Former New Zealand Sprint Car champion Michael Pickens (Auckland) survived a battle of attrition to win an incident-packed Bay Piston Cup 30-lapper on Saturday night.
Only five of the 20 starters were running at the finish after a series of crashes eliminated multiple cars and the extended running under caution led to fuel issues for several of the survivors.
The race had three leaders with defending champion Dean Brindle (Hamilton) – seeking a Piston Cup hat-trick – being chased by national champ Daniel Thomas (Hamilton) and top qualifier Dean Cooper (Taupo) in the early stages. The carnage in the early laps left 11 cars mobile with just seven laps completed.
It was a close mid-race battle between the Hamilton racers with Thomas taking the lead from Brindle on lap 17. At the 20-lap mark only seven cars remained and fuel became the deciding factor with Brindle running dry on lap 23 at the same time as fifth placed Holly Williams also ran out of fuel.
Thomas’ car faltered with three laps to go and Pickens swept to the lead on the penultimate lap, but not without fuel worries of his own.
“My car started to run out of fuel with about three laps to go,” said Pickens.
Pickens had only qualified 17th in the 29-car field and needed a determined heat race charge to progress into the top-six Dash and start fourth in the main event.
“We struggled in qualifying. The track caught us out and the team worked all night to adjust the car,” said Pickens.
Pickens becomes the seventh different winner in eight Sprint Car features this summer and also completes a sweep of Baypark’s $5000-to-win flagship events after winning the Bay 51 Midget Car race earlier this month. It was his first win in a Sprint Car at Baypark in 23 months.
“We’ve struggled a bit at Baypark recently and the Sprint Car racing is so competitive now with about six guys who are really fast,” Pickens said.
Tokoroa’s Keaton Dahm finished second, Thomas coughed home in third while Auckland’s Adam Child and Taranaki racer Bayley Betts completed the finishers.
While Brindle missed out on a Piston Cup hat-trick, two other racers extended their Baypark win streaks to three-in-a-row for the season.
Rotorua’s Boyd Westbury remains the pace-setter in the 6 Shooters and after an early dice with his brother Luke, he raced away to win the 15-lapper by a 5secs margin with Tauranga’s Josh McClymont in third behind the Westburys. The F2 Midget Feature produced a duel at the front between front row starters Troy Jeffries and James Earl. They swapped the lead and raced side-by-side for the first half of the race until Earl edged ahead to win by 0.3secs from Jeffries with Leyton Kendall making a last lap pass to pip Blake Allinson for third.