Start your engines!
It all happens on the 22 October, when the Stratford A&P show grounds will come alive with multiple sights, sounds and smells to tempt your senses. The aroma of freshly cooked hot dogs and chips will waft through the air, mixing occasionally with race car fumes and freshly brewed coffees whilst drivers and their crews tinker with race cars that have been freshly rebuilt or built in sheds around Taranaki over the cold and wet winter months, and this is before racing even starts!
Once the clock hand settles on 6pm and the first race cars roll out the gate, the new season at MG Taranaki Stratford Speedway will be underway. It’s an earlier start to the season than usual, the Taranaki Stockcar Club not normally starting racing until the last weekend of October but after Covid disrupted last seasons racing, the club are gambling with the weather and getting ready to race a week earlier to allow a few more race events to be squeezed in over the summer months.
The R&R Mechanical opening night on Saturday October 22nd is set to provide plenty of thrills and spills with Superstocks, Modifieds, Saloons and Youth Ministocks all scheduled to contest their City of New Plymouth Classic events before the Naki Nitro Demolition Derby at the end of the program will ensure plenty of crashing, bashing and carnage, the first time this scribe can recall a derby being run this early in the season.
Once opening night has been and gone, there will be events throughout the summer months to keep fans excited. Five National Titles will be held at the Stratford Track - The Uhlenberg Haulage North Island Superstock Championship and the Sentry Hill Motel North Island Stockcar Championship will delight fans of the Stockcar classes while the Signright New Zealand Midget Championship, the Kuriger Engineering North Island Minisprint Championship and the New Zealand Minisprint Grand Prix will satisfy the cravings of the open wheel fans. But it’s not all about National Titles. There is the Under 23 Stockcar Champs, 26 and
Under Superstock Champ, the Dairymaster West Coast Stockcar Teams Champs, Demolition Derbies, Taranaki Champs and numerous other events to be run throughout the season and let’s not forget the always wonderful Hinton Contracting Fireworks Spectacular that this season will be held on Saturday November 5th. There are nineteen race nights planned at MG Taranaki Stratford Speedway from October to April with something for everyone.
Why not come along and support the drivers, experience the sights and sounds and just have a great family night out? You can check out the MG Taranaki Stratford Speedway Calendar at www.stratford-speedway.co.nz