MEDIA RELEASES KAIKOHE SPEEDWAY  RACE SEASON 2007 -2008

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Northern News  clipping 21st May 2008 - courtesy John Brunt

http://www.northnz.co.nz/sports.php?news_id=1422

The Transformers of Springbank: Turning scrap metal into fast cars

 

Kaikohe Speedway racer Shirley Andresen talks to the students of Springbank School.

Ten Springbank School students are planning on transforming two lumps of scrap metal into mean, lean speedway machines as part of their entry in this year's BP Community Enterprise Project (CEP).
Springbank School teacher Michelle Chapman, who has had remarkable success in previous CEPs, was getting all 25 students in her Year 9 class (aged around 13-years-old) ready to take on five challenging new projects this year.
Two of Michelle's five groups will turn two ex-police impound cars - destined for the crusher - into C-grade machines ready to race on Kaikohe Speedway.
The cars were donated by Tony and Debbie Taylor of Mid North Vehicle Recovery. Michelle, who came to an arrangement with the pair, part of the non profit organisation, the Kaikohe Car Club (KCC), said the project was true to the spirit of the Community Enterprise Project, and also - just as importantly - introduced her students to the sport of speedway.
"The purpose is to give youth who maybe thinking of taking up a sport the opportunity to become involved," said Michelle, noting the students involved were "very enthusiastic" about becoming racing car designer and engineers.
The collaboration came about from a chance meeting between Michelle and Debbie and Tony in a local cafe. The teacher realised the trio shared common ground when they told her they intended to make Kaikohe Speedway the best of its kind in New Zealand.
The Taylors, daughter Michaela and fellow speedway enthusiast Shirley Andresen recently took three cars to the school to show the students the type of specs necessary for a speedway racing vehicle.
Among the special safety features they drew the students' attention to was the inclusion of roll cages, five point harnesses, steel backed race seats, fuel cells situated in the boots, and the removal of all sharp and inflammable objects from the vehicle (i.e. windows, mirrors, linings etc).
Debbie and Tony - whose  business involves vehicle recovery and breakdown work and includes the contract for towing and storing impounded vehicles - kept two recent seizures from the scrapheap to give to the school for the project. Debbie laughed as she said "It's like turning bad into good".
One of the cars is a Honda Accord - which will be transformed by the team of Abbi Robinson, Amy Greenwood, Zoe Taylor, Netana Wycliffe and Stephanie George - and the other is a Mazda Famillia - to be adapted for the race track by James Quinn, Max Lott, Jared Jordan and Bryce Hill.
Once the students return from holidays, they will read up on the rules and regulations (supplied from the Kaikohe Car Club website) as they need to understand, prepare a job sheet for the project, pick up their cars, find sheds where the preparation and mechanical work can be completed, and organise their own funding for the project; Michelle noting plenty of local firms had already come forward with offers of help.
Once the cars have been built to C-grade racing specs, they will be delivered to the Kaikohe Car Club for use by junior drivers, and also those that are maybe interested in joining and would like to just have a go to see if they like it. Debbie and everyone else at the Kaikohe Car Club believed the project was an exciting and radical initiative.
"The cars will belong to the track and be used for youth to come along and learn to driver in a safe environment plus have fun and healthy competition along the way," she noted, adding this was the first time anything like this had been done in New Zealand.
Meanwhile, back at school, another project taken on by one of Michelle's industrious groups will be the building of a landing pad for the rescue helicopter; other ideas being investigated as projects for the remaining two groups include the construction of a paintball course and mountain bike track.
Michelle said the different aspects of the CEP challenge empowered students by requiring them to become problem solvers, fund raisers and decision makers, as well as learning entrepreneurial skills and how to write - and follow up - a business plan.
She welcomed any ideas from the wider Far North community as to projects the students could become involved with.
"The sky is the limit," she said.

Contact details for offers of help or future ideas, Springbank School, phone (09)407-5236 or email michelle.chapman@springbank.school.nz

 

 Northland Age March 31st 2008 (click this link)  http://www.northnz.co.nz/sports.php?news_id=1308

 

Northern Advocate 24th March 08 (click this link) http://www.northernadvocate.co.nz/localnews/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3767525&thesection=localnews&thesubsection=

 

 

NORTHLAND AGE 8th February 2008

https://secure.dataview.co.nz/users/northlan/northnz.co.nz/htdocs/sports.php?news_id=1098

BLACK METAL: Taipa Stock and Saloon Car driver Roy Peel competed in the NBC champs at Kaikohe last weekend.

Highlights and results from the 1st round of NBC racing at Kaikohe. Kaikohe hosted the first round of the 2007/08 Northland ITM NBC (Northland Board of Control) speedway championships on Saturday, January 5.
The NBC was re-animated by Kaikohe two seasons ago to promote interaction between the four Northland speedway clubs Whangarei, Dargaville, Kaikohe and Taipa.
Fifty drivers registered for this event and both spectators and drivers were not disappointed with some great fast and close racing, with all drivers in each of the classes competing for individual Northland titles in limiteds, production men and women, B grade, C grade men and women, super saloons, and stock cars divisions.
The following is a review of the day's racing at Kaikohe with various highlights singled out by club reporter, and production class driver Debbie Beadle.
The limited saloon racing featured one women driver Anita Sloot (4), but it was Shane Hannam (car No.23), Mike Foster (34) and Keith Wilson (91) who shared the chequered flag.
Debbie Beadle noted these guys flew around the track leaving little room for error and said there was not much distance between the first place getter and the last.
The production men's class featured the largest fields competing in the champs. The first round saw Robin Greaves (82) and Alex Harvey (8) hot on the heels of Tony Taylor (101) as he crossed the finish line.
"These guys showed us how close drivers could get to each other as they rounded the track," noted Debbie. Round two saw Rex Roycroft (8d) take the chequered flag, with Tony, Bruce, and Robin waiting for a chance to move forward in the grid. Steve Hannon appeared to be having trouble (31)but was back for the final round after a quick welding repair, only to strip his gear box.
Dion Irvine (7) also seemed to be having trouble, "or maybe he decided it would be quicker to come around the corners on two wheels," commentated Debbie.
In the C grade ladies, Kaikohe club president Wendy Scott(50k) and Whangarei driver Chloe Blacklock (124) were dominating for first position, however Chloe's day came to an end when the engine blew in her Toyota Levin, leaving a trail of black smoke around the track. Jamie-Lee Aukett (37k) was another racer leaving nothing to chance by making saw she was as close as possible to the top place getters.
Onwards and into the Super Saloons, and once again there was plenty of great, fast racing keeping everyone on the edge of their seats, not least the drivers. Cordell Armstrong (69),Dan Oliver (68), Shane Hick (4) and Ray Jordan (97) swapped for the major positions.
The stockcars featured the smallest field of the day, with a large number of the drivers having suffered damage the weekend before at the Taipa two day New Year's meet. Roy Peel (555), Martin Lorenz (200) and Gary Miles (19k) put on a great show of driving and all stockcar drivers are expected to be back on board for the next round.
As the day went on there was a drop in some of the fields as mechanical problems plagued the racers. Max Andresen (58)suffered a bent axle, George Price (100k) had ignition problems,Martin Lorenz (stockcar 200) seemed to be collecting all the clay from the track as his engine's bottom end dropped down, while Steven Hannon (31) had gear box problems. Others, however, ended up even worse off. Anthony Hoyle (222) from Dargaville collided with the spectator wall, Dion Irvine tried to go around the cemetery bend on two wheels but failed, Chris White (95d) did a spectacular roll in the second lap, and Chloe Blacklock (124) ended up with smoke bellowing from her Toyota after she blew its engine. This ended the racing for Chloe, Anthony and Chris for the day,Debbie noting the trio now have a lot of work to do before February 2, when the second leg of the NBC is scheduled in Whangarei.
The overall placings from Round One of the Northland
ITM NBC were as follows. Limiteds - Keith Wilson (91a) 1,Dan Oliver (68) 2, Shane Hannam (23) 3, Mike Foster (34) 4,Kyle Webster (13) 5, Peter Blacklock (144) 6, Anthony Dale(44) 7, Anita Sloot (4) 8, John Bates (99) 9.Production men - Tony Taylor (101k) 1, Robin Greaves (82)2, Bruce Mallindine (49) 3, Rex Roycroft (8d) 4, Alex Harvey(5) 5, Deon Irvine (7) 6, Anthony Hoyle (222) 7, George Price (100K) 8, Steve Hannan (31) 9.C grade ladies - Wendy Scott (50) 1, Jaimee Lee Aukett(37) 2, Chloe Blacklock (124) 3, Olivia Blacklock (24) 4,Sheryl deWaal (8) 5.Supers men - Cordell Armstrong (69) 1, Dan Oliver (68) 2,Ray Jordan (97) 3, Shane Hick (4) 4, Max Andresen (58) 5.B Grade men - Stu Hutton (43) 1, Jesse Stoney (74) 2, Neil Roycroft (8) 3, Karl Sturmfel (40) 4. Stockcars - Roy Peel(555) 1, Gary Miles (19k) 2, Martin Lorenz (200) 3.C grade men -Craig deWaal (8) 1, Kyle Simpson (77) 2,Myles Greenwood (80) 3; Dave Cortesi (23) 4, Anthony Thomas (71) 5, 19k Gary Miles (19k) 6, Steve Peers (50) 7,Chris White (3) 8. Production women - Hine Thompson (49) 1, 82 Stephanie Greaves (82) 2, Anita Sloot (4w) 3, Didi Munchaster Wright(8d) 4, Debbie Beadle Taylor (101) 5, Shirley Andresen (89)6.
This round of the NBC replaced the original leg at Whangarei on December 8 which was rained off. The three other remaining dates are all Saturdays and they are: Whangarei on February 2, Dargaville on February 16, and Taipa on March 8.
The Kaikohe Speedway thanked the sponsors for both domestic and NBC events, and advised updates, reports and photos can be checked out the club's webpage:
www.kaikohecarclub.com.
The next race day at Kaikohe Speedway is Sunday, January 20, featuring the production men and B grade cups. For more information on Kaikohe Speedway, contact Debbie BeadleTaylor, phone (09)401-1886

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http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/9/story.cfm?c_id=9&objectid=10490558&ref=rss

http://nz.news.yahoo.com/080206/3/3v8l.html

http://news.google.co.nz/news?hl=en&q=whangarei+speedway+&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=news_result&resnum=4&ct=title

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Northland Age..........

TV surfers take on Kaikohe Speedway

Thursday, January 24, 2008

 

THE WILD BUNCH: Kaikohe Speedway racers with the TV crew from Hikoi Mahanga, from left: Geordie Inglis, Max Andresen, Anthony Dale, Rhys Andresen, Shirley Andresen, Tony Taylor, George Price, TK Wano, Dave Cortesi, Margaret Andresen, Matt Sumich, Whare Wano, Colleen Brennan and Richard Curtis. Photo Beadle/Taylor Studios.

The Kaikohe Car Club was contacted late in the afternoon last Friday by the Toa TV film crew were travelling around Northland filming for  a new series of Hikoi Mahanga, a popular sports and lifestyle-orientated show to screen on Maori TV later this year.
The angle for the show is about the adventures of two surfers, twins Te Kauhoe 'TK' Wano and Wharehoka 'Whare' Wano, travelling around New Zealand looking for surf.
The crew were filming in Opononi on route to Whangarei when they decided to contact the Kaikohe Car Club Inc. management committee and ask if there was anyway they could come and visit the famous Kaikohe Speedway, home of the internationally renowned Kaikohe Demolition (courtesy of Florian Habicht's acclaimed documentary of the same title).
Kaikohe speedway reporter Debbie Beadle Taylor said there was no problem, "Of course we had to oblige...," and got onto the jungle drums to round up the local drivers for a bit of free promotion for the Far North club.
"The management committee of the Kaikohe car club recognised the film crew as good PR and promotion for our club, and dirt track racing in New Zealand in general," noted Debbie.
Tony Taylor let TK drive his car (101k) and Shirley Andresen let Whare out in (89k) for a couple of rounds, although the twins were told to stay away from the concrete walls or they would be fixing them.
"Both guys looked a little nervous as we sent them out on the track," said Debbie, "but they were buzzing when they came in."
A couple of mock but semi-serious races were organised and the cameraman man was sent out with Rhys Andresen 17K in a short race. Uncle Dave Cortesi played the part allocated and had a great time promoting the club. Debbie thanked Kaikohe Speedway members Tony, Max, Shirley, Rhys, George, Geordie, Anthony, Dave, and herself, for making the effort to get water on the track and cars on the track.
"This was very short notice, we all had great fun and look forward to seeing the series when it screens. TOA TV will be letting us know closer to the time."
It was the second time a film crew had been to Kaikohe Speedway in the new year. On January 5, Papango Media was filming and out with Rex Roycroft (8d) and Robin Grieves (82wr) during the NBC champs. Papango TV were working on a Northland promotional video and the club also hopes to see this footage in the near future.
In upcoming news, the club's most recent race meet on Sunday, January 20 was cancelled as the tropical cyclone Funa hit Northland. The club's next meet will be its club day champs on February 10.
The club also reminded Far North racers that the second round of the 2007/08 NBC (Northland Board of Control) speedway champs will be held on Saturday, February 2, at Whangarei Speedway.
 Check out the website for racing updates for Far North stock and saloon car racing,
www.kaikohecarclub.com. Alternatively, contact Debbie Beadle-Taylor, phone (09)401-1886, or (021)277-7301.