Patetonga speedway revs up drivers

It’s a muddy affair in Patetonga as petrol heads flock to the latest motoring attraction, a test-and-tune speedway track.
Ten years of “hard yakka” has paid off for local farmer, Dayne Plummer, who now has a place to test and tune cars after a frustrating 40 years of dreaming of somewhere to test them before race day.

“I was always frustrated that you had to go out into competition without ever having anywhere that you could tune your car up and make sure that everything was going right – it’s quite embarrassing if you go out there and something goes wrong.”
The clay track, made from quarry strippings, is located on the Plummer family farm on Waikaka Road and opened in February 2010. It has since attracted drivers from all over to train, test, and tune cars.
“There seems to be a need as they come from far and wide to use the track.
“We had a guy in Napier and his son had a small car and wanted to know if he could go up to a faster car but didn’t want to buy him a car till he saw how he went; our track allowed him to do that,” said Plummer.
With nowhere else for drivers to practice, Patetonga test-and-tune speedway is a unique track which allows teams to spend hours perfecting car set ups says Plummer.
“They get all day, not just eight minutes for a round; they come from 10 till four and get six hours to test and tune.”
Teams often come to the track for a sponsor’s day where they let crews have a turn in the cars; something they are unable to do anywhere else.
“I had one guy who was in his 50s he was walking up and down the fence and then he came to me late in the day and said ‘They are going to give me a drive. I’ve been on the crew for 20 years and I’ve never had a drive.’
“It’s a place where they can all come and have a family day, even their wives can have a run around the track to see what it’s like,” said Plummer.
Since opening last year, a number of successful events have been held with kids turning out during an open day to take part in activities such as fishing for eels in the nearby pond, Paint Ball and even having a turn on the track.
“We got all the kids who wanted to, to bring their quads or little motorbikes and they just got to rip around the track for hours,” said track organiser, Samantha Pearce.
“We actually watched some children come from Auckland and they were throwing stones in the pond, they had never had the opportunity to do that so we put a fibre glass duck in the middle of the pond and they threw stones at it,” said Plummer.
Getting the kids off the couch and into the sport is a big deal for Plummer as he hopes to provide a place for them to let off steam safely.
“Young guys have got to have somewhere to go and let off steam, it’s all very well shaking the finger at them – now they have to have somewhere to let off energy.”
With all the proper safety restrictions in place, the fast track is allowing drivers to test their ability to drive at speeds up to 150km/h, or in some cases just the chance to try out the sport through training classes.
Former New Zealand midget champ, Bryce Townsend runs training sessions at the track for people who want to get into speedway and supplies a package for the day which includes the car, overalls and knowledge.
“Anyone can come down and pay him a fee and he will supply everything, so anyone, before they commit to spending a lot of money on something, they can see if they have the natural ability,” says Plummer.