Speedway’s high-powered winged warriors have assembled a 37-strong entry list, headed by defending champion Daniel Thomas of Hamilton, to contest the 2024 New Zealand Sprint Car Championship at Western Springs Speedway this weekend.
Last year’s January floods caused significant damage to the venue, which forced its closure until just last weekend when it hosted the North Island Sprintcar title.
Repairs at the venue are ongoing, with restrictions on capacity and accessibility for this weekend’s two-day event.
The $ 5,000-to-win 30-lap final on Saturday follows five rounds of qualifying heats to determine grid positions for the winner-takes-all feature. The format comprises 15 heats in total, with nine scheduled on Friday and six more on Saturday evening to determine 16 starters.
Two more are added from each of two repechages to complete a 20-car grid.
Thomas won his first NZ title at Christchurch’s Ruapuna Speedway last February and has continued his pace-setting form into this summer with Baypark and Kihikihi feature race wins.
His main threats for the title include the in-form Michael Pickens (Auckland) who is fresh from North Island title and Baypark Piston Cup wins in recent weeks. Last Saturday night at the delayed opening to the season at Western Springs, Pickens led home Jonathan Allard and Christchurch racer Matthew Leversedge to win the North Island title.
Thomas, Pickens and Auckland-based Californian racer Allard are among nine former winners of the NZ title chasing more success this weekend. The others are Aucklanders Jamie McDonald, Christchurch racer Jamie Duff, Hamilton’s Dean Brindle, Tauranga’s Rodney Wood, Kapiti’s Jamie Larsen and veteran Pukekohe racer Kerry Brocas.
Brocas is the most recent NZ champion to be crowned at Western Springs, winning the 2018 event.
The unknown quantity in the field is young California racer Joel Myers Jr who races for Te Anau’s Daniel Anderson.
Myers was a strong contender at Ruapuna last season with a bold charge around the outside line before finishing fifth and during his second Kiwi campaign this summer he’s already won seven times on South Island tracks.
Myers hasn’t raced at Western Springs before, but Anderson’s team are proven winners at national level claiming victory in the 2019 title with California racer Buddy Kofoid. Myers also won this year’s War of the Wings title in the South Island, showing he’ll be one to watch.
The continuing growth of Sprint Car racing in New Zealand has seen more than 80 drivers appear at tracks from Auckland to Invercargill this season and there has never been such nationwide depth in speedway’s fastest category.
More than capable of delivering a podium result are the likes of Leversedge, Nelson hard charger Connor Rangi, Tokoroa brothers James and Keaton Dahm, Wellington’s Stephen Taylor, Taupo’s Dean Cooper and Aucklanders Ryan O’Connor and Max Guilford.
Baypark Speedway is represented by the largest contingent with 16 contracted drivers entered. There are 10 from Western Springs, five from Kihikihi, three from Christchurch, two from Nelson and Taylor is the lone Palmerston North based racer.
