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Jarrod MacBeth

New Zealand Modified Champion Brad Lane came to Taranaki to defend his New Zealand title that he won last season at Huntly Speedway and that is exactly what he done over two nights of racing at Stratford Speedway, fending off challenges from twenty five other competitors to again be victorious and retain his title of New Zealand Champion.

Lane qualified comfortably on Friday night finishing second in his group behind Christchurch racer Jacob Mitchell before doing what he needed to do on Saturday night in the finals to retain his number.  Starting at the very back of the field in the first heat, Lane moved up an incredible thirteen places to finish seventh before placing third in heat two from grid ten and then placing second in heat three from grid one, recording enough points to win the title outright from local driver Carl Hinton by five points.  Hinton had made the most of a grid one start to lead the first heat for a large portion of the race before New Zealand ranked number three Luke Brown from Auckland made a pass and won the race.  He than made good ground in heat two to finish fifth from grid eleven before doing enough work in the final to finish tenth from grid twenty.  Brown retained his number three ranking, finishing third in the championship after recording two race wins.  A DNF in heat two hurting his chances of progressing further up the rankings.

As there is with any event, there were plenty of hard luck stories.  Three of the most notable being Chistchurch racer Jacob Mitchell who was very fast in qualifying and looked to be a serious threat for the podium until a flat tyre in the opening lap of the first finals heat saw his chances diminish while Huntly races Brett Parsons exited the championship in the most spectacular way with a very high roll over that destroyed his car.  Popular local driver John Jackson, who crashed out of qualifying returned with a notable ‘bin it or win it’ attitude on the track on the Saturday night, making enough passes to progress through the repechage and then running the outside line and completing daring passes next to the wall to move through the field in the finals from grid sixteen to fourth.  After running third in heat two and then being relegated to the rear of the field for an on track incident, he made his way back to sixth position with the same daring driving style.  Jackson eventually cam unstuck in the third heat when he rode over Newton Gordge’s wheel and slammed into the wall.  If the title was to be won by the bravest driver, then ‘Jacko’ would have won it for sure.

The second tier event was won by Lane’s sister Samantha ensuring that both siblings went home with a trophy.  Ricky Dykstra was second and Hayden Corbett third.

A full contingent of support classes over both nights saw a number of other trophies up for grabs.  Logan Sharpe and Scott Williams won the Superstock Best Paris ahead of Kylee Symes and Matt Picard while Phillip Gargan and Hamish Booker were third.  Booker won the King of the Mountain Superstock Champs from Sharpe and Williams.  Ryan Hurliman won the Youth Ministock 60^th Anniversary Cup, Cory Symes won the Youth version of the 60^th cup.  Minisprints raced for a range of trophies as part of their CANAM series that featured drivers from USA and Canada.  Erin Uhlenberg, Cameron Hurley, Daniel Nickel, Cody Ogle, Jono Noonan and Canadian driver Luke Didiuk all featured amongst the podium placers.