Mt Maunganui’s Baypark Speedway is delivering a fast-paced finish to 2024 with a double-header of international dirt track action set between Christmas and New Year.
This Saturday’s December 28 Bay Superstars meeting is headlined by round two of the Midget Car World Series, lining up top US and Australian drivers for a 30-lap feature race battle against the best from New Zealand.
The touring US contingent features 2023 and 2017 United States Auto Club National Midget Car champion Logan Seavey and fellow Californian Buddy Kofoid, a former NZ Sprint Car champion.
With back-to-back wins in the Chili Bowl Classic (2023 and 2024) and two USAC national titles, 27-year-old Seavey ranks among the most successful Midget Car racers in recent years while also achieving success in the USAC Silver Crown division. He’s driving for the Auckland-based Green Way squad as a team-mate to NZ champion Brad Mosen, both in Toyota powered CP3 machines.
Kofoid, 23, won the 30-lap international event at Baypark last summer and his 2024 efforts focused on the World of Outlaws Sprintcar Series, where he finished fourth in points, won Rookie of the Year honours and claimed seven victories.
Young North Carolina racer Ethan Mitchell returns for his second Kiwi campaign with former Australian champion Kaidon Brown and Melbourne teenager Zoe Pearce completing the internationals among a 35-driver line-up.
The leading New Zealand challengers can be split into two categories. Reigning national champion Brad Mosen, along with former champions Michael Pickens and Hayden Williams, provide the local experience while rising stars Mitch Fabish, Ben Morrison and Luke McClymont represent a young wave of Kiwi Midget Car talent.
Baypark’s Sprintcar racing continues to deliver speed and quality with the added attraction for the next two nights of former V8 Supercars champion and NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series race winner Shane van Gisbergen continuing his summer racing foray at home in New Zealand with a Sprint Car campaign.
The Saturday support programme features a 30-plus field of Super Stocks competing in the second annual Hokey Ashby Memorial. The field includes defending champ Jack Miers and a grid of visiting drivers from Rotorua, Stratford, Huntly, Auckland and Wellington tracks.
Two nights later (Monday Dec 30) when the Midget Cars contest the Bay 51 – now well- established as the longest midget race on the Kiwi calendar at 51 laps – there is a 16-strong grid of Super Saloons taking the place of the Super Stocks on the programme.
The two race nights also provide the chance for the speedway stars of tomorrow to compete on the same stage as the internationals with the 12-16 year-olds of the Youth Mini Stock division also competing on the race programme.
Racing starts at 6.30pm.
The Midget Car World Series begins at Western Springs Speedway on Boxing Day. Van Gisbergen will also feature in his Sprintcar at the same event.
