Motorsport: Kiwi speedway smiles short-lived

Rico Abreu climbs the fence after winning on Boxing Day. Photo / Shot360.

Kiwi smiles were short-lived at WxC Speedway-Western Springs at the weekend as the Americans overcame test race defeat to claim both midget feature wins in the international speedway double-header in Auckland.

The New Zealand midget team started perfectly on Friday night, winning the teams racing challenge by two points over Team USA, and well ahead of the Australians.

However, both Friday and Saturday night's main event feature races went the way of the Americans, in the form of USAC National Midget champion Rico Abreu and Indianapolis 500 competitor Bryan Clauson.

Abreu was methodical in his triumph; starting seventh on the grid, he picked cars off as they made mistakes and took his time in working to the front, eventually grabbing the lead from Auckland's Brad Mosen with four laps to go in the 25-lap race. Mosen held on for second ahead of midget veteran Shayne Alach.

"The track got really good towards the end of the race so I just took my time and we got there in the end," said Abreu.

"I've had a great year up in the States and I'm just looking to finish it off strong down here and just keep racing hard."

Following the win and the traditional doughnuts on the infield, Abreu delighted the 16,000-strong Boxing Day crowd by climbing the catch fence on the front straightaway (pictured) to celebrate.

Clauson converted a pole position starting grid to win on Saturday night in an extremely rare green-to-chequered World 30-lap Derby.

The former Western Springs lap record holder checked out early to win the uninterrupted feature event ahead of fellow Americans Darren Hagen and Abreu. Hayden Williams was the first of the Kiwis home in fourth.

"The car felt really good on the first night but we just couldn't quite get the job done, so it was great to make improvements [on Saturday]; we'll keep working at it and trying to get even better and hopefully everyone will stay behind us," said Clauson.

"A lot of people back home in the States were watching on the live stream which was really cool. I've got my eye on the World 50-lapper coming up so hopefully they'll see me get a win in that one too."

Meanwhile, Auckland's Scott Baker continued his utter dominance of the TQ midget division in winning the New Zealand Grand Prix at the weekend; finishing ahead of Canterbury's Jeremy Webb and Auckland speedway stalwart Paul LeCren.

The sprint car double header saw current 2NZ Dean Brindle and Californian-Kiwi Jonathan Allard share the spoils as they picked up one feature race win each; while Auckland's Kayne Buck won the only F2 midget feature of the weekend.

The United Truck Parts International Midget Series will move to Huntly Speedway in the Waikato on Tuesday night for round three, before returning to WxC Speedway - Western Springs on Saturday.