Large crowd enjoys racing

Chey McWilliam and Dallas Kelman (driver) let rip on their  sidecar at Beachlands Speedway on...
Chey McWilliam and Dallas Kelman (driver) let rip on their sidecar at Beachlands Speedway on Saturday night. Photo: Gregor Richardson.
Some fresh paint and the inclusion of a family-friendly zone have done wonders for Beachlands Speedway.

And it helped that the racing was "off the hook" as well.

The opening night at Beachlands Speedway on Saturday night saw a much larger crowd than normal flood into the venue, promoter Ricky Boulton said.

"I haven’t got the figures yet but people who have been there said they haven’t seen that many people at the speedway for five, six or seven years," he said.

"There had to have been two or three thousand there."

That was up from an average crowd of about 900 in previous years, he said.

"I put it down to focusing on a family-friendly zone. Families can bring along their own food and drinks and not have to buy it; that is huge.

"Families can usually afford the admission, so I think that was a big coup. Plus we’ve put a lot of work into the venue and the racing was second to none.

"Social media has been alight today with everyone going on about how fantastic it was. Racing was off the hook, they called it."

"The street stocks, stock cars, super saloons and sidechairs [sidecars] all put on a hell of a show."

The appearance of motorcycles was something different as well — they have been rarely sighted at the venue over  the years.

There was one dramatic accident during the evening’s racing when a sidechair competitor was flung from the bike.

Initially there were concerns the man may have fractured his pelvis, but he  had only severe bruising.

The next event is a teams derby on October 29 in which basically five Canterbury cars and five Otago cars will try to bash  each other to bits.

"They’re like mum and dad’s car with the windows kicked out and it is team against team.

"The crowd will have never seen anything like it in Otago because we’ve never had it."

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