A large, positive crowd so swelled Hamilton streets that roads had to be closed as thousands of visitors enjoyed post face festivities overnight.
Operational commander, Inspector Paul Carpenter, credited the positive attitude of the two distinctive crowds in the town that combined with a highly visible Police presence ensured a good night for all concerned.
"From 8.30pm to 4.30am there were 30 people arrested which is well down on the number normally expected on a Saturday evening," said Mr Carpenter.
"As on Friday night there were large numbers of race fans in town till about 11.30pm at which time they began to fade and we noticed the return of the younger crowd, both groups seemed to intermingle quite well with little problems."
As crowd numbers swelled Police took some proactive steps to ease congestion and reduce potential problems by closing access to vehicle traffic.
"Restaurants and bars were that full that about 1.30am we engaged traffic management to set up a road closure on Victoria St from Knox to Collingwood Streets as people were spilling out into the roads and it was unsafe to have cars driving through the crowd.
"The market place was also full so we initiated a one way system to help people move through that area as well, the crowd size was the largest seen in several years and would have been larger than last year's peak and best of all there was little problem."
While things were quiet in the CBD there was plenty of work for those policing the rest of the City.
One officer is at home recovering from an assault after stopping a car driving with only one headlight. After a short pursuit the car was stopped on Old Farm Rd where the male driver and passenger set upon the officer.
Backup was quickly at the scene and the pair arrested while the officer suffered minor injuries.
Meanwhile other officers attended the scene of a head on collision between an ambulance and a car on SH3 near the Hamilton Airport.
Speed and alcohol were factors in the crash which saw a car cross the centreline into the path of the ambulance resulting in the ambulance ending up on it's side.
The two St John staff and an observer travelling in the ambulance suffered minor injuries, there were no patients aboard at the time of the crash.
The 19-year-old male driver of the car tried to leave the scene on foot but was located by Police. While his legal alcohol limit was 150 micrograms per litre of breath the man blew over 800mgms when tested, over twice the legal limit for an adult driver.
And Hamilton Police are crediting the actions of a man who they believe was directly responsible for saving the life of a woman who was about to leap off a city bridge.
The 26-year-old man had been driving home from work when he noticed the woman standing on the edge of a rail on the Boundary Rd bridge with a teddy bear and photo album under her arm .
Stopping his car the man wrapped his arms around the woman preventing her from jumping while a second motorist phoned Police.
"Our staff are adamant had the woman seen a patrol car approaching she would have jumped from the bridge and landed on the ground below, they have no doubt this man's actions saved the woman's life," said Mr Carpenter.
While Police have been very happy with how the race weekend has gone so far they urged drivers returning home to leave the racing to the professionals on the track.
"Overnight we breath tested the drivers of 2982 vehicles, 177 people were found to have been drinking and 13 face action for excess breath alcohol and another are awaiting the results of blood tests.
"This is too many people behind the wheel who have been drinking and we are urging race fans to ensure they have a sober driver able to return them home to avoid tragedy."
Mr Carpenter said Police anticipated very heavy traffic flows out of Hamilton around 5pm once the races had finished as race fans head home.
"We'd like to remind people that 100km/h is a speed limit not a target to be achieved or exceeded, lets leave the racing to the pros and exercise a bit of patience, that way we'll all be back to enjoy next year's Hamilton 400."
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