Hickman crowned champion
Unexpected victory in NZ Minisprint Championship
For only the second time in the 32-year history of the class, a Stratford competitor has won the New Zealand Minisprint Championship.
Duane Hickman, who many will know as a top midget driver, achieved success on Saturday night when he won the Zodiac Signs/Jono Noonan Contracting New Zealand title at Stratford Speedway and now joins Sean Rice (who won the title in 2014/2015) as the only Stratford drivers to win this championship.
Hickman has only recently made a move to the Minisprint class, becoming a regular competitor this season and has been on the pace at every meeting.
Initially scheduled to heat races that culminated in a onerace final, when entrant numbers dropped to just 20 cars on Friday, the format was changed to a three-heat deal where competitors raced over 15-lap races and accumulated points for their finishing positions to find a champion.
Hickman placed mid-pack in the first heat, coming home ninth. Considering he did start from the very last grid of 20 though, that was a decent move through the field. He came home second in heat two from grid 10 and in the final heat was running in second place behind nowformer 2NZ Daniel Nickel.
When the pair approached a lapped car, Nickel hesitated and Hickman dived up the inside to take the lead in the closing laps and win the race.
Defending champion Elliott Heron (Palmerston North) looked to have the title in the bag and on paper he certainly did. However, a post-race relegation after the third heat for an on-track racing incident saw him drop a couple of points and move to second place on the leaderboard, promoting Hickman to first.
Heron’s relegation takes nothing away from Hickman however, who was in form, raced clean and smart all night and deserved the championship win.
Nathan Jefferies from Palmerston North placed third overall in the championship.
A decent field of 13 Modifieds raced for both the
Plant & Fabrication Services Taranaki Champs and the Ginge Hayward Memorial on the same night.
The field was boosted by out-of-town drivers as they made the most of the opportunity to test the track and set their cars before the upcoming New Zealand Championship on Taranaki Anniversary weekend.
Current New Zealand Champion Brad Lane proved to be too quick for the locals, winning the champs by one point from local flyer Newton Gordge. Carl Hinton finished just one point behind Gordge in third place. Samatha Lane, who placed second in the event last season, was left to take her car home in pieces after a huge crash at the start of heat three that saw her tumbling across the start/finish line on the opening lap.
Jason Kalin won the Ginge Hayward Memorial after Brett Parsons (Huntly) who had led for a large duration, inexplicably slowed on the last lap which allowed Kalin to pass and take an unexpected victory.
Streetstocks raced for their Best Pairs event and with an uneven number of cars (eleven), one driver would be without a pairs partner and instead would score double points for their finishing places.
That one driver was Jason Dunn and he managed to win the pairs alone. Ron Washer/ Dylan Smith were second and Nick McGrath/Adam Young were third.