The second meeting of Western Springs Speedways historic 80^th season on November 14 saw another great crowd in the terraces eager to honour the Western Springs heroes, past and present, featuring the Radio Hauraki ‘Night of Legends’, and the Auckland Speedway Vintage Club supported Heritage Shield’s for all classes. Longtime Western Springs announcer and Speedway Hall of Famer Bill Mudgway was the guest of honour, helping out with some of the commentary on the night.

Ryan Barry dominated the two Kiwi Kidz Quarter Midget races, chased by Hayden Guptill, Ben Le Cren, and Nathan Howard.

With close to thirty cars in the pits again, heat wins in the ultra competitive TQ class were shared by Lawrence Baker, Amanda Warren, former Track Champion Ross Linklater, and Chris Gwilliam.

Eight-times NZ Sprintcar Champion Alan Wakeling set the early pace during the Sprintcar heats with seventeen cars pitside, with the #27 Ampro Tools/Koken XXX driver winning the first heat. Glen Torpey, Jamie McDonald, and former National Champ Carl Wilson shared the other three heat wins, with Wakeling the top qualifier with a win and a third in his two heat races. Wilson’s final heat win, was notable for the victory wheelstand after the race, with Wilson back on form after a tough start to his new season campaign, and his Track Championship defence. Last weeks feature winner Dean Brindle suffered power steer problems in his second heat and would have some work to do in the feature from grid fourteen, while Mark Browne’s #21 Maxim had a driveline failure that would see the popular driver unfortunately missing the feature lineup.

Chris McCutcheon won the first Midget heat early on in the night on an ideal surface, while Michael Pickens starting off his night with a win in the #54 GVI Breka in the second Midget heat from pole. A blistering13.856 second lap from Pickens would be the benchmark for the night. Matt Thompson won heat three, from impressive rookie Hayden Williams, and Lance Beale in the new Synergy V8 powered BNT Aggressor.

Pickens started from grid eight for heat four, eventually finishing third behind long-time Midget rivals Brad Mosen, and Shane Alach. The last two laps had the crowd on their feet as Alach and Mosen traded slidejobs, with Michael running right with them to the line. With a win and a third from his heats, Pickens would start the all important feature from pole, alongside Midget rookie Hayden Williams.

The F2 Midget Feature was again won by 15-year-old Midget rookie Nick Cassidy driving for the HLR Team, ahead of Huntly’s Nevan Bowman, and former Stockcar racer Rose Halfpenny. Cassidy won all three races on the night for the F2’s, making it six wins from six starts this season. Seven F2’s ran during the night.

After a fantastic opening night TQ feature, it was going to be a hard task to top it for action, but the twenty-four car feature lineup did just that on night two. Ross Linklater, keen to go one better than last week, started from pole as the top qualifier from the heats, and was challenged initially by the returning 3NZ Suzuki/Breka of Brock Maskovich, Lawrence Baker, Paul Le Cren, Gina Harris, and first night feature winner Shane O’Connor in the 1NZ Harris/Kawasaki. Linklater survived every challenge launched at him to win from a charging Le Cren, and Shane O’Connor. Chris Gwilliam, Jared Taylor, and Steve Smith made up the top six.

Jamie McDonald showed his intentions early in the 20-lap Sprintcar feature, passing pole sitter Alan Wakeling for the lead. With laps in the 12.4 seconds range, it wasn’t long before the leader got into lapped traffic. A couple of cautions closed the field back up during the race, with Alan Wakeling starting the last restart in second with a deflating left rear tyre. Wakeling was passed by Ryan O’Connor and an impressive Glen Torpey off the restart, but managed to finish fourth in the end, behind an elated McDonald, O’Connor and Torpey. It was Torpey’s first Western Springs feature podium. First night winner Brindle ended up against the pit straight wall on the last lap and was scored as a DNF, putting a dent in his Track Championship points chase.

Michael Pickens charged to the front from the front row at the start of the Midget feature, initially chased by Alach, Worboys, Shaun Insley, Williams, and Michael Kendall. Max Butterworth had paced the field to the green flag in the famous #22 Ken Mullins owned VW Midget. Michael and Alach were again happy to run the highline, while Worboys and Insley worked the drivier, but rougher lowline. The #54 was never headed, and apart from a big bicycle late in the 25 lap race, and a couple of restarts, Pickens held on to win his second feature in a row for the 09/10 Ampro Tools season, from the ever spectacular Alach, and Insley. McCutcheon, Worboys and Kendall rounded out the top six.

The end of the night featured nearly 30 vintage Speedway cars making their way around the Springs quarter mile, ending a great meeting honouring our Speedway legends.

The third meeting for the season at Western Springs is on Saturday night November 28, and sees the return of popular Americans Joey Saldana, Craig Dollansky, and Jonathan Allard for the Wynns International Sprintcar Classic. A meeting not to be missed, with the night also featuring the official 80^th Birthday celebrations at Western Springs Speedway for the season.

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