Crash, smash and bash action at Stock Car GP

WHAT’S crashing onto the track at Kihikihi Speedway on Friday night? It’s the New Zealand Stockcar Grand Prix, one of four national-level titles on the circuit.

The GP is the Ranfurly Shield of stock car racing, and Te Kūiti’s team, Smith Boys Racing, will be right there.

“It’s a hell of a rush,” said Jason Smith, father of the clan, who will himself be competing, when King Country News caught up with him and team mechanic John Knowles.

The Smiths did not expect to win – their best engine was out of their car, being worked on, and there was a standard version in its place.

Despite that, they fully intend to support the rest of their Kihikihi club and have a blast.

Having said that, “We’ll certainly be giving it everything we’ve got.”

Their favourite thing about the sport was its no-holds-barred quality.

“It reminds you of the Roman chariot races,” Jason said.

Team mechanic John agreed: “Last man standing.”

Jason said he also liked the friendly rivalry.

The Smiths hoped a Kihikihi club car would win the GP this year, because it was on home turf – and there was “a lot of pride” in defending the title there.

“You don’t want a car from Auckland winning it.”

Jason said it was important for him to create opportunities for his kids in motorsport ... the most successful of them being 13-year-old Caleb Smith, who is New Zealand number one in his age group.

Stock car racing is a family sport. Jason said his mum did the team’s organisation and kept the food coming, while 23-year-old daughter Angel was just starting to race herself, competing in her first women’s event in Matamata this weekend. His other son also raced.

“We all love doing it.”

An audience of 3000 people is expected at the GP.

“A spectacular night of thrill-seeking, adrenaline-pumping, motorsport,” is how the organisers describe it.

This weekend would be more than three times bigger than most stock car nights at Kihikihi, with 107 cars on the track overall, McDonalds Kihikihi Speedway Club president Russel Hayes said.

Around 20 drivers from the local club will compete, with others travelling from elsewhere in the North Island.

Usually, a few competitors would sail over from the South Island, Russel said, but the recent ferry issues had made that near impossible, and this year there would be none.

“The boats have just been a nightmare.”

The racing action will take place over two nights, with a qualifier on Friday and finals, the feature event, on Saturday.

There will also be other competitions including “mini stocks”: an event for drivers aged 12-16 on the Friday night.

The Grand Prix is one of four big events in the stock car scene, according to Russel. The others are the New Zealand championships and the North and South Island championships.

The journey to a locally hosted stock car grand prix had been five years in the making: with “many hoops to jump through,” for the Kihikihi speedway.

“It’s quite a complicated process. You have to have so many cars registered and you have to run them so many times a year.”

Stock car 101? This version of motorsport is a full-contact event: car racing on steroids.

“They [the drivers] can crash into each other and take out fellow competitors,” Russel explained. “They can also help others get ahead.”

Although not technically a team sport, in practice drivers do cooperate to help other cars get ahead – or hold them back, Russel said.

Jason, the Te Kūiti driver, said much the same thing.

“A lot of it comes down to being able to help out your mates ... you make sure you try and keep up with them and make sure that the other cars don’t take them out. There’s a little bit of strategicness about it.”

Kihikihi speedway has been operating since 1954.

It’s a big event for the Ward St family, who were badly affected by the recent flooding in Te Kūiti.