Dave Mollard's Change is Constant: Palmy institution that is constantly the best in motu

Stockcars are now outside the reach of many working-class heroes, but the racing is better. Photo / Square Photography

OPINION:

I still remember it like it was last month. I was 8 and my parents took us to the stockcars for the first time.

The noise, the smells, the crashes and the hot dogs. Dave Evans in the Tank creating havoc with his front bumper, Peter Sloman going around the outside in his Super Saloon, the solos pulling wheelies down the back straight and the last driver moving in the demolition derbies.

I'm 50 now and I still go most Saturday nights to watch my favourite drivers as they turn right to go left on the clay track.

Like almost everything in life, speedway has changed, it is both better and worse, the taste of the hot dogs has not changed but the price has!

The stockcars used to be relatable. Brave men would buy an old V8 car, pull it apart and drop the donor car's motor, gearbox and running gear into the chassis they had welded up in the garage, then load it on to a borrowed trailer and tow it to the track with their Ford Falcon.

Now, $100,000 trucks pull up and unload $100,000 race cars to race around the same 400 metres of dirt that just a generation ago $400 cars were winning chequered flags.

Sure stockcars are now outside the reach of many working-class heroes, but the racing is better. Ten years ago there were perhaps three or four drivers you knew would win the race even before the green flag was dropped, now we get to see 20-plus cars on the track that are all so fast the biggest factor to being first at the end is luck.

There are not as many crashes but when they do the speeds they are now racing at means the hits are much harder than ever before.

I appreciate many of the Manawatū Guardian's readers are not speedway fans, but I wanted to honour a Palmy institution that is constantly the best in the entire motu.

Our city and our region are good at many things. Our distribution centres, our women's rugby team, canoe polo, our historically positive relationships with mana whenua, our wind turbines, our military and our university are all elements we should be proud of, but it's only stockcar racing where we consistently are the best in the nation.

Every year in early February the greatest annual sports pilgrimage in Aotearoa happens and our city is the Church of Nativity, the Mecca, the Kumbh Mela for Kiwi petrolheads.

Some 15,000 whānau from Invercargill to Whangaārei pack up the Holden and head to the Arena. They book out our hotels, motels, B&Bs and campgrounds, they spend money in our cafes, bars and hotdog stands, and The Plaza is packed with bargain hunters enjoying the air conditioning.

They come to see their team put their cars and bodies on the line to try and beat the hated hometown heroes, the Palmerston North Panthers.

The Superstock Teams Champs have been held 40 times and the drivers in the Palmerston North Panthers cars have lifted the trophy on 18 occasions, the next closest is four! In fact, the Panthers have historically won 79 per cent of every race they have planted the accelerator pedal in.

This historical dominance combined with the vast majority of spectators coming from out of town means the Panthers are public enemy number 1, even in their own rohe. At least half the crowd is roaring "Hit the P", encouraging all other drivers to try and put the cars with the track ID P up the wall and on their roofs.

So next time you hear the roar of the race-fuel-injected V8 engines drift across the city on a hot summer night, be proud this is one of the few things we are actually the very best at, and besides the speedway has been here longer than you and the last race will finish before 11!

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