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Just thought I'needed a break from that Gateway track and share these pics with you. Many of you will not know that we do not race LM's here in New Zealand and every so often a visitor from the USA comes and challenges our boys and I remember being at Waikaraka Park and seeing there in 1974 I think Gene Welch in his Pontiac Firebird what a great sight seeing this thing with big wide Tires on Fab!!! In 2016 December of that year we had a Super Saloon series with Bobby Pierce visting us to race at 3 venues the first at Palmerston North the second at Meeanee which I have shared with you so get your DL if you missed it and although he looked forward to this particular track it rained out sadly so the next night he raced his final night here at WPark which by the way is coming just held up for a wee bit. He ran the wheels off of his borrowed Super Saloon litterally which could only happen on a track like PNth so enjoy the shots I saved off the You Tube video and you can always go hunting for the BK Series yourself and enjoy the thrilling race only Borry could give. A really cool driver.






He was running 3rd at this point with only about 6-8 laps left and yes he won!!! He really loved the Super Saloon.
He drove the wheels off of it.!!!!

Gene Welch I believe was the first American racer in Saloon class to visit us in NZ there maybe have been Midget racers like Sleepy Trip etc but he did love coming here and raced 4 years straight and I may have seen him as early as 1972 but would have been when he came to Gisborne Speedway over the Christmas holidays when we were visiting too and just seeing his race car on the trailer outside the campground just made me and my Brothers want to visit our local speedway track when we got back home to Auckland being of course Waikaraka Park and we watched him there racing his Pontiac Firebird pics incl. Billy Clarkson came out too along with Tony Valente and his Monza who actually visited Rotorua Paradise Valley Raceway which is now my home town track incl news advert for race plus Jim Hopkinson in a Monza too incl Forest Lake Stadium in Hamilton NZ. Thought they might jog some memories those that knew atleast Gene Welch of Sacramento and couls still be alive was diagnosed with sadly Brain Cancer back in 2015 at the age of 90 so he's had a great innings for a Petrol Head good on him!!!.









Gene's last visit to NZ in his Chev Vega