CRUCIAL CHORE: Hawke's Bay's Duane Todd clears clay off his tyres before Saturday night's first championship heat. PHOTO/DUNCAN BROWN
CRUCIAL CHORE: Hawke's Bay's Duane Todd clears clay off his tyres before Saturday night's first championship heat. PHOTO/DUNCAN BROWN
Aucklander Hayden Guptill has dreamt about winning the New Zealand TQ championship since he was a youngster and those dreams became reality at Meeanee on Saturday night.
Guptill, 18, won the 31-car Efficient Moving and Storage championship after a three-car, four-lap run-off which saw Auckland rookie and former karter KalebCurrie finish second and Hawke's Bay's sole qualifier for the top 24, two-time national champion Duane Todd, finish third.
"I've been in this class for three years. As was the case at my previous two nationals I was the top qualifier in my group this weekend but it was a case of third time lucky as far as the title was concerned. There was definitely a feeling of relief there," Guptill explained before the prizegiving.
A former Pakuranga College student who will start a sports health and physical education related course at Auckland University next month, Guptill, agreed the grid draw for the run-off was a key factor. He started from grid two, Currie from pole and Todd from grid three.
"This meeting had the best racing I have been involved in. The crew has worked so hard for this title and coming down here for a meeting three weeks ago certainly paid off," Guptill said.
"I've qualified for the frontrow for the re-run of the final race of the New Zealand Grand Prix at Western Springs on March 18 ... hopefully I will win that title too," he added.
This was the 64th edition of the annual championship and Todd, 38, missed out on becoming the third three-time winner. His father and fellow two-time winner of the title, Steve Todd, told him if he had been able to make a pass on the first corner of the run-off his car was good enough to get him to the front but he was unable to make that pass.
"I'm still happy to finish third in a quality field like we had here this weekend. There was good racing from everybody and I've never had a third before so I've had the trifecta now," Todd added referring to his two second placings in the championship.
Todd qualified third equal in his group on Friday night. In the first of the three championship 20-lap races on Saturday night he finished ninth from grid 12, in the second he was 11th from grid 24 and he was a convincing winner of heat three from grid two.
His Bay clubmate Kris Gillies did well to finish second in the two consolation heats after two DNFs on Friday night. The other Bay-contracted driver, Doug Morris, had 16th and 14th placings in his two qualifying heats on Friday night but rolled with two laps remaining in Saturday night's 11-car repechage from which the top four finishers qualified for the top 24.
Morris was in ninth place at the time. Aucklander Shayne Minchington also had a spectacular flip on the first lap of the third championship heat.
Hawke's Bay's New Zealand Touring Car Championship driver Sam Barry collected one of two stirrer's prizes after an entertaining 52-car demolition derby won by Mark Butzbach. Jessica Gautrey captured the other stirrer's prize.
Hawke's Bay's Wayne Melling won the New Zealand Streetstock Grand Prix in Rotorua on Saturday night. He is the third Hawke's Bay club member to win a New Zealand Grand Prix title this season after Jason Long did it in the superstock class at Meeanee and Bradley Wilson-Dean in the solobike class in Auckland earlier this month.
