Thriller decides King of the Mountain
Aucklander claims title after local hope is forced to retire with brake failure
What was originally meant to be the New Zealand Midget Championship became the King of the Mountain Champs. January 22 was to be the date for the New Zealand Midget Championship but after speedway’s governing body early in the season elected to postpone all national titles due to Covid uncertainty, the King of the Mountain Champs was held at the MG Taranaki Stratford Speedway instead.
The competitors still turned up in high numbers from all over the country. Eighteen Midgets were on hand to contest the event and they produced fast-paced racing with a few rollovers and incidents thrown in the mix.
Seeded into groups, all competitors raced heat races first to determine their starting positions for the all-important 20-lap feature race that would decide the podium.
After qualifying well with first and second place in the heat races, local speedster Duane Hickman assigned himself a front row start for the feature and he quickly grabbed the prominent position at the front of the field when the lights went green.
Auckland racer Brad Mosen, who had started mid-pack, quickly made his way towards the front and was soon challenging Hickman for the lead. After a lengthy battle at the front of the field, Hickman suffered a brake failure which forced him to retire with five laps to go.
Greg Jones, who had rolled over during his second heat race and managed to continue, was in second place with just two laps to go when he ran out of fuel, opening the way for Palmerston North racer Shane Dewar to claim second place behind Mosen while Kihikihi driver Mitch Fabish was third.
Stockcar drivers raced for their
Best Pairs trophy. After three races it was the pairing of William Hughes and Kelvin Good that found themselves at the top with an 18-point buffer over nearest rivals Kylee Symes and Karl Giddy.
Hughes recorded a win, a third place and a second place while Good recorded a seventh, fourth and ninth in his freshly modified car. The pairing of Caleb Coxhead and Wayne Booker finished third.
A field of 13 Streetstocks competed for the Darren Olsen Memorial trophy. Regular front runner Nic Smith again found himself collecting the first-place sash at prizegiving after consistent racing that netted him a win and two second-place finishes.
After Nick and Ron McGrath blocked competitors in the last race and allowed Hayden Fox to pass three cars in one go, Fox finished second overall while Blake Dormer was third.
Modifieds and Youth Ministocks complete the race programme. Races in the Modified class were won by Shaun Bloeman, Jason Kalin and Carl Hinton.
Regan Ogle nabbed a good win in the first Ministock race. William Campbell won the second and Lucas Symes was in front in race three and looked to be a likely winner until he ran wide with a couple of laps to go. This allowed Corban Swan to make an inside pass and collect the chequered flag.
Swan also won race four. The next race meeting at the MG Taranaki Stratford Speedway was due to be next Saturday, January 29. However, due to Monday’s change to the “red” setting in the Covid Protection Framework, this meeting has now been postponed.