The final round for the North Island Championship in the Nexen Tyre Mazda Racing Series ran at Hampton Downs over Anzac weekend. It’s fair to say calculators were out along pit lane and everyone had done their math on the points. With each driver having to drop their worst non-penalty race result from the season the weekend started with Rex Edwards in first place on 695, second Leo Bult on 662, and third saw Ben Stewart on 639.
Stewart technically needed to finish all three races in at least third place to take the North Island Championship. The scene was set for an exciting finish to the season.
Qualifying in perfect conditions on Saturday morning saw three drivers post times under the official lap race record with Ben Stewart taking pole position with a 1:14.334, Simon Baker in 2nd with a 1:14.736 and Rex Edwards 3rd with a 1:15.183. Steve Brown also showed great pace to post a 1:15.717 for 4th on the grid.
On to Race 1 and Simon Baker got a great start off the line to lead. After three laps of door to door racing Ben Stewart eventually got past and then set his first lap record of the weekend with a 1:15.110, eclipsing Roger Beuvink’s record from 2018. Leo Bult and Steve Brown had a coming together at the dipper that saw Brown parked up for the race and Leo drop to last, putting a dent in his championship hopes. First place went to Ben Stewart with Simon Baker in second and a hard charging Rex Edwards in third.
Sunday morning the reverse top ten Race 2 started with Jared Leith on pole with Elton Wichman alongside. A great start from Wichman had him leading the first lap before Steve Fistonich flew through.
Unfortunately, on lap 3, Fistonich got knocked at the entry to turn 1 and lost control. Rex Edwards took the inside option to avoid Fistonich but didn’t quite make it. The resulting coming together side lined both cars for the weekend and red flagged the race. When racing resumed Ben Stewart went on to take the win and set another lap record of 1:15.103. Second place went to Simon Baker and Terry Edwards completed the podium in third.
The North Island Championship was down to the wire and then the rain came. Rex Edwards had swapped into brother Terry’s car and needed to get from the rear of the field into second to the secure the championship. Rex got an amazing start to be in third place by turn 3.
In front he had Ben Stewart leading with Simon Baker in second. Lap 4 and the nightmare continued for Rex when he spun in the wet conditions coming into turn 1 hitting the outside wall and ending his championship run. Ben went on to win the race, with second going to Matt Horne who found some late pace. Simon Baker coming home in third for a full Team Wellington podium. Notable drives in the wet from Elton Wichman coming through the field for fourth and Phil Clemas in ninth securing his first top 10 finish.
Overall results for the weekend had Ben Stewart in first with another dominant weekend, Simon Baker second and Matt Horne in third.
The all-important North Island Championship for the Nexen Tyre Mazda Racing Series went to Ben Stewart, completing the clean sweep having secured the South Island and New Zealand Championships. Rex Edwards hung onto second despite a very tough weekend and Leo Bult wrapped up third.
Overall Points1/ Ben Stewart 864
2/ Rex Edwards 804
3/ Leo Bult 770
4/ Matthew Horne 726
5/ Terry Edwards 702
6/ Sam Dashfield 571
7/ Steve Brown 541
8/ Karl Gaines 535
9/ Simon Baker 515
10/ Steven Spear 464
11/ Steve Fistonich 367
12/ Elton Wichman 336
13/ Nigel Edger 302
14/ Simon Teagle 288
15/ Mark Stockton 274
16/ Andrew Jackson 265
17/ Scott Davies 249
18/ Phil Clemas 212
19/ Callum Davies 198
20/ David Atkins 149
21/ Anthony Tork 104
22/ Jared Leith 90
23/ Warren Crowther 87
24/ Thomas Hannaford 72
25/ James Parker 61
26/ Paul Leith 56
27/ Robin Arnold 44
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