Dave Mollard’s Change is Constant: Let’s replace Wellington Anniversary holiday with Stockcar Day

Stockcar Day would reflect Palmy's unique culture, values, and history. Photo / Kenley Brown

OPINION:

I got on my soapbox a year ago and railed against us celebrating Wellington Anniversary Day. My issues were threefold.

Firstly, we are not Wellington and secondly, why have another holiday when many of us are either still on holiday or just returned from one?

Thirdly, January weather is still unsettled, and we are likely to spend the extra day playing Monopoly with the whānau while it rains.

Even with the support of my massive readership, my crusade did not generate much momentum, in fact, it’s still in the development stage. Like everything else that has been delayed, I blame it on the pandemic.

This year I’m armed with one more year’s wisdom, a better thesaurus, and a plan!

You see, it’s not so much about taking the Wellington Anniversary holiday away, but giving us a new holiday to take its place. A holiday that reflects our unique culture, our values, and our history. A day that becomes sacred to all those that live in our awa’s catchment beneath the Ruahine and Tararua mountains, a day that invokes the true spirit of our rohe. It will be a flexible day moving in and around another sacred day where we remember our treaty, we will call it Stockcar Day!

Regular readers will be aware of my passion for our speedway, it’s one of the few things we do better than anyone else in the motu. Each February, worshippers of the petrol-powered gods in their demolition machines pilgrimage to Palmerston North to watch their favourite titans battle it out to be the first car across the line in the grand final of the New Zealand Superstock Teams Champs.

If their team does not make the final, they support any team racing against the legendary Palmerston Panthers. They take over our city, buying shoes, fish burgers, and Woodstock RTDs. Our motels are full, our retailers’ tills are jam-packed and our arena dusts off the sold-out sign.

If we can slot Stockcar Day in an appropriate place sitting beside Waitangi Day, we would be in line for the never before seen nirvana, a four-day weekend in the best weather of the year! We could even Airbnb our whare to the petrolhead pilgrims to pay for the pies for our drive to Pukawa! As a bonus, Waitangi Day falls on a Wednesday in 2030, so we have plenty of time to save up one day’s annual leave and make it a five-day weekend!

I promoted this idea to one of our city councillors late last year. Their response was it would take a change to an act of Parliament to create this four-day summer bliss! So once you are all on board this train we will be taking the Capital Connection to the Beehive to throw down the shackles of Wellington and demand our own public holiday!

• Dave Mollard is a Palmerston North community worker and social commentator.