LEARNING A THING OR TWO

By Pete McNae

Nothing ages you faster than a pre-teen race driver starting a conversation with “when I was young”. So when 12-year-old Conley Webley starts harking back to the early days of his speedway career, it's hard not to point out that he's still years away from getting his learner's licence.

Webley is in his third race season though and, as he rightly points out, he's acquired some knowledge in that time. That can happen when you have the likes of nine-times New Zealand midget car champion Michael Pickens keeping one eye on your career. Webley (below, at left) and fellow Nelson quarter midget competitor Bailey Bensemann went north (when that was allowed) to race at Auckland's Western Springs and, thanks to involvement from Nelson's Greg Teece, Pickens took an interest in the young travellers.

He walked them around the circuit, pre-meeting, offering tips and banter and, when Webley's luck ran out, and he rode an opponent's wheel and flipped eight and a half times, Pickens was one of the first to walk the length of the pits to check up on the young Nelson racer.

“I was fine, we had the car back out for the next race, but it was amazing to me that the best open wheel racer in New Zealand would take the time out of running two cars to come and check on me,” Webley said.

Maybe it's that two-car thing that bonded them. This season at the Milestone Homes Top of the South Speedway, the Webley family are running cars in two classes; the 18N quarter midget and 88N youth ministock. The class rules differ in that kids can get into quarter midgets at 8 and race until they turn 16, while the ministock age range is 12 until the driver has a 17th birthday. Conley was fortunate that his birthdays coincided with dad Chris having his self-confessed “midlife crisis”.

A former streetstock driver at Woodford Glen, Chris and family had been spectators in Nelson until he purchased a TQ that Teece drove, then there was one for older son Tasman and a quarter midget and a ministock (not the ones Conley races now). “We were enjoying the involvement and went in boots and all,” Chris said. “Since Tasman went off to learn how to be a farmer and Conley was old enough, we have brought it back to just the two cars he is in and a little project we are working on with Speedway New Zealand.”

More on that later, maybe.

When Nelson added quarter midgets as an invitation class in 2019-20, the Waimea Vehicle Testing Station car was on the grid, Webley in the same boat as the other local kids, learning their craft the best part of a lap behind the Canterbury visitors who had been at it for a while. The gap has closed now, in season three, and Webley is hoping to fast track his progress by running the ministock as well.

“It's just more seat time,” he said. “The quarter (midget) is the one I love, and it is open wheels all the way for me, but by having the ministock I am picking up a few different things and getting twice as many races a night to learn in.”

Both classes are on the programme again this Saturday from 6pm when Nelson hosts the Racing for the Kids meeting in support of the Child Cancer Foundation. With a goal of having some young people stricken with the disease and their families at the speedway for a night out and a break from their difficult reality, the club has piggybacked the promotion onto the Coca-Cola fireworks night and the annual push-bike race to make the meeting all about the younger set. The Nelson Speedway Association's intention to step up their commitment to the CCF has been undercut somewhat by Covid-19 alert level 2 rules that will limit crowd numbers, but it should still be as full at the venue as current rules allow.

Webley, who has dad and mum (Ali) in the pits on the quarter midget, while Aidan Hogarth oversees the ministock, will again be a busy boy.

“It takes a bit to adjust from driving one to the other, so I'm grateful to the club that they give us a bit of time between classes,” he said. “The ministock has a stick (shift) and heaps more weight, so the lines are different and how you pick your lines and try to pass are a lot different.”

All those laps – and regular weekends away at other tracks, plus a commitment to a six-meeting quarter midget series – are paying off, though.

“I can get out of the car now and tell mum and dad what I can feel and what changes might work, and I feel like my lines are getting better, just keeping the speed up and keeping my eyes up, looking ahead for opportunities.”

Again, a more seasoned campaigner has taken Webley under his wing. School has allowed time out of class once a week in a SportsPro option to pursue a sporting interest. The Waimea Intermediate pupil has been karting with Kevin Barker, who drummed in the importance of watching further up the track instead of what was going on immediately next to the race car.

“It's definitely something that crosses over to speedway,” Webley said. “I'm trying to learn as much as I can as fast as I can. That's why we have two cars, and we travel a lot. Track time is the only way to learn, and I really want to go as far as I can, like a TQ and then maybe a sprintcar.”

Dad hyperventilates in the background ...

Even with the extra training time, there seems to be no way Webley will be swayed towards cars with bars despite running the ministock. He rattles off his American open wheel influences before coming closer to home with Pickens, Barker, Teece and former Nelson, now Canterbury, TQ competitor Tim Yellowlees. “Open wheelers are just a lot cooler and one day America could happen, you have to have a dream, eh?”

• Conley Webley races with support from Chris and Ali Webley, Aidan Hogarth, Waimea Vehicle Testing Station, Valvoline, Express Lube, KH Fabrication (who repanelled both cars while the graphics were done by Harris Signs and Graphics), ProKarts Tahuna, High Rev Motorsport and Lone Star Nelson.

• The mystery third car is an Australian version of a TQ which is currently in Christchurch with a local engineer. It runs a different engine package and, in conjunction with Speedway New Zealand could potentially be aimed at three different classes. It's due to debut near Christmas with Tasman Webley having a crack while a couple of unnamed high-profile drivers might also be involved in trials.

• Classes on the card for Saturday include youth ministocks, quarter midgets, TQ midgets, streetstocks, sidecars, stockcars and superstocks along with the kids' bike race. The fireworks display normally begins after 9pm. The club has posted full operating conditions for this meeting, including crowd limits, on its Facebook page Nelson Speedway Association Inc and online at www.nelsonspeedway.co.nz

Track photos: Rebecca Connor Maling, BM Photography

Article added: Thursday 28 October 2021