Perseverance pays off for Hermansen
Christian Hermansen has finally broken through to win the New Zealand minisprint title after six years of trying.
The Palmerston North driver put in a top night of racing to win the 1NZ crown at Wellington on Saturday.
‘‘We’ve never won one before, it’s our first,’’ he said. ‘‘We were second a couple of years ago.
‘‘It’s a huge result for us. I’m still feeling like it’s a bit of a dream and it hasn’t really happened.’’
He has raced the New Zealand championships for six seasons and his previous best was second place last year in Palmerston North.
‘‘But we’ve had some incredibly bad luck at the other New Zealand champs. Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.
‘‘So the win made this one even sweeter.’’
Hermansen won the New Zealand Grand Prix at Huntley last month and has the North Island championships at Kihikihi in two weeks, so he hopes to win all three New Zealand titles in a season.
It was an outstanding effort from the 24-year-old across the three heats.
In the first heat he started in 15th and worked up to sixth, in the second he started in second and won the race, then in the third heat he started in grid position 23 and got up to second. ‘‘That was the hard-work race.’’ The yellow flag came out with two laps to go, which could have cost him the title.
‘‘I was in P6 and in a run off for first and second. There was a melee in front of me and I got around the outside of the four cars coming to the white flag, which was enough to get me over the line without the run off.’’
That meant he avoided ‘‘four laps of hell’’ and won the title outright.
It was a clean sweep for Palmerston North drivers, too, with Dean Cooper, who’s from Taupo but races for Palmerston North, second and Jamie Larsen third
It also means three big titles are held by Palmerston North drivers because Simon Joblin has the superstock crown and the sprintcar title is held by Larsen.
It is a rarity to have Palmerston North in the top three in minisprint and superstock classes. Palmerston North superstock drivers Jordan Dare (2NZ) and Adam Joblin (3NZ) are also in the top three in superstocks.
Hermansen, who works in marketing for Frogparking in Palmerston North, started racing 12 years ago in Wellington, where his father was contracted to race.