‘Extremely emotional’ as last speedway event held at Western Springs

Saturday, 22 March 2025

Speedway New Zealand says they were blindsided by the decision, but Auckland's Mayor believes it's the best outcome for ratepayers. Stuff's Hannah Martin reports.

A great Auckland institution is coming to an end on Saturday evening, with the curtain falling on 96 years of speedway at Western Springs.

Racing at the Legends Night event is due to start at 5pm, and a sellout crowd is expected on a fine evening in Auckland. At 1.30pm ticket sales were at 85% capacity.

Among the fans in the crowd will be Craig Steinbring, who is part of the group Save Our Speedway - Western Springs that is still fighting the move.

“It’s going to be extremely emotional for tens of thousands of people tonight,” he said.

He was entering the stadium shortly after gates opened at 2pm. “Talking to you I’ve got a tear in my eye,” Steinbring said.

But he was also defiant. “It’s going to be a fantastic night, but I just want people to know this isn’t the last night.”

Steinbring organised a rally on Saturday morning along Great North Rd outside the venue.

Fans rallied on Saturday morning protesting the end of speedway at Western Springs.

He was reluctant to estimate the number of people who took part in the rally, saying it was “down on numbers” - which he thought was due to the time it was held, with many people working and others playing sport and taking children to sport.

“I’m thinking anything up to 1000,” Steinbring said.

Even if numbers were modest, the marchers received a warm reception.

“I was emceeing the march and I couldn’t hear myself through all the horns beeping from the people travelling past,” he said.

Fans protest the Auckland Council decision to bring speedway to an end at Western Springs, which is due to be the venue of a speedway meeting for the last time on Saturday evening.

“It was what this place means to us, and it was intergenerational.

“If it goes go, Auckland loses a part of what Auckland is.”

His group is still fighting. An application for a judicial review of the process was going to be filed in the High Court soon, he said.

Last October 30, after probably the most heated governing body debate during Wayne Brown’s term as mayor, Auckland councillors voted 11-8 in favour of spending $11 million on improvements at Waikaraka Park and moving all speedway events in the city to that venue.

Fans opposed to speedway being moved from Western Springs rally an Saturday morning, hours before the final speedway event due to be held at the venue.

Waikaraka Park is in Onehunga, near Māngere Bridge, and has been a speedway venue for several decades. The first stock car meet at Waikaraka Park was in 1967.

Western Springs Speedway manager John McCallum has said that while Western Springs was the spiritual home of speedway, Waikaraka Park, with the $11 million that would be invested in it, gave the sport better longterm security.

“If you can go to a home that's got a 30-year lease that is designated a motorsport precinct, it's not Western Springs, it never will be, but it is a home,” he has said.

Auckland Council is considering three proposals for the future of Western Springs.

Regardless of whether or not those proposals are a better use of the venue, a post from Auckland Lynne Carter on the Western Springs Speedway Facebook page sums up what is being lost.

“I was there as a kid, family entertainment, then as a teenager without the parents, then I brought my young son along, then he as a teenager without a parent and now with my granddaughter, daughter in law and son,” Carter wrote.

“…the important bits always remain the same spills and thrills, fast racing, amazing crowds all happening at the iconic Western Springs.

“You can take it anywhere you like but it'll never ever truly be with same spring speedway without Western Springs stadium.”