James Earl put together his best night of the season to defend the Aotearoa Formula 2 Midget Car title at Baypark Speedway on Saturday evening.
A win and a fourth in his heat races saw Earl share the top qualifying position with Tauranga’s Roydon White and NZ Sprint Car champion Daniel Thomas (Hamilton). Earl started from the outside of the front row and led the 20-lapper from start to finish.
Thomas – making a one-off appearance in the class – was the biggest threat, starting from grid three and quickly moving into second spot. There was only one mid-race, double-file restart and Earl was able to maintain his advantage.
It was Earl’s first win of the season at Baypark Speedway and secured back-to-back wins in the unofficial national title for the F2 Midget class.
“It means a lot. We had been struggling a bit, and we also had some bad luck earlier in the season, but this is the race I really wanted to win again,” he says.
“We changed a couple of things on the car, and it was ripping tonight.”
With the top runners closely matched on pace, Earl made sure to focus on the starts.
“I knew I had to control the start, and I had to beat Thomas on the restart. If he got in front, he’d be hard to pass again.”
The margin at the finish was 0.394secs with Thomas edging closer in the final laps. The battle for third saw several drivers stake a claim to the podium, but it was Dion Kendall who had the late race pace to finish third ahead of Brad Curtin. Teenager Regan Le Cheminant drove to fifth place with Roydon White completing the top six.
Manawatu racer Peter Bengston won the BOP Super Saloon Car Championship to interrupt Chris Cowling’s summer of title success.
Bengston’s new Longhorn chassis looked superbly balanced as the former Super Stock racer drove away from the field.
“I started running the low line, and the car was good there, and then I tried the middle, and it was good up there as well. It felt like the car was stuck to the track like glue,” says Bengston.
Bengston eased away from Cowling to win the 20-lapper by a 4.7-second margin, the lead reducing in the closing laps as Bengston dealt with lapped traffic. Top qualifier George Crawford was third, the teenage rookie ahead of three former NZ champs – Sam Waddell, Brent Emerson and Steve Cowling.
Similar dominance was delivered by Auckland Stock Car racer Sam Wright, who won the BOP title with an unbeaten performance.
Wright won all the races to achieve a maximum score. He took an attacking attitude to any potential blocks from lapped cars in the closing laps of race three.
It was an Auckland 1-2 with Azaria Simpson having three strong drives to finish runner-up with fifth, third and second placings while Rotorua’s Caleb Stanaway completed the podium.
Jonathan Allard was a convincing winner of the BOP Sprint Car title, leading from start to finish after beating Michael Pickens away from the start.
Allard raced clear with Pickens crossing the line in second spot, but later being disqualified as he didn’t send his car to the post-race weigh-in. That promoted Zackary Sokol to second on his first Baypark appearance of the season and Cole Wood to third place.
The penultimate night of the season this Saturday night (March 21) has a strong field of cars being assembled for the annual Super Stock Rumble along with a trans-Tasman challenge for Youth Mini Stock with a team of six Australian drivers in action.
Header Image: Stuart Whitaker/The Write Angle
