Paradise Valley Speedway has been named Speedway of the Year - Private or Professionally Promoted for the second year running. Photo / Sportsweb Photography
Paradise Valley Speedway has been named Speedway of the Year - Private or Professionally Promoted for the second year running. Photo / Sportsweb Photography
Paradise Valley Speedway has proven it is no one-hit wonder.
The club has once again cleaned up at the New Zealand Speedway Awards, claiming both the Speedway of the Year - Private or Professionally Promoted and Promotional Event of the Year, the TWS World 240s, for the second year running.
As well as those awards, Paul Hickey won Promotional Item of the Year for his Speedway Collectors Cards series, Graham Hughes won Written Article of the Year for his write-up on the TWS World 240s and club stalwart Mike King claimed Competitor of the Year - Streetstock.
Secretary Sonja Hickey was speechless when the club won the Speedway of the Year and Promotional Event of the Year the first time and said the second was just as special because it showed they had not rested on last year's success.
"To repeat it this year, among all the big boys, I was blown away. It was a virtual ceremony this year so I was sitting there looking at the computer and I couldn't believe it.
"It shows we've advanced upon last year. Last year was good but we've done a lot again this year and our membership increased from 168 to 188, including a lot more youth. It's good to have those young kids coming through, being there with their parents and learning to drive, it's really cool."
Paradise Valley Speedway's Mike King was named Competitor of the Year - Streetstock. Photo / Sportsweb Photography
Hickey said the awards were credit to the entire Paradise Valley Speedway team, from the drivers to the volunteers.
"We have got a really good team here in Rotorua, they're obviously the best in the country. We're so blessed with having such a great bunch of people running the show, it's just amazing.
"Everyone who calls Paradise Valley Speedway their track is part of an amazing team of people."
The Hits presenter Paul Hickey, who is heavily involved with the speedway, said his wife Katie Hickey runs the merchandise stand and they were always looking for different promotional items.
"Obviously, from a sporting perspective, I used to collect trading cards when I was younger - the old NRL ones, WWF wrestling, that kind of stuff.
"So I thought that was something we could do with speedway. I actually did the first series probably 10 years ago, this is the fourth series we've done, and it's just something different for speedway fans to get into."
The Hits announcer Paul Hickey with his Speedway trading cards which won Promotional Item of the Year at the New Zealand Speedway Awards. Photo / Andrew Warner
The 26-card series features speedway drivers from all over New Zealand.
"This current set features all the drivers from the last five years that have been on the podium at a major superstock championship event.
"It works like the old trading cards, you pay $2 for five cards, you don't know which cards are in there and you try to get the full set of 26. We started these just before Christmas and sold thousands of packs.
"At the tracks, people organise swap meets to try to make up the whole set. There was one local driver this year, Bryce Steiner who won the World 240 Superstocks a few years ago."
