A last corner winning move in the last race of Baypark Speedway’s 2025-26 Season Finale will provide a happy winter off-season memory for Tauranga racer Roydon White.
The final race of the season decided the Bay of Plenty F2 Midget Car title and saw White take an early lead ahead of top qualifier Harry Hodgson.
But lapped traffic gave Hodgson a chance to grab the lead on lap nine, and he built a useful advantage.
White never gave up chasing and gained on Hodgson in the last two laps. In the last corner, White’s decision to take the outside line around a lapped car – while Hodgson opted for the inside – gave him enough momentum to exit the corner with his nose ahead and win by just 0.079s.
White is a former motocross racer who moved to speedway to race in the Six Shooter class. He shifted focus to the F2 Midgets this season and has progressed to become one of the pace-setters in the second half. The feature win was his first in the class.
“I got a good start, and I knew I needed to get a gap, but then Harry passed me in the traffic,” White says.
“But I caught back up just as we took the white flag, and in the last corner, the traffic worked in my favour. I’m stoked.”
Auckland racer Ryan O’Connor completed an impressively consistent summer campaign, winning his second Sprint Car feature race of the season to secure the Auto Super Shoppes Baypark Trifecta series.
O’Connor was chased by Tokoroa’s Keaton Dahm until the only caution interrupted the 20-lapper just after half-distance. Three laps earlier a large chunk of clay had found its way under the bonnet of Dahm’s car, sticking in the throttle linkages and smashing a spark plug, and he was unable to circulate at slow speed under the caution. He stopped and was unable to restart.
Former NZ midget Car champ Hayden Williams finished second in a 1-2 finish for the HLR Racing team while teenager Cruz Hodson (Katikati) gained his second podium of the season, taking third spot.
The Stock Car feature race was won by Kihikihi racer William Whyte ahead of Gisborne’s Brad Simpson and Kihikihi’s Matthew Shaw, with the early heat race wins going to Chloe Ingram and Whyte.
An impressive unbeaten performance with four wins from four starts clinched the BOP Youth Mini Stock title for Hawke’s Bay racer Troy Peach.
The return of demo derby entertainment to Baypark Speedway for the first time since 2024 saw 40 cars battle to a standstill in the crowd-pleasing Metalman Recyclers Demo Derby- Bay. The honours went to one of the smallest cars and youngest drivers in the field, with 17-year-old Ethan Ward driving a Honda City to claim the $1000 prize.
The 2026-27 season at Baypark Speedway will begin on Saturday, October 24 (Labour Weekend). The headline event of the season will be the 56th running of the New Zealand Sprint Car Championship (date TBC).
Header Image: Stuart Whitaker/The Write Angle
