IF you thought the weekend's drags at Hood Aerodrome were something special, watch out for the season finale in March. Masterton Motorplex this week confirmed that a jet car will run at that meeting, and events organiser Bob Wilton said there is no reason why the car won't reach 250mph. "There's plentyof length ? this is the longest track in New Zealand. In fact it's probably the longest strip the guy's ever raced on," said Wilton. The signing-up of the jet car is the latest development aimed at keeping the fans coming to Hood. Last weekend saw a couple of innovations which captured fans' imagination and brought thousands of petrolheads to the strip. Devoting Saturday to fours, sixes and rotaries was a success: in the past they've been mixed in with the V8s. And Saturday's night-time burnout competition on the widened launch pad, surrounded by stands, was a sensational success. "We had 1200 people come in just for that event, and that's not counting the ones who stayed on from the afternoon competition," said Wilton, "overwhelmed" at the burnout turnout. Part of the judging was based on spectator noise, and the local fans must have really raised the roof because locals took the top three places ? Johnathan Burkhart, in his Mazda RX3 winning from Pete Williams in a Ford Pilot truck and Bruce Osborne in the "COOL6" Torana GTR. The turnout of both cars and spectators on Saturday exceeded expectations, and there were "definitely more" fans on Sunday for what was a non-competition test and tune day for the V8s. The comp cars have their meeting at the end of the month, December 27/29, when around 150 big-bangers will rattle the town. The track looked leprous on Saturday, but that was just because the surface is being rebuilt. "The old surface was so thick it was peeling, so we scraped it off with a digger," said Wilton. They didn't apply the sticky VHT on Saturday because few cars were running slicks, but it was used on Sunday and the hot weather helped to cure it. Overall, Wilton could be happier with the event. "We tried to mix it up a little bit, and they (the fans) rewarded us by coming," he said.
