Talking mid-80's, that race day then had Massive local support! The track would be just about full before the 1st race! The really were a serious progressive club back then, getting that sort of race was very impressive!
I have just had a quick look through me collection and for those 80's meetings I was working for Ken Lush, it was Photopress back then, so don't have many, I do have plenty from the early 90's... back to those 80's meetings, I use to take the turn for home photos then for Flash, so had to walk up the straight for each race!!! Rather amusingly, I would get followed up and down by a tribe of you Māori kids! Always asking 'give us the winner of this race', I had a top strike rate for that sort of thing! Ove the years I got to know a few of them! one was a very cheeky young fella who went on to be a pretty good rugby player! Calos Spencer.
Comparing LRC to Ellerslie back then is a tad hard! On course back then, then were always solid crowds for any big Raceday! Personally, back then, I always prefered Wgtn Cup Week 1st, Chch 2nd... not even sure I would have ARC cup week 3rd.. defiantly not now a days..
Reflecting back to those times as a punter! While the fields were as a rule much bigger and hence the complexities that come from that, there was no where the amount of other punting distractions as in today! I'm sure I would have 15/20 hours studying every meeting!
Murray, you seem qualified to comment on how the raceday was at Levin, how those days compare to attending Ellerslie meets, and do you think the Levin local community would ensure racing at Levin again would prosper?