baypark race track?

[cowpoos]

has anyone got any pic's of the baypark race track or a track map...I'm just curious as to what it looked like??

and why was it shut?? anyone race there?

[Goblin]

No map sorry....coupla pics tho! First was the only right hander and Aaron Gillespe(sp?) going down.
It was shut to make a retirement village.


I got another pic of someone on a Britten but i cant post it

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showpost.php?p=996057&postcount=83

[Grumpy]

Yeh, raced there a fair bit in our superkart. Nothing fancy but a fun track to race on. Start finish straight led into a lefthand sweeper then onto the back straight. Not that long. Was about 145mph I think with the gearing we used to run. Tightish lefthand hairpin into a short straight, into righthand infield corner. Quick burst upto a lefthander into front straight again. Not too challenging.

The writing was always on the wall though. As you walked up the pit road all the streets that backed onto the track just ended. It was obvious that they planned to get rid of the track one day. Shame. They used to have some good racing there.

[forkoil]

Layout as Grumpy said. Crashed heavily on the sweeper on brand new Suz GS550ET, bent front end, bent frame, rear subframe demolished. One good thing about Bay Park was that the pits were in the middle of the track with a tunnel under the track as access. Only thing was that the tunnel left a slight rise in the track that put the front end into quite a twitch just as you were setting up for the high speed sweeper!! Said sweeper is very much like the one at the old section of the track at Taupo.
Also saw someone sit up too early at the end of the back straight first lap of the 250 proddies, a girl (Joanne Micklejohn?) went smack up his arse and went down and her helmet came off, fortunately no real damage done!!
But was a great track, very rider friendly, pity they got rid of it.

[Cleve]

Baypark was my first race track, and as such a bit like my first love (or first fuck :msn-wink:). What happened to Baypark?! Have you seen Mt Maunganui these days!!??

[Masterchop]

I raced at Baypark,from memory the sweeper was a very long flat corner.

My worst memory of the place was hard braking at the end of the back straight,burst fork seal,no brakes all of a sudden,sailing straight off into the sand dunes, No damage or injuries luckily.
Went to the pits ,cleaned up the oil and continued racing.

[Masterchop]

No map sorry....coupla pics tho! First was the only right hander and Aaron Gillespe(sp?) going down.
It was shut to make a retirement village.


I got another pic of someone on a Britten but i cant post it

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showpost.php?p=996057&postcount=83

That second picture looks like F3,I recognise some of those bikes.

[Fooman]

Circuit layout here:

http://www.etracksonline.co.uk/Australasia/New_Zealand/baypark.html

Cheers,
FM

[Goblin]

That second picture looks like F3,I recognise some of those bikes.Yeah that would have been about '91. Paul Thomas, #10 was in F3 at the time.
I never got to race there(didnt have the balls) but I did get to have a few laps when an acquaintance hired the track and wanted someone to practice with. Unfortunately my bike had stuffed steering head bearings so it wasnt much fun. I used to go and watch a lot of racing there tho.

[Masterchop]

Yeah that would have been about '91. Paul Thomas, #10 was in F3 at the time.


Yup 91 would be about right,
No.14 could be Nathan Spargo and No.8 I think is Richardson

[one-speed]

Baypark was my first race track, and as such a bit like my first love (or first fuck :msn-wink:). What happened to Baypark?! Have you seen Mt Maunganui these days!!??

well what happened to baypark?
my understanding was there were three owners of the land,two wanted
to sell up and one did'nt and then one day one past away and now it's an
old folks homestead:blank:

[Waylander]

well what happened to baypark?
my understanding was there were three owners of the land,two wanted
to sell up and one did'nt and then one day one past away and now it's an
old folks homestead:blank:
Damn old people. Always gotta ruin things don't they.:argh:



:dodge:

[Taz]

It's not old people who ruin things. It's greedy developers. I had a couple of two wheels club days at bay park. Remember running off the end of the straight on my XJ600 after out braking a ZX10...... I know now why he braked earlier than me.

[Mental Trousers]

I used to look at the houses lined up along the back straight and think damn I'd love to live there ..... but not anymore.

[Goblin]

Yup 91 would be about right,
No.14 could be Nathan Spargo and No.8 I think is RichardsonYup. I think you'd be right too.

[one-speed]

It's not old people who ruin things. It's greedy developers. I had a couple of two wheels club days at bay park. Remember running off the end of the straight on my XJ600 after out braking a ZX10...... I know now why he braked earlier than me.

yep and we are still getting the dam developers shit i think it's a race
to see who could build the most in the sortest mount of time:bash:+
great old track it was

[roadracingoldfart]

And i predict it WILL happen to Manfeild before many years pass by as well.
Its like an airport , build the airport then allow the houses around it and then push the airport out because its far to noisy for all the houses around it , and its such a silly place for it anyway.
Gosh an airport or race track alongside a residential estate. :eek::oi-grr:
silly people.

[mangell6]

Great track, I remember when there were no houses any where near the track and we had an Australian Falcoon Racecar parked in the driveway at home.

[scrivy]

I used to live less than a Km from it. I'd wake up on a Sunday morning to the sound of bikes racing around. I'd throw on my leathers, tape up the indicators, lights etc., and blast on down. Was a great circuit for me. I had the last lap record on a sidecar on it. No fucker can take that one away from me!! :woohoo:

[QMOTO]

Raced a car on it a few times, a Ford Escort Mexico, neat track, not sure why they shut it down probably noise issues Im guessing coupled with value of land blah blah

[FROSTY]

It was the very first track I raced on back in the eighties.
Back in the RD250lc days.
I had a ball there
Peoples memories are a bit overpositive about the place because there was a bloody deep ditch at the end of the start finish straight and the corner at the end of the back straight was none to flash to run off of either--as me and another kber found out together when he found out that a GS thou DOESNT outbrake an RZ350
Ive got a picture of me on the only right hander kicking around somewhere

[scracha]

Ive got a picture of me on the only right hander kicking around somewhere
Cool, I love old black and white photos. Anyway, I must get back to cable tying up the CBR fairing for tomorrow's fun n' games.

[marty]

not much track left any more....this is the view just before being thrown out of my plane :) thanks google earth.....

[Waylander]

not much track left any more....this is the view just before being thrown out of my plane :) thanks google earth.....
I can see my house from there.

Right across the road from the stadium.

[Brett]

WTF...didn't know there even used to be a track at bay park! It really is a pain in the arse that untill Hampton Downs opens, Taupo is the nearest track to Auckland. (Puke doesn't class as a track, crappy dangerous piece of crap.)

[trumpy]

Raced single seaters there back in the 70's. Fun little circuit but had a couple of bad features: there was a nasty drop off on the exit to the sweeper at the end of the main straight, going wide and dropping a wheel off the edge was often a quick trip to hospital and the banking (particularly at the end of the main straight) was sand which used to collapse regularly and form more of a launching ramp than a barrier.
Also nearly got squashed by a Valient Chrger landing upside down in the pits (he went straight ahead at the end of the short straight after the hairpin).
Despite all that had a lot of fun times there and the last meeting ever held there was an absolute hoot!

[codgyoleracer]

Had my first race meet there on an RZ250, Crashed out (as was common for me at the time) & tore the front end off it. :no:
Track was a fairly simple layout but often had sand on its surface. The last corner had massive digger tyres stacked on their sides around the outside edge - soft , NOT. My mate Mike Hooper got the Lap record there on his open production bike & still has cos they tore it up not much later.

[dickytoo]

My mate Mike Hooper got the Lap record there on his open production bike & still has cos they tore it up not much later.

was this the mike hooper who used to race a zxr750?

i remember bay park was very sandy, especially if the wind picked up. i saw a bad sidecar crash there at the end of the straight. i think they hit the sand bank at the end of the straight.

i remember seeing the britten there as well, before it was fully sorted. it had a crash and i think they used a water hose to clean all the sand out of it.