IVAN SMEATON
The big moment of the final qualifying round as Daniel Burmeister, left, and Hamish McLeod defeat title contender Joshua Walsh, obscured from the Robin Pratt Memorial, with James Clarke up front, avoiding the chaos.
MOTORWAY: William Humphries showed all his driving experience to dominate the first major stock car title of the season at Robertson Prestige International Speedway.
With the weather playing along and the rain pouring down shortly after the completion of Saturday night’s meeting, it was a perfect night for a run for the prestigious Robin Pratt Memorial stock car title.
Humphries, the former national superstock champion who returned to double duty last year by also driving his stock car, held the title after winning the first of three motos from the front.
A third-place finish in the second moto put him two points ahead of Stratford’s Joshua Walsh.
Humphries is an engineer who also builds race cars, from speedway to hot rods.
He decided to put his business first and race second this season, so he was thrilled to secure the Robin Pratt.
“I’m not sure how much I’ll be racing as my company is very busy and I’m committed to that,” said Humphries. “I will race when I have time.”
Humphries was not interested in discussing whether he will race teams this season.
He said that after starting the third moto at the back of the 32-car field, it was all about mastering the gaps to his closest title contenders.
“I kept counting cars in front of me and stayed out of trouble.”
Midway through the third moto, Humphries seemed destined to finish second behind Walsh, who was up front, with Humphries in midfield.
IVAN SMEATON
William Humphries on his way to the title.
Then came a brilliant piece of blocking from teammate Daniel Burmeister, who held up Walsh before Hamish McLeod joined and, with Burmeister, blocked Walsh from the title fight.
Rebecca Barr, who, like Humphries, races in both stock car classes, finished second with defending champion Roydon Winstanley maintaining his impressive history with the Robin Pratt, finishing third.
Winstanley has won the Robin Pratt twice, twice second and once third.
Wayne Hemi made a great season debut with two wins in the superstock races after Zane Dykstra won the opening race from Jack Miers.
The fight between Jordan Dare and Miers all night was a great watch for the crowd.
It culminated in a classic third race where the two drivers pushed each other out of the way four times, culminating in both drivers flying into the wall in the final corner, leaving Trent James in second.
After failing to complete their first sidecar race of the evening, Mike Zachan and Ben Franklin put themselves in the position and easily won the second moto.
IVAN SMEATON
William Humphries, left, leads Brittany Carpenter and Rebecca Barr.
They then comfortably won the post after a start when it looked like one of the teams had hit the starting tapes before the start.
It clearly put Tony Hislop and Aidan Foothead, who had won their first two races, off the track and they finished in fourth place.
Stratford’s Andrew Tippett took advantage of leader Martin Halcrow having a mechanical problem to win the sedan, ahead of teammate Jarrod MacBeth.
Hamish Moore of MacBeth and Gisborne had won the opening races.
It was a clean sheet for NZ3 Max Guilford, who easily dominated each of the three dwarf races.
Chris Bagrie took a strong second place in the opening heat before finishing third in the feature.
Levi Sherwood, Shane Dewar and Karl McGill all took podium finishes in the races.
It was a family affair in the adult ministock class, with Conor Linklater winning the opening race, then the feature, while brother Liam won the second race and finished second in the feature.