Michael Pickens, won the eighth round of the National Midget Car Series raced over 30-laps at Stratford Speedway on January 17. It was his eighth consecutive Midget feature win this season. Pickens was also lucky in the end after a last lap clash with a lapped car nearly took him out of the race.
32 Midgets from Auckland, Waikato and Stratford were there for the latest round of the $100,000 Samsung/Century Batteries National Midget Car Series.
The first two heats were marred by two huge crashes that damaged the cars of many of the top contenders. Graham Standring dominated the first heat, which saw Shane Alach, Dave Gick, and series contender Wayne Green eliminated in a first lap pile up. Standring won from Carl Worboys, Angus McLeod, and Pickens. Worboys started from grid ten, Pickens from grid eight.
The second pile up involved over half the field in the second heat when two local Stratford cars took each other out at the front of the field just after the start. Some of those involved included Michael Kendall, Scott Buckley, Alvin Cobb, Bill Clarkson and new Taranaki Midget Champ Lydia Dickinson. Brad Mosen charged to the front from grid five to win from Lance Beale (grid twelve), and current National Champ Shaun Insley from grid fifteen!
After two blistering heats and some frantic work from the teams in the pits, the drivers were ready for heats three and four. Pickens won heat three, setting a new Stratford Midget track record on the way of 14.2 seconds to an easy win, ahead of Shaun Insley and Waikato’s Michael Brunt. A notable DNF in this heat was third in the points Carl Worboys, who made contact with another car ending his race.
Lance Beale won the fourth heat, which saw the former two-time National TQ Champ top qualify from the heat races from Pickens and Insley. Impressive local Ricky Paul was second to Beale in the final heat, ahead of Tony Fabish and Shane Alach.
Alach won the last chance ‘B’ Main from Stratford’s Greg Jones, Scott Buckley, and Wayne Green.
Pickens won the start of the thirty lap feature, followed by Beale, Insley, Standring, and Mosen. At least five yellow flags saw some of the top series contenders fall by the wayside in various incidents. Among them were Worboys and Beale, who were third and fourth in the NMCS points going into the round, and the unfortunate Shane Alach, who got upside down for the second time during the night. Another to not finish was Scott Buckley who had charged from grid nineteen to well inside the top ten only to get involved in a couple of late race incidents, ending his night.
Pickens ran away from each of the restarts to control the race lead, running up against the fence at both ends of a racy Stratford Speedway, chased by Insley, and Angus McLeod.
Lapped traffic very nearly played a part in the final outcome when Pickens ran over another cars right rear wheel on the last lap, damaging the front axle on Pickens’ machine. He nearly spun in the final corner and Shaun Insley tried get a run on the ailing Pickens at the line. Pickens held on for the win from Insley, McLeod, and the first local home Duane Hickman. Wayne Green was fourth, having started all the way from grid twenty.
Pickens’ win extends his NMCS lead to 261 points, ahead of Brad Mosen on 186 points. Carl Worboys is still third (111 points) ahead of Lance Beale who sits fourth on 106 points. The top six is rounded out by Shaun Insley fifth (144 points), and Wayne Green in sixth (135 points).
It’s a busy few weeks coming up for the Midget class with round nine of the NMCS at Kihikihi Speedway on Jan. 24, then the 2009 International Midget World Series at Western Springs starting January 28, where NZ’s best take on the might of the American Midget stars. Pickens will lead the Kiwi Midget Test team, which also includes Brad Mosen, Carl Worboys, Lance Beale, Graham Standring, Shane Alach, and Shaun Insley. | 
