Track surface a handicap

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32210, 31 January 1970, Page 9

Track surface a handicap

QTRENUOUS efforts have been made by the Christchurch Speedway Association in recent years to perfect the track at the Templeton Stadium and, although one can appreciate the considerable problems involved in finding a suitable surface to stand up to such a wide range of machinery, one has to sympathise with Christchurch’s leading speedcar drivers especially this season. The New Zealand championship is being held at Templeton on February 21, but at present the track is not proving suitable for midget car competition. Cars are unable to get sufficient traction and steering is also affected by the slick surface. In several recent races, eight cars have found great difficulty getting through the first comer without a pileup. One does not need a great imagination to foresee what might happen when 14 cars try to get through the bend in the national championship. As it is, the track surface is proving a great leveller.

The older cars are finding they can once again match the more sophisticated and expensive machinery of drivers such as E. Murray and R. T. Hall. This is fine from the spectator’s point of view, but is hardly fair on the drivers who have spent so much time and money developing their cars to a point where they can be favourably compared with professionally - built imported machinery. If

these men are not encouraged then they could be forgiven if they sold their cars and turned out in an old bomb worth a few hundred dollars. This would be a tragedy for the sport Perhaps a little less lime and some more clay and sand on the track would solve the problem. If nothing is done, there could be a miscarriage of justice in the forthcoming national championship.