What do you love about racing, and what is your favourite car?
I love the people and I love the competitiveness and I love the adrenaline of racing fast in a small car on a clay track — it gets your heart beating pretty fast. I love the technical side of it too.
I started out racing in saloon class nine years ago and have owned four cars over the years, racing in super saloons now.
My favourite car is the one I’ve got now — a Ford Mustang Hyper Mac. It’s big — 820 horsepower — and it’s fast.
What are your crowning achievements in speedway?
I’ve been South Island champion three times in saloons and had lots of other top-three placings. This season I haven’t raced much and have had my ups and downs, but I was first South Island car home in the New Zealand title, fourth in the New Zealand grand prix and second in one of the series in Nelson.I haven’t raced much at Cromwell this season; my motor blew up about a month ago and it’s in repair.
How does the Cromwell speedway track rate compared to others in the country?
I’d put it in the top three in New Zealand for preparation and condition of the track. Well, that’s my assessment of it, but I’ve been round a lot of tracks in New Zealand. The Cromwell club is a great club. It’s moving forward well and we get good crowds at the race meetings.
What are the biggest strengths of the speedway club?
We have a very big youth grade, in particular, and that’s getting stronger every year. It’s a very important part of our club and vital for the future. The youth go through a mentoring programme and that’s working very well.
We’re a volunteer club and have some good people in good positions helping the club and the district. It’s hard to gauge or even repay the hours that some people put in.
What does the future hold for Central Motor Speedway?
For the future, we want to just keep moving forward and strengthen the position of the club.
The speedway was developed by the late Ron Spriggs in 1980 to draw people to the town and bring some family entertainment to the district.
The council at the time was fully supportive of the idea as it wanted to bring people to the relocated Cromwell, and so it granted a long-term lease for the speedway on council land.
The lease runs until 2025 and we hope to negotiate its continuation after that with the Cromwell Community Board. We believe that early relationship, helping council bring people to the district, is significant, and we believe what we provide is important for the district.
