It was a race that Barry Butterworth would have been proud of. Michael Pickens capped a dominant National Midget Car Series season with a hard fought $10,000 win over New Zealand Midget Champion Shayne Alach in the inaugural Seamount sponsored  “Barry Butterworth Classic” 40 lap midget car feature last Saturday night. A big crowd was on hand at Waikaraka Park to watch Pickens and Alach duel it out over the last 35 laps. Alach made a valiant effort over the last few laps but Pickens held his nerve to win his ninth straight NMCS feature this season. It was a fitting finale for the NMCS to honour one of New Zealand’s greatest Speedway racers.

A Shaun Insley spin on lap two of the feature saw a good portion of the field sprawled across the track and with nine cars going to the tail of the field it swung an immediate advantage in Pickens’ favour. The #54 Ed Pink Ford/Breka driver went from a grid thirteen starting spot after he dropped a rocker in his heat race, to be in fifth place on the lap two restart.

So the green flag waved again and out front 1NZ Shane Alach was steadily pulling away from the field. A yellow on lap fifteen put Pickens in a challenging position and a small Alach bobble a few laps later gave Pickens the advantage he needed to seize the lead, a lead he would never surrender.

Meanwhile Brad Mosen held third place and went into battle with new NZ GP Champ Scott Buckley. Buckley continued his good late season form and was helped by a broken oil pump drive belt would ultimately bring Mosens race to an abrupt stop with only a handful of laps left leaving Buckley to collect the $3000 for third place.

Graham Standring, who had to come from the back, drove a brilliant race to finish fourth after a tremendous battle with Shaun Insley, Angus McLeod, Michael Brunt and Lance Beale. Beale was top qualifier on the night and took the “$15,000 Front Row Challenge” as the top qualifier. He went to dead last starting spot for the feature event and eventually finished seventh.

Rounding out the top ten were Jo Malone and Wayne Green.

Pickens had already wrapped up the NMCS points title but Carl Worboys, who was taken out in the second lap incident, breathed a sigh of relief when Mosen stopped.  Worboys and Mosen have battled most of the season for the $7500 second place in the NMCS, so with the Mosen DNF, Worboys narrowly hung on to second place in the series.

Samsung/Century Batteries National Midget Car Series Top Ten

(1)   54 Michael Pickens – 335 points

(2)   21 Carl Worboys – 204

(3)   2NZ Brad Mosen – 202

(4)   77 Shaun Insley – 194

(5)   87 Lance Beale – 167

(6)   10 Wayne Green – 158

(7)   3NZ Angus McLeod – 153

(8)   33 Graham Standring – 133

(9)   25 Scott Buckley – 130

(10)96 Chris McCutcheon – 118

The full points board is updated in the results section of the Western Springs Speedway website.

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