Te Awamutu racer Mitch Fabish continues to set the pace in the fiercely competitive Midget Car category, claiming his third consecutive win of the season on Sunday night at Baypark Speedway.
Fabish battled Auckland teenager Alec Insley in the middle stages of the Bill Buckley Classic and claimed a narrow victory in the third annual running of the event, the racing headline for the popular fireworks night.
Delayed a full day by wet weather, the Sunday evening spectacle was raced on a fast track with plenty of traction.
Fabish qualified fourth after the heat races and made a lap-five pass around Brock Maskovich on the outside to take the feature race lead. In the mid stages of the race, Insley challenged him, but he stayed in front to win by 0.608s in a 25-lapper that ran uninterrupted from green lights to chequered flag.
Fabish won the Baypark season opener at Labour Weekend and claimed the Rosetown 40-lapper at Kihikihi last weekend before extending his win streak through the first three weekends of the new season.
“The track was fast and technical tonight, and there was a lot of lapped traffic. It was a good battle with Alec,” says Fabish.
Fabish is racing a new Terminator chassis with off-season updates to the Australian-developed GRD engine.
“The car is awesome to drive. We struggled a little bit in the heat races, but for the feature it was spot on.”
While Insley finished second, Maskovich completed the podium, with the top five rounded out by Hamilton’s Daniel Thomas and Auckland racer Ben Morrison.
US visitor Ethan Mitchell showed some early pace but crashed out of his second heat race on the debut appearance of his third New Zealand racing campaign.
Former NZ Sprint Car champion Jonathan Allard continued the theme of repeat early-season winners with his second Sprint Car feature race victory of the season. The California veteran led from start to finish in a 20-lapper, but Auckland racer Ryan O’Connor closed in late.
“It wasn’t an old guys track. It was pretty fast and physical, but the Baypark team did a great job on the track prep after all the rain on Saturday. It’s been a good start to the season,” Allard says.
O’Connor finished just 0.643 seconds behind Allard, with Hayden Williams putting in a strong night and completing the feature race podium.
A small but closely matched Super Stock grid provided some entertaining racing. Dan Pollock topped the points with a pair of second-place finishes and a third, one point ahead of Todd Hemingway with two wins and a sixth-place finish.
The next event at Baypark Speedway on Saturday, November 28, will be headlined by the annual South Pacific Super Saloon Car Championship.
Header Photo: Stuart Whitaker/The Write Angle
