Basalaj wins midget car round
Nelson’s Nevil Basalaj took out the second round of the Midgetcar Southern Series at the Ruapuna Speedway.
Basalaj dominated the racing to take out Saturday’s feature from Canterbury’s Glen Durie and Jeremy Webb, with Basalaj also winning the pole shuffle and one of the two heats.
Basalaj’s only defeat come in the opening heat where Tom Lumsden claimed the lead from Gary Chadwick on the third lap with Lumsden going on to win with ease from Basalaj with Chadwick third.
Basalaj moved into the lead early on in heat two but then had to see off a determined Webb with the two cars racing bumper to bumper for the remainder of the race before Basalaj opened-up a small lead on the closing two laps, with Dave Kerr just holding out Gavin Wilkie (Dunedin) for third.
The Nelsonian took out the poleshuttle from Wilkie to earn the right to start the 20-lap feature on the from row of the grid with Basalaj leading out from the green light from Wilkie, Durie, Kerr and Webb.
Durie passed Wilkie with a great dice then developed between Durie, Kerr and Webb and Basalaj slowing increase his lead with each lap.
By the mid-point of the 20 lap race Basalaj was over two seconds clear, doubling this margin at the chequered flag with Webb finishing strongly to pass Lumsden with four lap remaining to claim third place behind Durie.
The sprintcar class turned on fast racing in what was their last meeting in Christchurch before the New Zealand title is contested at the Ruapuna track January 13-14.
Former three-time national modified champion Luke Keegan opened a handy lead in the opening heat before Jamie Duff made a charge from near the back of the field to close within a second to Keegan at the final bend with Matt Honeywell third.
Duff again had to come from behind to win the next heat with Nelson’s Jason Smith the early leader until Duff took the lead with three laps to run with Honeywell again in third place.
In the feature, Honeywell and Keegan led on the opening lap from Duff with Duff moving into second spot on the next lap and blast by Honeywell on lap seven with Duff going on to make it at hat-trick of feature wins this season.
Honeywell held onto second place with Te Anau’s Daniel Anderson getting the better of Keegan after a great dice over the closing laps to claim third place.
Racing in the Three Quarter Midgetcar was again competitive without any driver dominating.
Former South Island champion, Kyle Glover won the opening heat with Kimberly Yeatman heat two.
Yeatman led from start to finish but the electronic timing was needed to confirm her win after the fast finishing Liam McCoubrey with the two cars side by side at the chequered flag with Yeatman earning the win by less than a 200th of a second.
McCoubrey, bounced back to take the win in the feature from Philippa Melrose and Glover.
Clayton Phillips and Kate Warren battled all evening in the Modified Sprint class with Warren taking out the opening heat from Phillips with order reversed in the next heat.
Phillips took out the feature from Warren with Charlie Jackson in third place.
Six Shooter driver Jason Manson claimed his first feature win of the season, with Daryl Wright second and Peter Keith third.
Manson and Wright each claimed a heat win.
Jayedan Bradley completed a clean sweep in the Quarter Midget class but the Nelson teen had to work hard with Montana Jamieson ollowing Bradley home all three races.