KEY POINTS:
Sport Minister Trevor Mallard has called for urgent advice over recent speedway and motor-racing crashes that have left three people dead and put two more in hospital.
Mr Mallard said last night he had asked government sport and recreation agency Sparc to brief him on whether "any of these worrying accidents" were related or isolated events, and whether they indicated a need for safety standards to be lifted.
"Motor sports are at the upper end in terms of risk and danger ... so we've got to keep that in mind."
Sparc officials were unavailable for comment last night.
Although police have been investigating some of the latest incidents, rival speedway organisations appear to be largely self-regulated.
Both Speedway New Zealand, which governs 23 tracks around the country, and the four-member Circle Track Racing Association yesterday defended their rules and regulations.
Dozens of unlicensed "black tracks" also exist as informal speedways in farm paddocks.
Speedway NZ acting president Willie Kay said it didn't sanction some events even at member tracks, such as "Smashfest" held at Waikaraka Park in Auckland at the weekend. It has a rule forbidding demolition derby teams events.
Mr Kay said his organisation had required the Waikaraka Park speedway operator, who could not be reached for comment last night, to take out advertising to make it clear the event was a private meeting.
He confirmed police were investigating crashes at two of his organisation's speedways in the past month, which caused the death of a 13-year-old spectator in Blenheim and the serious spinal injury of a motorcycle sidecar racer in Napier on Friday.
An 18-year-old quad-bike racer died on March 17 at a Speedway NZ track in Cromwell, but at an event organised by Motorcycling NZ, and another sidecar racer died several days earlier after a crash on the Pukekohe racetrack - which is not covered by Mr Kay's organisation.
On Sunday afternoon, a 42-year-old father of three was taken to hospital with chest injuries after flipping his car at the Kaikohe speedway - a member of Circle Track.
