White takes Mazda racing national title
Chris White of Prebbleton in Canterbury is the Mazda Racing Series national champion after the final round at Manfeild in Feilding.
White, last year’s runner-up, brought a 69-point championship lead over Aucklander Warren Crowther into the round at the weekend, but had to overcome major difficulties to win the championship.
On Friday during practice he hit a wall and if it had not been for the assistance of his fellow competitors his weekend might have ended at that point.
However, the efforts of everyone had him back on track for the first race of the round on Saturday morning and after starting from the back of the grid, he charged to fourth place behind Aucklander Stiaan Kriel and Crowther, who had an epic dice at the front, with Timaru driver Will Kitching third.
Just as it seemed White’s weekend was back on track, he lost a hose off his oil cooler on the warm-up lap for Saturday’s second race, meaning he had to watch the race from the pits as Kitching won from Crowther and Wellington driver Stu Lawton.
That left White’s overnight points margin at just 23 points with one race to go on Sunday. Crowther would start on the front row of the grid which was based on points scored during the round, while White would start 17th.
Kriel led from the start and had another great battle at the front with Crowther, while White started working his way through the tightly packed field. He was 10th by the end of lap four and would end the race in seventh.
Kriel won from Crowther, with Kitching third, while Arthur Broughan of Tuamarina was fourth ahead of Lawton and Jesse Gould of Raumati Beach, who enjoyed a successful weekend, in sixth.
White was next followed by Steve Brown (Auckland), Mac Templeton (Prebbleton) and Leo Bult of Auckland.
Crowther’s efforts with three second placings across the weekend gave him the round win narrowly from Kitching, while White took the New Zealand championship with 428 points ahead of Crowther with 417 and Kitching 402.
White was “definitely pretty happy” with the win. “The car was still fast after Friday’s accident.”
He acknowledged the help from others after Friday and said he was still confident going into the last race, needing to only place 13th to take the title.
With the New Zealand championship finished, the next outing for competitors in the Mazda racing series will be the final round of the North Island championship at Hampton Downs on May 18-19.