).
And the racing certainly suffered with having to launch the Safety Car everytime a car stopped on the side of the track, as with the exception of one or two places, there is nowhere for the cars to pull off.
Having said that, the driving by many competitors was absolute crap and undisciplined - the first 6 or 7 races all had either safety car periods, red flags, or both! No wonder Morty was expecting to still be there at 8.30 last night!!!!!
To those of you who have decided not to race there in future - I shall look forward to blue flagging you at HD....
Last edited by Malcolm McLeod; 05-27-2013 at 09:04 AM. Reason: Spelling...
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Good post and from someone with zero self interest who we really need on side.Having said that, the driving by many competitors was absolute crap and undisciplined - the first 6 or 7 races all had either safety car periods, red flags, or both! No wonder Morty was expecting to still be there at 8.30 last night!!!!!
To those of you who have decided not to race there in future - I shall look forward to blue flagging you at HD....
The low grid numbers at this event, where what we saw as a viable alternative to the low grids in Tier one, has now been severely compromised and if Malcolm's assessment regarding driving standards is to be believed (and the red flags probably speak for themselves), then our biggest concern is in fact driving standards, not the track.
If the driving standards are such that they can't stay on the track when the grids are small, then heaven help us. At least our own series race a couple of weeks ago had 30 cars in a handicap, with a large speed differential and heaps of overtaking in less than ideal track conditions, with no panel damage, so surely these semi professional drivers should be able to cope, after all, this is not stock car racing.
Last edited by ERC; 05-27-2013 at 09:28 AM.
Carl you are technically correct, the original track construction 41 years ago was held up because of drainage issues made worse by an unusually wet winter so this is hardly a new or unexpected issue. However, while the property itself is probably a bit of a bowl, the whole Pukekohe area is quite elevated and only 5 or 6 km as the crow flies down to the Waikato river. Therefore getting water drained away from the whole area is not impossible. There is a natural waterway running through the little township of Buckland at the hairpin end down towards Tuakau.
I suspect the whole drainage issue has always been in the too hard basket. I was told last year by someone intimate with these details that the drain running under the approach to turn one terminated under the track, either was broken or possibly had never gone anywhere. The question therefore is: knowing these issues existed was any attempt made to fix it or was the (our) money spent on puffery and corporate facilities instead? As for building the new section, complete with much lauded banking angles and a high curb (dam) with no apparent means of drainage, just unbelievable.
Having said that, anyone with experience of the place knows that its always slippery at Railway after any rain, the approach to turn one is bumpy with the outside line risky and the line on the approach to the hill critical. Its what makes the place so exciting and terrifying at the same time and requiring respect at all times.
I thought you would like to see the new drain installed at the track to prevent any surface water running down the road and reaching the track in heavy rain.
Was this the drain you had in mind?
As mentioned by Howard, this drain is supposed to drain the race track and a relatively small area north of it (about as far as the Council offices) and to the west including the industrial area. It runs south to Buckland (the buildings visible above the 2 water tanks) where it joins the Tutaenui Stream which drains the trotting course and Showgrounds area on the East of the railway line. Then it finds its way to the Waikato River.
An uneducated translation of Tutaenui would be Big(or large amount of) Shit, which may be quite close to the mark. About 15 years ago (?) there was flooding in parts of Pukekohe, and it was later found that the culverts which were supposed to be used for draining the area had been sitting uninstalled on the Race Track property for several years! I presume this work was eventually done, but the commercial/retail growth recently (much of it on land owned by the Counties Racing Club) has very likely increased the run-off quite a bit and the system is likely still inadequate for heavy rain (like the last few weeks!).
Just to add the last fly to the ointment, the boundary between the great(!) Auckland Council area and the Waikato District lies just past the Buckland Township, so the eventual disposal of the water isn't even Auckland's problem.
How do you rate the chances of a quick solution to the problem? Is there a civil engineer out there to solve it?
Stu
So a simple old motor mechanic from Timaru knows more about the cause of the issue than the locals, well bugger me. As for your last paragraph Howard, just as any real racer would I agree with you 100%. Bloody hell it is magic to race around isn't it. Magic to engineer a car to go quickly around it too.
This photo just might help explain to the idiot non decision makers ( council engineers ) how to at least solve some of the problem. If you dug out half of that paddock between the drain and the hairpin, by doing so increasing the water capacity as in lake, pond, whatever, and use the dirt to form a raised dirt mound angled back from the track which could then be used by families or groups to sit down and watch the motor racing. A bit like what it used to be like at the old Baypark, rather than nowadays where at Pukekohe you become somewhat of a caged animal! This solution to some of the drainage issue would probably be a bit like when the original guy who invented the wheel said: shit, this is too easy!!!Was this the drain you had in mind?
As mentioned by Howard, this drain is supposed to drain the race track and a relatively small area north of it (about as far as the Council offices) and to the west including the industrial area. It runs south to Buckland (the buildings visible above the 2 water tanks) where it joins the Tutaenui Stream which drains the trotting course and Showgrounds area on the East of the railway line. Then it finds its way to the Waikato River.
An uneducated translation of Tutaenui would be Big(or large amount of) Shit, which may be quite close to the mark. About 15 years ago (?) there was flooding in parts of Pukekohe, and it was later found that the culverts which were supposed to be used for draining the area had been sitting uninstalled on the Race Track property for several years! I presume this work was eventually done, but the commercial/retail growth recently (much of it on land owned by the Counties Racing Club) has very likely increased the run-off quite a bit and the system is likely still inadequate for heavy rain (like the last few weeks!).
Just to add the last fly to the ointment, the boundary between the great(!) Auckland Council area and the Waikato District lies just past the Buckland Township, so the eventual disposal of the water isn't even Auckland's problem.
How do you rate the chances of a quick solution to the problem? Is there a civil engineer out there to solve it?
Stu
There is an old saying, `water is like ability, it finds its own level' which somewhat sums up Len Brown and his bunch of clowns.
Last edited by fullnoise68; 05-28-2013 at 08:03 PM.
Just a couple of things guys before you all go off a form a lynch mob....as I said early I thought the drainage issues were being sorted...well in fact they have. It did rain on the super tourer weekend and there was no puddling at all through the new turns 5, 6 and 7. So something is and has been done. As far as the Honda one hour race goes....the moment the first car went in just before the hairpin...the Safety Car was deployed and immediately the race was red flagged. There were a further seven cars that went in at near on the same place. Now I have done more competition miles around Pukekohe than most people I can think of and I have only ever seen a water bomb like this once before and that was at a six hour race. I favour wet weather driving and used to do a rain dance before meetings...but these weather bombs dump more water at one time and I can tell you the the track even before these upgrades with that amount of water on it has or had the same effect....there were eight or nine cars off at the pin back then! It all comes down to driving to the conditions. We could go another ten years and not see weather like that again....apart from the barriers down the back straight and the track being widened at turn one (a lot of folk dont know this..) and of course the new turns everything is the same as before. Me...personally....well I didnt really like the fact that they were changing the layout...in fact I would have preferred the old B & H layout where you hang a left on the front straight...but now I have gotten several laps and seemingly a hell of a lot more to come...under my belt, well I like it it. I have worked out the best line to take turn 6 (particularly in the wet) and if you dont you make turn 7 into a tighter corner as you witnessed the Honda's doing.......and that is on a high part of the track. So guys dont give up on Puke...I will push my barra for you to see if I can swing any weight to get the "inside" barriers maybe moved for the non Aussie meetings. Which should see a bit of off track parking should you break down..........These are by the way only my views. And as someone earlier mentioned...some of the driving standards from our boys need to be looked at before they are looked at if you get my drift. If you want to ask me anything that I can touch base on go for it ...but keep it seemly and constructive....Thanks for hearing me out. Kind regards, Tony Rutherford.
Hang on Tony, you are starting to use facts, knowledge and common sense here and that puts you in breach of just about every known rule of motorsport forums.
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