Not for the first time in recent history, the New Zealand Sprint Car Championship has been won by the youngest driver in the field.
Just short of his 18th birthday, California’s Joel Myers Jr mastered challenging track conditions at Western Springs Speedway last night to lead all but a brief moment of the 30-lap championship final.
The teenager, from Sebastopol in Northern California, was racing at Western Springs for the first time. It’s his second summer season racing for Te Anau’s Daniel Anderson in South Island events, and his win duplicates the success Anderson’s team achieved with California teenager Buddy Kofoid at Cromwell in 2019.
Myers was the top qualifier after five rounds of preliminary heats raced on a tyre-eating slick surface on Friday night and then a rough track last night.
“These championships are about keeping your nose clean, not making mistakes and finishing all the races. Especially when the track is so technical,” says Myers.
“That’s what I was able to do all weekend, and when I made a mistake, luck was on our side, and I got a second chance.”
Myers had beaten Michael Pickens away at the race start and led for the first 10 laps before a yellow when James Dahm spun in front of leaders.
On the restart, Myers chose the outside line and was beaten away by Pickens. But an immediate yellow saw Myers swap to the inside for the next restart and regain control of the race.
He led the rest of the way, and when the chasing Pickens spun away second place on lap 16, Myers was no longer under any threat. He was able to pick his through the cratered turns and win by 1.3secs from Taupo’s Dean Cooper. Two-time champ Jamie Larsen (Kapiti) completed the podium.
“The track was so technical, but the car was great,” says Myers.
“I thought traffic would play a bigger part, but the yellows came at the right time for me.”
Cooper’s weekend was also a story of pace and consistency which saw him qualify fourth.
“We close at the restart but that was the only time. Joel was too fast,” says Cooper.
“Our weekend went really well. We scored good points from our front grids on Friday and tonight we just kept moving forward.”
Larsen battled from mid-distance with a broken Jacobs ladder (which locates the diff) upsetting the handing: “The car was a dog after that,” he says.
Only 14 cars faced the starter for the 30-lapper after a lap one incident saw Jamie McDonald, Zackary Sokol, Max Guilford and Jamie Duff eliminated in a heavy crash entering turn three.
Christian Hermansen was also sidelined with front-end damage from that melee, while a disappointed Jonathan Allard didn’t get a chance from his grid three starting spot as the car broke its torque tube when it was pushed away for the original start.
The finish order behind the podium spots saw defending champ Daniel Thomas (Hamilton) finish fourth ahead of Stephen Taylor (Wellington), Dean Brindle (Hamilton), Matthew Leversedge (Christchurch), Pickens, who restarted rear of the field, Tokoroa’s James Dahm and Rodney Wood (Tauranga).
Myers continues his Kiwi campaign this weekend, chasing the South Island title at Ruapuna, then returns home. He’ll be back for the NZ Grand Prix weekend at Ruapuna on April 4-5.
The best race of the night was the Auckland Championship Midget Car feature with national champ Brad Mosen picking his way through lapped traffic to win by 0.178s from chasing California racer Thomas Meseraull.
