April started with three days of racing at Kaikohe.  The tents were set at the track with only a two minute walk to the track.  Friday mornign saw the cars pitted right beside the track ready to go.  With Ryan Barry the only driver to have already run the track Hayden Guptill, Nicholas Wells and Hayden Greenhaugh were gettign their first taste of Kiakohe dirt. 

Friday saw Nicholas and Hayden Greenhaugh get a quarter lap start with Hayden Guptill and Ryan having to chase them down.  Hayden Greenhaugh took a brief lead before Ryan then took over.  Hayden made a brave pass up the inside of Ryan to take the lead to be followed home by Ryan, Hayden Greenhaugh and Nicholas.  Race two saw a repeat of the results from race one.  Race three saw Ryan have a mechanical failure off the start and Hayden Guptill took the win followed by Hayden Greenhaugh and Nicholas.  Prizegiving on Friday night saw the pleasure that the kids get as they get their first result.  As Tony was reading out the results for the Quarter Midget roundup he announce third Ryan Barry, as Ryan was going up to get his trophy Hayden Greenhaugh turned to his dad and said with a huge smile on his face "does that mean I am second".  He then got up to collect his second place trophy with Hayden winning the first annual Quarter Midget Roundup at Kiakohe Speedway.  This trophy will be raced for on the Friday every year at Easter. 

Saturday saw the arrival of Morgan Mchugh to proceedings.  The top three were handicaped back half a lap for the rest of the weekend.  Nicholas and Hayden Greenhaugh took off showing an improvemnt in speed over every race.  Hayden Guptill crossed the line first but was relegated for a jumped start which saw Ryan take the win followed by Hayden Guptill, Morgan, Hayden Greenhaugh and Nicholas.  Race two saw Hayden Guptill take the win followed by Ryan, Morgan, Nicholas Wells and Hayden Greenhaugh.  This was the first time Nicholas had finished ahead of another car on the track.  Race three saw Hayden Guptill win again with Ryan battling handling problems coming in second again followed by Morgan, Hayden Greenhaugh and Nicholas.

With the sun shining bright it was off to Rosebank for the Kiwikidz quarter midgets.  A field of seven cars rocked up to do battle.  The day started a little bit different with the ambulance crew showing the kids how the back brace works in an accident situation.  A big thanks to Ryan Barry for letting himself be strapped into the backboard.

Time for racing arrived.  Mitch Watts made the most of his grid 2 start and took of to an early lead that he never gave up.  Behind him Ryan chased hard followed by Nathan Howard, Breyton Davison, Hayden Guptill, Morgan McHugh and Ben LeCren.  This race saw a couple of great passes towards the rear of the field.  It was a sign of things to come.

Race two saw Ben just like Mitch in the earlier race take a lead he never gave up.  All the action was happening behind him.  With Ryan spinning twice during this race it put him towards the back.  Breyton quickly moved up into second with Hayden pulling up into third.  Breyton was trying everything to pass Ben but had to be careful as Hayden was trying his best to pass him.  With Ryans second spin closing the field up the top six cars battled away so close you could have thrown a blanket over them.  Ben held on from Breyton, Hayden, Nathan, Ryan, Morgan and Mitch.  The closeness of the days racing was shown in that the tip six cars were seperated by two points after two races.  In all my years of watching quarters this was one of the best races I have seen.

Race three saw the application of water and this saw the race become a bit of follow the leader with Hayden breaking the trend and winning from grid one not grid two.  He was followed home by a fast finsihing Nathan then Breyton, Ryan, Mitch, Ben and Morgan.  The completion of this race again showed how close the racing was with Hayden, Nathan and Breyton all tied for top points.  Hayden proceeded to draw the fastest off the back marble. 

The feature saw Ben take and early lead that he proceeded to extend as the race went on.  All the action happened behind him with Hayden making a beautiful pass raound the outside to get himself up into third.  With the wet track causing a big use of tearoffs and when Hayden run out and made a mistake Nathan was very quick to jump up into third.  Ben won the race followed by Ryan, Nathan, Hayden, Morgan, Breyton and Mitch who run out of tearoffs early in the race. 

A game of rugby amongst the kids completed a great day of racing and friendship which will be next continued at Easter with a long awaited return to the Kaikohe Easter Stampede.

Driving through the rain on the way to Waharoa visions of the last attempt at club champs on our way home from Rotorua was fresh in our minds.  As we drove closer to the track conditions improved and we were ready for another exciting days racing.  Hayden Greenhalgh was debuting the 69 car in his first full race meeting.  He was joined by Hayden Guptill, Nathan Howard, Ryan Barry, Nicholas Wells and Ben LeCren making his first appearance at Waharoa this season. 

With the draw done and the boys reminded that their were two cars now with yellow ribbons to be aware of it was out onto the track for race one.  Hayden Greenhalgh had a bad start to his first race with the car not running.  Ryan took good advatage of his pole position with Hayden making a well timed dive from grid three to put himself into second on the first corner.   This chase went on for a coule of laps until they settled into their positions.  Meanwhile behind them a great battle was going on between Nathan and Ben that lasted the whole race.  Ryan took out the opening win followed by Hayden Guptill, Ben, Nathan and Nicholas.