This message was edited on
February 24, 2010 at
11:36:24 AM by Gary Thomas
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Story courtesy Evan Griffen-
Allard Ends Nz Tour With Another Victory
Author : Evan Griffen
American Sprintcar stars Ricky Logan and Jonathan Allard each won the two Sprintcar features on Saturday night at Western Springs Speedway. Allard spectacularly won his from the back of the grid after taking up the challenge to start rear of field for an extra $1000 bonus if he or Logan could win starting last, while Logan won a crash marred first Sprintcar feature for the Auckland Championship crown. A huge crowd enjoyed the action of twin features on a fast and flat Western Springs Speedway track.
The night started off with Heat 3 from last weekends rain out to find the final feature field for the Auckland Championships which was by Jamie McDonald securing top qualifier. Heat one for the 30 lap feature started of badly for Mark Browne who hit the wall sending him infield on his warm up lap. Second heat of the evening saw Palmerston North’s Nick Pedley night end after smashing into the wall from contact with Jeremy Halpin in the middle of turn one and two on lap one. American Jonathan Allard took out heat two with fellow countryman Ricky Logan winning the third and final heat.
Dean Brindle got the jump on Logan at the start with Allard going top outside Logan before the two got together on pit straight collapsing Allard’s front end coming to slow stop in turn three leaving him a sitting duck with McDonald, Halpin, Glenn Torpey slamming Allard’s rear leaving four cars with alot of damage. Was a great call by Springs Speedway to allow these involved to get their cars back to pits to give teams more time to rebuild cars before the 30 lap Sprintcar feature which wasn’t far behind. Auckland Sprintcar Championship was won by American Ricky Logan followed by former New Zealand Champ Dean Brindle and young Ryan O’Conner rounding out the podium. Hamilton’s Greg Pickerall finished fourth then Alan Wakeling, Browne, Hans Boere and Raymond Griffen rounding out the finishers.
The final feature of the evening was about to get underway with Brindle and Daniel Eggleton on the front row for this 30 lap Sprintcar Invitation Feature. Row two was filled by Harvard Daniels and 8 x NZ Champion Alan Wakeling, row three with Torpey and Browne, Row four saw Pickerall alongside O’Conner followed by Boere, McDonald, Karen Forsey, Halpin, Griffen and for their final time at Springs Speedway both Americans decided at the start of the evening to start at rear of field to Salute the fans for their support.
Eggleton got the jump and raced away to a early lead chased by Wakeling and Brindle. Logan was quickly up to seventh from grid fourteen while Allard slammed the pit wall with the right rear breaking the Jacobs ladder off whilst in tenth. Pickerall hit the fence after he made contact with Boere in turn 2 ripping off the top wing and damaging the front of the Century Batteries car. On the restart Eggleton got away again only to spin up coming out of turn four ending his night. Eggleton’s gear sets broke which caused the spin.
Wakeling takes over the lead with Brindle and O’Conner chasing hard, Allard and Logan charging hard through this field who are already up into the top 5. O’Conner who has a broken top wing passes Wakeling on the inside to take over the lead on lap 13, Lap 17 saw Allard pass Brindle and Wakeling to take over 2nd spot chasing down O’Conner with that wing problem. Brindle spins on infield moving him back to fifth moving Logan up to fourth working on Wakeling, Logan passes Wakeling on lap 22 while Allard blasts round the top of O’Conner who got stuck behind lapped traffic on the same lap.
Allard takes his fourth feature win at the Springs from the rear of field chased by O’Conner in second whom has had a fantastic season and Logan rounding out the top 3. Wakeling finished fourth followed by Browne, Forsey, Torpey, Daniels, Halpin and McDonald rounding out the top 10. Finishing at the tail of the field was Hans Boere, Dean Brindle and Raymond Griffen.
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