Waiwakaiho Speedway:  Built on a Show Grounds site and opened in 1951 for midget car racing it operated until 1970 when the land was then needed for development.  During it's entire life the Speedway was operated by the Taranaki Midget Car Racing Club and at no time did an outside promoter have control.  Night time racing was conducted from the outset and for many years Waiwakaiho was the only track in New Zealand, apart from Western Springs, running midgets. Three quarter midgets were added to the programme in 1953 and solos in 1954, while sidecars appeared in the early 1960s. All the big name drivers who were brought to New Zealand to run at Western Springs would also run at Waiwakaiho, Frank "Satan" Brewer, Fay Taylour, Bob Tattersall, Ray Revell, just to name a few.

The track was 440 yards to the lap, flat and always slick, it provided some spectacular racing back in the mists of time when Saturday night meant SPEEDWAY NIGHT !.

These facts and following photos courtesy of Dave Gifford - Waiwakaiho archives.

Daytime photos were shot by photographer, Russell Luke

A big thank you to Dave Gifford, the Waiwakaiho Speedway archivist for sharing these historical photos with us on ' Vintagespeedway ' which we in Australia, otherwise may not have been able to view .