Yes, I know that – particularly in the South Island – a lot of you chaps and chap-esses will be wondering what I am going on about when I talk about the most recent Covid-19 Lockdown and its effect on motorsport in the greater Auckland area.
I was forcibly reminded of just how much I has missed my weekend ‘fix’ however when – last Tuesday at 11.59pm – the borders north and south of the Auckland ‘Supercity’ were flung open (or it would appear more that they were quietly packed away by the Police personnel that had been running them) and those of us double-vaxed and/or able to provide evidence of a negative COVID-19 test within the past 72 hours, were finally able to pass through.
Initially, anyway, I planned to be up while the sparrows were still eating rich food…. (Think about it!!) ……the very next morning to head south to celebrate my newfound freedom with a couple of sessions at the Hampton Downs outdoor Go Kart track.
When I went on to book however, I remembered that Wednesday is the one day of the week that the track is closed. Bugger!
Never mind, I thought, I’ve waited four whole months to drive down the Southern Motorway and Waikato Expressway to get my Go Kart ‘fix,’ what’s another day in the scheme of things?
Particularly with the first two major ‘Post COVID-!9 Lockdown’ race meetings on at Hampton Downs (Speedworks’ Back on Track’ National one and Dr Jacob Simonsen’s BadThurst 12 Hour endurance event) just ‘up the road’ at Pukekohe Park Raceway, on over the weekend.
Because I wanted to be at both (hell I’d also have dearly loved to drop in on drifter and confirmed rotorhead Mad Mike’s SummerBash drag racing meeting at Meremere’s Napa Autoparts Dragway on Sunday as well) but couldn’t quite fit it in) and had commitments at home on Saturday), it actually made more sense to use Thursday as Go Kart Day then Friday and Sunday as ‘work days.’
That was plan #1 anyway, and good news everyone, despite what TV’s ‘talking heads’ would have had us believe, by time I got to Mercer (just on 10.00 o’clock on Thursday morning, apart from a single roving radar-equipped patrol car parked (facing north!!) on the southern side the cutting south of the hamlet, of an official ‘border post’ (‘personned’ by cops and there to supposedly do random “Vaccine Pass’ checks as promised by a story on News Hub ’s 6.00pm news two evening’s before,) there was absolutely no sign.
Nor was there sight or sound of any sort of official Police presence an hour or so earlier on Friday and Sunday mornings, despite, in both cases, my leaving home an hour or so earlier ‘for Justin’ (as in ‘Just in Case’ there’s a big queue…).
While I can’t vouch for the state-of-affairs north of Auckland, someone, somewhere was feeding the media porkies about the operational status of the ‘Supercity’s’ southern border, which I don’t know about you but which I find deeply unacceptable….
In saying that both venues had their procedures down pat. In the case of Hampton Downs, it was a simple matter of using your smart phone to scan the venue’s unique barcodes (1 for the large on-site café and coffee roastery, 1 for the track area itself and 1 for the Go Kart track) at each entrance then proffering your unique Vaccine Pass (which I also have loaded to my Smart Phone) so that it can be scanned.
Like me, most other punters, whether at the café, the Go Kart track or the main National car racing circuit chose to keep their faces covered when (obviously) not eating, drinking, or actually racing a Go Kart or car.
There was a decent sort of crowd too at Hampton Downs, most it would appear happy just to rock up on what turned out to be a lovely early summer, blue sky kind of day to enjoy the mix of the exotic (the Carter Bros’ new Brabham BT62) and the ordinary (large fields of Toyota 86s, BMWs, Hondas, Mazda RX8s and 2KCup) as they variously buzzed or boomed their way around the place.
I, however, had an ulterior motive for my attendance; with so many of our latest and greatest kart graduates moving up, across and even down to the Toyota 86 championship this season I wanted to see – with my own eyes, if you like – how top Rotax Light talents like Zac Stichbury, Rianna O’Meara-Hunt and the Osborne brothers, Fynn and Clay, acquitted themselves against the likes of fellow ex-karter Ronan Murphy, back home after a season spent contesting the US Formula 4 championship, last season’s series champion Rowan Shepherd, and fellow SsangYong Ute series alumni Mark Mallard, Christina Orr-West and Todd Prujean.
It was, to be fair, a bit of a shame that the likes of Simon Evans and young gun teammate Marco Giltrap were not there to fly the flag. After-all, a test day at Hampton Downs was never meant to be more than just that, though Auckland schoolboy Hugo Allan must have missed that particular memo.
One of new breed of youngsters who got their start in racing on a simulator Allan topped the time sheets in all but one of the sessions in his International Motorsport-run Heart of Racing-backed 86, the only driver to beat him, Ronan Murphy.
As it turned out, Ronan’s Dad, er, Greg Murphy, was also competing at the meeting, qualifying the Golden Homes Renault GT4 RS second before finishing the closest of seconds to the McLaren 720S of Andrew Fawcett and Daniel Gaunt, in the first of the new hour-long Rush Hour races for GT class cars, the winning margin just 0.316 of a second at the line.
Finally, a nice surprise for me at the meeting was checking out the progress of some of the other talented young karters who I seem to have been writing about for years now, as they take their first confident steps in a Formula Ford.
Liam Sceats was the first to catch my eye, courtesy of his P2 lap time in qualifying.
It was fellow KartSport Mt Wellington club members Hayden Bakker us and Sebastian Manson who shared race wins with Kyan Davie, however.
With commitments to Dr Jacob Simonsen (he of LeMons 24 Hr fame) and his BadThurst 12 Hour NaZCAR race fame, back up the road at Pukekohe Park Raceway, I had to reluctantly leave Hampton Downs mid-afternoon.
Again, while there was absolutely sign of any official Vaccine Pass checking at Mercer, there was at Pukekohe Park Raceway; the corollary of the fact that the SuperCity remains ‘in the red’ until Thursday December30.
Hampton Downs has however been operating under orange for some time now.
And the differences between the two are obvious.
Under red, for instance Dr Simonsen had to limit the number of people at the venue to just one hundred.
Hampton Downs had no such (recent and/or Covid-19) limit.
Despite the differences there was a really happy, party-kind-of town ‘vibe’ at both venues.
Long may it continue I say.
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