At the end of night one, (ie half way) the leading pairs are:
Shane Penn & Malcolm Ngatai 132
Ricky Boulton & Wayne Wilding 119
Brian Musgrove & Murray Greig 115
Wayne Hemi & Emmerson Leach 109
Bryce Penn & 6C (I think thats Colin Summerton under a different number) 108

The leading individual points are:
Hemi 85
Simon Joblin 78
Nick Fowler 77
Musgrove 69
S Penn 69
Matt Ngatai 66

Race one was Hemi first, Grey second, Andreassend third
Race two was Osbourne first, Joblin second, Bryce Penn third
Race three was Musgrove first, Hemi second, Greig third

An excellent nights racing, which just goes to showcase how exciting full contact racing is at the speeds these guys go. Lots of contact, plenty of scraping bumpers, wheels, walls, but all out speed with it. Hemi's 591 machine is very very quick, but so is Hemi himself - his ability to read the track half a lap ahead and weave through gaps is outstanding. A shame Stan Hickey broke a crank in race 2, and in fact most of the North Island cars were sitting on the infield by the end of race 3, an indication of how hot the pace was all night.

Highlights of night 1 for me were:
- the Blue Bullet of Dennis Andreassend putting Emmerson Leach so hard into the turn 4 wall that the concrete broke
- 7C Neil Frew (in a Standard Stock) succesfully blocking Wayne Hemi (has he been talking to the Gaskin boys?)
- 21C Malcolm Ngatai taking time out from the middle of the race to remove Neil Frew from a dangerous place on the exit of turn 4 to the infield
- Wayne Hemi's wild ride fishtailing from side to side down the front straight having avoided the stationary car of Mark Sangster on the wall
- Dennis Andreassend having a good hit at Kelvin Grey
- the battle between Mark Osbourne and Simon Joblin for the win in heat 2
- the excellent drive by 94C Noel Inns in the last heat, finally he got the Tank hooked up and flying

Tony Trewinnard