Whangarei Speedway demolition derby helps charity

Charity was the winner in the Whangarei Speedway demolition derby, despite the Canteen car being left stranded without gears in the middle of the track.
Eventual winner Brad Moggridge, driving a Nissen Skyline, had already decided what to with his winnings if he managed to pull off a second successive derby win.
"The prize money was $800 and I'll donate half of that to Breast Cancer Research, which is a charity of the Holiday Parks Association, my own pet charity," he said.
Moggridge is becoming used to winning demolition derbies after his Skyline was the last car standing - or in this case the last car moving - at the Port Road track on Saturday.
It was the second race he has won in the Skyline after towing a caravan to victory in the Waikaraka Park Speedway caravan demo derby in Onehunga last year.
"It's the fifth derby I've won now. I did quite a few in Australia before I moved over here seven years ago," Moggridge said.
After winning the Waikaraka race, the car had been sitting in the garage ever since.
Although it is now a mess of panel damage and has been consigned to scrap, it did the job on Saturday.
"This car's already been in a derby and lost its waters, so it's got hot before and so I wanted to finish it off in style.
"I stalled it a couple of times but managed to get it going again and I survived the last couple of hits to win," he said.
Moggridge, whose family owns the Alpha Holiday Park in Tarewa Rd, said there wasn't too much strategy involved in the win. "The six-cylinder cars tend to hold their heat quite well and can run without water for a while but there's a whole lot of reasons that cars stop, it's really the luck of the draw. You can be well prepared but there's always something you haven't prepared for," he said.
Moggridge took his dad to a demolition derby on Fathers' Day when he was about 10 and caught the demo-derby bug.
"I decided then it was something I wanted to get into. I didn't do my first one for another 10 years or so but it's one of those things, once you start you can't stop," he said. He'll now be on the lookout for a new car to introduce to the scrap heap - via a demolition derby - and said selection of a car is usually a spur-of-the-moment thing.
"Generally, I'm always on the lookout for something different, something no one has ever done before and if I can't find one then I've always got a few others sitting in the backyard as well," he said.
Although he would prefer to have more, even Moggridge knows there are limits.
"We own the a holiday park so, unfortunately, I can't have too many lying around," he said.