Central Muscle Cars At Hamilton V8s

[Greg Stokes]

After watching the Central Muscle Cars race on TV on Saturday during the Hamilton Supercar coverage I passed a comment to my wife that it would be worth going just to see those cars run. Being the Supercar fan she is (along with muscle car, F5000 and Can Am racing) she jumped at my comment and that was enough for us to go. If I sound reluctant, its because I am, I just dont get excited about Supercars sitting on their limiters and not sounding any where near as bad ass as they should.
Long story short we went down on Sunday and got the cattle class tickets and undoubtedly it was money well spent to watch the Central Muscle Car race alone. Too cool for words! We left two laps into the the main Supercar race.

[screwdriver]

We watched on TV and I am not at all surprised! Not off topic at all and the sports/GT class was also interesting, though a massive differential between fastest and slowest. At least they were large grids. V8 Utes and NZ V8s promoted as 'premier classes' (sic) can't even fill a grid - which puts us back to the State of NZ Motorsport thread.

I don't know of anyone who doesn't enjoy the muscle cars.

[Greg Stokes]

On Sunday we watched the race at Turn 2 and it was impressive seeing those cars crossed up outa the corner and sounding like a V8 should. Very fun racing to watch and I bet its a total blast to be behind the wheel. And Shane Wigston - well what can one say about that car and his driving - just awesome. I WOULD go for the weekend if there were MORE of that type of racing.

[Steve Holmes]

Greg, do you mind if I change the name of this thread to "Central Muscle Cars At Hamilton V8s"? CMC is pretty borderline for this forum as its not really historic, but its OK if everyone here is happy to include it. But I don't want the discussions to get on to NZV8s, V8 Supercars, V8 Utes etc that all ran there too, otherwise we'll end up with a thread like that other one on here thats pretty well lost its way.

[Greg Stokes]

Greg, do you mind if I change the name of this thread to "Central Muscle Cars At Hamilton V8s"? CMC is pretty borderline for this forum as its not really historic, but its OK if everyone here is happy to include it. But I don't want the discussions to get on to NZV8s, V8 Supercars, V8 Utes etc that all ran there too, otherwise we'll end up with a thread like that other one on here thats pretty well lost its way.

Sure thing. I dont want it to loose track but highlight how cool the Muscle Car scene is from the CMC to Historic Muscle Car deal....

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Greg.

[Kiwiboss]

Room for everyone Greg and although its not a very level playing field, they are as you say, fantastic to watch, i was there saturday(only) on turn 3 and really enjoyed it and im sure most in the crowd did, i watch the last race on TV sunday afternoon and it was GREAT. I also found the GT1's OK and i was pretty happy with the supercar performance, what did impress me was the whole event timing, the stated program times were spot on everytime, very very well run.

PS: In a previous thread i said i wasn't going, but free corporate tickets changed that,(LOL guess i can be bought LOL)

Dale M

[Greg Stokes]

One thing I wondered (and I would like to be as constructive as possible here) is what is the attraction to getting masses to a supercar meeting and could those masses be interested enough to go to a Muscle Car and/or NZ Festival of Motor Racing meeting an such like. Like i say, I was at turn 2 for Sunday's race and the atmosphere in the crowd was incredible.

[PaulieG]

Give me CMC's, Historic Muscle, F5000, Hist. Single seaters and Sports cars, bring back SS2000 or shellsport and throw in toyota racing series and a Allcomers class and I'm there. I watched the muscle cars on the goggle box and the racing was fantastic.

[Parnelli]

Hi Greg, Excellent question and one which is the crux of a few of the threads on here. Hampton Downs, State of N Z Motorsport Going even Older etc ). I certainly don’t have the answers as to increasing patronage at Historic meetings but we have to take our hats off to the professional marketing of Supercars and importantly their longevity. Maybe they have continued to grow in strength world wide through sticking to the same basic specification of cars for all these years. Yes they have evolved and not necessarily in the direction that suits all of us but they have managed to build a following that started as true Ford against Holden production cars and the crowds that followed them because of that, thru to silhouette type cars that still have a Ford / Holden following but also a well developed following from corporate type people that enjoy going to big events. I guess what I am trying to say is that we have not had the opportunity to develop long term supporters of any given class because we have let our administration change the rules from year to year. No sooner does a class start developing , then the rules get changed from under them.

I believe that historic type meetings are a big part of the future but we need to take back control of our administration and develop a sustainable set of classes that can have a long term future to enable a similar supporters following to build. Oldfarts ideas of a group of around 6 or so classes that we can just keep building numbers on will lead to improved following in the future but its is going to take years of stability for this to happen. Can we all stop our infighting long enough to make this happen ?

[PhotoSmith]

I too only went on the Saturday & agree these guys ( & the GT1s ) where most interesting & spectacular to watch.

Attached photos from turn 3 (Roundabout) and last corner onto main straight.

[PhotoSmith]

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[PhotoSmith]

As a photographer i'm pleased this show is moving away from here, it's most spectator unfriendly
track i've ever been to. Hope it goes to HD.