Man critical after speedway crash

A photographer is in hospital with critical injuries after he was hit by a stock car at Auckland’s Waikaraka Park Speedway last night.

A St John Ambulance spokeswoman said the man was taken to Auckland City Hospital. Paramedics had already been stationed at the Onehunga venue.

Waikaraka Park Speedway president Frank Irvine confirmed the incident involved a trackside photographer who had been ‘‘run over’’.

Police were last night carrying out a scene examination.

People out for the event were stunned: one witness commented on Facebook that it was ‘‘insane to see it happen’’.

Another said the photographer was ‘‘hit by an out of control superstock’’.

The first night of qualifying for the 2018 NZ SuperStocks champs was suspended following the accident.

Another witness wrote on Facebook that, following the accident, she had ‘‘never stood in a silence quite like it’’.

Well-wishes were last night pouring in for the photographer on social media as friends asked others to ‘‘please pray hard’’.

One well-wisher tweeted: ‘‘Everyone who believes in the power of prayer please pray for a marshal who has been hit at Waikaraka – something no one wants to see.’’

There have been spectator deaths at speedway meets over the years in New Zealand.

In 2016 Bruce Honore died in Cambridge when he was hit by an airborne motorbike which had cleared a metre-high fence while he and his wife were standing on a grass strip between two motocross tracks, watching their grandson race. In 2000, a 38-year-old man died at Western Springs, and in 1997 an 8-year-old girl was killed at Waikaraka when she was hit by a flying wheel.