KEY POINTS:
It's hard to miss Gerry Linklater in the stockcar pits. He's a big lad with an almost angelic ready-for-a-smile face, topped by a flapping black-dyed mohawk.
Yet no one had their sights on the big fella from Wanganui during the New Zealand stockcar championships at Waikaraka Park on Saturday night. The 22-year-old Linklater was just a name on the 30-man list, and he wasn't expected to figure anywhere near the top of it by trophy time.
By the end of the three-heat championship, everyone was shaking his hand.
Despite being the only Wanganui driver in the field, he had edged past the big guns and their mates from Wellington, Palmerston North, Rotorua, Mt Maunganui, Rotorua, Auckland and the rest to claim the national title.
"It's awesome what he's done," said Palmerston North's Peter Rees, the beaten champion who has proudly worn 1NZ on his car for the past year.
"I suppose he might have had the same chance as the rest of us, but before the meeting no one would have even known he was there.
"He's as much an outsider as you can get - he had a couple of guys supporting him in the final heat, but he had more against him. And he's pulled it off."
This was a wonderful night for small-town sport.
Neutrals in the Auckland crowd cheered for Linklater as car 98V roared around the old-world track to claim the title. Other Wanganui crew members at the 18-race meeting pitched in to help.
"Wanganui is a small place and we're pretty tight knit - everyone helps everyone," said a beaming Linklater after accepting the $3000 first prize on the infield.
"We've got a little track there and we race every second week, but there aren't many cars. I've won the West Coast champs twice, but this is definitely the best I've ever driven.
"I'm always broke. I live at home. Everything I have goes into the car and the bus we travel around in. My parents aren't rich - dad's a bike mechanic and mum works in a cafe. So it's all out of my back pocket."
Linklater, an apprentice drainlayer, wades into the overtime during winter to finance his dream. He wanted to race stocks from the moment he and his mates saw a teams championship in Palmerston North.
"I told myself and my mates that that this was what I was going to do. Seven years later here I am. I've won New Zealand," he said.
Yet Linklater almost didn't make it to Auckland. He was on the verge of selling his car - a Ford body with a Holden V6 engine built by Shaun Smith and fellow Wanganui driver Dion Mooney - so he could afford to build his own car.
But the sale fell through and he entered the championship on Wednesday, left Wanganui at 4am on Friday, spent seven hours driving north with his equally dedicated crew, and qualified on Friday night.
He almost missed Saturday's second heat as well. His crew had to frantically replace a radiator and Linklater's was the last car on to the track.
Going into the final heat, he was in a tussle for the title with Palmerston North's Gary Davis, Rotorua's Steve Spanheke, Steve Axtens and Clive Pritchard, Aucklander Billy Neil, and Wellington's Richard Gaskin in the 2NZ car.
Rees, who had a flat tyre in the first race, was well out of the hunt.
By the end of the heat, Linklater had pipped Spanheke by two points after a brutal race that Rees described as "more like a demolition derby in stockcars".
Linklater said: "A couple of those guys from Rotorua and the Mount were really after us, but we managed to get away each time. I just turned the brain off and put the foot down each time."
Including on the finish line, where he broke an axle with a celebratory donut.
But after news came through to the pits that the title was his, he told a crew member that drivers all over the country would be out to give him a rough time from now on.
He even sought out Rees, to ask him what stockcar life was like once 1NZ was painted on the side.
Rees said: "When you are the champion you've got to travel and show it off. I said to him as long as he drives like he did tonight and proves he can wear the No 1, people will leave him alone and he'll have a good time."
High
The two bashings of the Aussies, including one of the great one-day games at a packed Eden Park
Low
How can there be any after such a great cricket weekend
