Sensational season at Western Springs to wrap up on Saturday

Sensational season at Western Springs to wrap up on Saturday

What has been yet another stellar season of world class midget racing action will wind up with the 12th and final meeting at Western Springs Speedway this Saturday night.

The speedway has once again attracted the biggest names in New Zealand open-wheel speedway to the ¼ mile dirt oval, who have also been pitted against some of the biggest names in American and Australian Speedway racing in recent history.

First to visit were Sprintcar stars Donny Schatz, a five-time World of Outlaws champion, and Peter Murphy, who would go on to become New Zealand Sprintcar champion later in the season. Schatz would go on to win the International Sprintcar Series, heading home New Zealand-based American Jonathan Allard in a fierce battle.

After the International Sprintcar Series, a record field of eight International Midget drivers took to the track for four meetings over the Christmas/New Year period. American sensation Kyle Larson, who was only last weekend involved in a frightening wreck at Daytona in a NASCAR, took out the International Midget Series with a dominant display, becoming the first driver to win all four rounds in a season. He narrowly missed out on a fifth consecutive win in a non-series race, with only a blown tyre handing victory to Australia’s Nathan Smee.

Another American driver, Jerry Coons Jr., was the class of the field for both the North Island Midget and Barry Butterworth Classic meetings, the latter an impressive performance as the format saw the fastest drivers coming from the back of the grid.

Meanwhile the TQ Midgets have been the closest and hardest fought class all season with a multitude of winners over the season, but in the end it was Dylan McGregor who won the recent New Zealand Championship meeting after a thrilling feature race.

Kiwi drivers have had their share of success though, with both Michael Pickens and Brock Maskovich taking a pair of Midget feature wins, while Jamie McDonald was the lone Kiwi Sprintcar feature winner with American drivers Schatz, Allard, Murphy and Ricky Logan claiming the remaining honours.

Saturday night’s racing sees not only the final round of the track championship, but one last chance for many a top driver to take a first feature win for the season.

Race day sees gates open at 5pm with the first race getting underway at 6.30. Adults are $25 with kids under the age of 16 free with a paying adult. For more information, check out www.springsspeedway.com.

ENDS

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