Speedway: Jamieson quick to draw in 6-Shooters

Martin Jamieson won the South Pacific 6-shooter title at Baypark Family Speedway at the weekend. Photo / Stuart Whitaker

The drivers regard it as an unofficial national championship, so it's no surprise that South Pacific 6-shooter title winner Martin Jamieson was happy with his night's work at Baypark Family Speedway on Saturday.

The newest class in New Zealand speedway, 6-Shooters have yet to have Speedway New Zealand-endorsed titles to fight for. The cars are based on a sprint car chassis with a V6 motor.

With the 22-car field divided into two groups, Jamieson, from Arapuni, won his first heat, then progressed to third to be top scorer on the night with choice of front row starting position for the feature. He chose the outside putting Gisborne's Chris Mackie (21G) on the pole.

Hamilton's Daniel Thomas, who had won both the 6-shooter and sprint car feature races at Baypark's previous meeting, was on grid three.

Jamieson got away from the start. Thomas dropped to fourth, but had moved up to second when the yellows were thrown on lap 10. However, a holed radiator saw Thomas pull to the infield before the green flag dropped again.

"I saw him on the infield and saw the water on the track, that's why I stayed low for a couple of laps because I saw the water up there and that can be quite dangerous," said Jamieson. "So I knew he was out but I knew 21 would be still behind me - I just didn't know how far."

In the end Jamieson slowly pulled away on that and a second restart to take the chequered flag, putting his speed down to the right set-up.

"The car was good, the track was good, I was happy in the car, so that's the main thing. If you're comfortable, you're fast. The engines are so even, I just probably had a slightly better set up than them."

The meeting also saw Tauranga's New Zealand champion Dan Corrin take his fifth feature win of the season at his home track in his saloon, Karl Hanlon take a clean sweep of four race wins in the super saloon class and Luke McClymont take his second feature win in the last three Baypark meetings.

- Tauranga's Rodney Wood came away from Palmerston North Speedway with the North Island Sprint Car title on Saturday night. The former national champion won his first heat and was fourth in his second to take a front row start for the title alongside Michael Pickens who suffered a puncture late in the race while second. That gave another Baypark driver, James Dahm (Tokoroa) second.