Larsen carries on his hot run
Jamie Larsen had no intention of heading to Western Springs for the third and final round of the international sprintcar series this Saturday, until his brilliant third place on his home track in Palmerston North on Tuesday night.
A youngster in terms of a sprintcar career at only 23, Larsen’s second consecutive third place has him in top spot, level with midget legend Michael Pickens, who won at the Robertson Holden Speedway.
Pickens had finished behind Larsen in fifth place at the opening round at Western Springs, which was won by American Jonathan Allard with his countryman Kraig Kinser second.
Larsen said they have planned a limited sprintcar season this year, intending to race his minisprint at Wanganui next Sunday, instead of making the long trek back to Western Springs in Auckland for the third round.
‘‘We just don’t have the sponsorship to have a full season in the sprintcar this year,’’ Larsen said. ‘‘It’s a nine-hour trip each way and we’d decided to race the minisprint instead. After two third placings though and being top equal, we’re definitely going to Auckland, especially now we’ve got a real chance to win the international series.’’
Larsen is making a habit of finishing third in the big events, with two third-place finishes in the corresponding series last year, as well as third in the national championships.
There’s two titles in Larsen’s sights: the national minisprint title where he’s defending champion and has won twice in the last three years.
The other title he definitely has a goal of winning is the New Zealand sprintcar title at Ruapuna, Christchurch.
‘‘I want to be the winningest minisprint driver,’’ he said. ‘‘I’ve won the Gold Cup twice at Ruapuna and it’s my favourite track.’’
Larsen admitted he took pleasure from a couple of passes he made on the American World of Outlaw full time professional drivers.
‘‘To get past Kinser during the feature, but also getting [Brad] Loyet in the pole shuffle were both pretty exciting.’’
With so many drivers crashing out in at least one of the two rounds, it will virtually be a match race between Larsen and Pickens, with American Loyet the only other real winning chance, three points further back.
Jamie Mcdonald split Pickens and Larsen at the CET Arena on Tuesday, but he failed to finish the first round.
While it was even worse for a few of the big guns at Palmerston North, with Allard, Kinser, fellow American Craig Dollansky and national 2NZ Dean Brindle (Auckland) all failing to either start or finish the feature.
The most bizarre crash came in the second heat when Allard, with the yellow lights still on, pit gate wide open and a flag marshall waving his flag, decided to accelerate into pit corner as the water truck was heading out through the pit gate.
Seeing it at the last moment, Allard only had time to throw his car sideways into the immovable water truck.
Allard was forced to load his car up after it had destroyed the rear end.
Disappointingly, Dollansky appeared to struggle with a car not performing to its optimum.
In the end Dollansky didn’t come out for the final.
With fourth place virtually in the bag, Kinser was taken out by Dean Brindle going up the inside of Kinser, slipping wide and leaving both their title hopes in tatters.
In other races, Peter Bengston won two superstock races, with William Humphries taking out the other.
Amongst stirring in two races, Jayden Ward won a race with Hamish Mcleod and Alec Wilson also winning races.