TQ Midget Homepage

From Don Griffin

Saturday night saw Hawkes Bays Craig Todd take out the Gisborne Cosmopolitan Club NZ TQ Midget GP from a field of 17 cars at the Gisborne Raceway. From the early qualifying heats it was always going to be a battle between Todd and Gisbornes Dylan MacGregor. Both drivers were showing good form and qualified in the top two positions for the Top 6 shootout to determine the final grid positions. Duane Todd of Hawkes Bay and Lawrence Baker and Paul LeCren of Auckland were also prominent in the heats and along with Jared Taylor of Auckland made up the top 6 cars. The heats were relatively incident free with some fast racing and skillful driving on a very good track.

With qualifying heats over, the top 6 raced a shoot out to determine grid positions for the final. Each driver completed one hot lap. The result mirrored the evening to date with Todd just pipping MacGregor for top spot by 0.02 of a second. The rest finished as follows: Duane Todd,Lawrence Baker,Paul LeCren and Jared Taylor.

The final was extremely quick with Craig Todd taking advantage of his pace setters position and leading off the start to take an all the way win. Dylan was close behind in 2nd and Lawrence Baker 3rd. Aucklander Steven Smith was the only casualty of the final with a spectacular roll coming out of turn 4. It wasnt a great night for the Smith family as brother Eric blew an engine in the warm up. Best of the women drivers was Aucklander Gina Harris who was 8th while Christchurch visitor Rachel Melrose was10th in her first outing on the Gisborne track.

The visitors were full of praise for the Gisborne track and the way the meeting was run.The next big event for the TQs will be the North Island Champs at Napier on March 13.I'm sure Dylan is already plotting his revenge!

Drivers list for the NZ TQ GP
2NZ CRAIG TODD
4A STEVEN SMITH
5G DYLAN MACGREGOR
6B DUANE TODD
7C RACHEL MELROSE
14A PAUL LECREN
17A NEVANO COWAN
18A SHANE PHILLIPS
19A BROCK MASKOVICH
24B JAMES TOLLISON
28B CHRISTINE BARGH
41A JARROD TAYLOR
47B DAVID WILSON
51A ERIC SMITH
64A GINA HARRIS
77B BEDE ANDERSON

Saturday February 6 sees the running of the Gisborne Cosmopolitan Club NZ TQ Midget GP.
A top class field of drivers from Auckland, Christchurch, Hawkes Bay and Gisborne will fight for the title on the big banked track. Seasoned veterans such as Hawkes Bay's Craig and Duane Todd and Auckland's Paul LeCren, Brock Maskovich, Lawrence Baker and Chris Gwilliam will vie with Gisborne's own Dylan MacGregor for the winners sash.
Craig Todd, the current 2NZ,was unlucky not to win the National Title in Christchurch two weeks ago. After leading the final for over two thirds of the race he was overtaken by new 1NZ ,Glen Durie from Christchurch, in the final laps. He will be out to make amends in the GP on Saturday.
6B Duane Todd is also a big threat on the Gisborne track.14A Paul LeCren  from Auckland is a regular visitor to Gisborne and always performs well in National titles.
15A Lawrence Baker from Auckland is another hard charger who is presently rebuilding his car after a big tumble at the nationals.
Aucklanders 19A Brock Maskovich and 98A Chris Gwilliam are two young  chargers who always race hard.
Of particular interest will be 7C,Rachel Melrose of Christchurch, who along with 64A Gina Harris of Auckland and 28B Christine Bargh of Hawkes Bay, will  ensure the girls are well represented. All these girls are quick and could surprise on the night.
Local hopes will lie with 5G Dylan MacGregor who is in good form at present. Ignition problems in Chistchurch cost him in the finals when he was looking to be in contention. I'm sure he will be fired up for a good performance on his home track. The TQ's are very fast this year and every car is competitive so the racing should be close and exciting.

The format for this years GP will be a marble drawn first heat. Grids will be reversed for the second heat. The top 6 qualifiers from the first two heats will then take part in a shoot out to determine the top 6 grids for the final. All the other drivers will start behind them in their qualifying order.

This will be a great night of speedway action so get along and support Dylan as he tries to get back the title he won two years ago.
Don Griffin.

Prize Money.
The rewards are pretty cool, if you can hack it!
Heats, $1500 will be allocated to the heats and this will be split evenly over the heats depending on the number of entries received.
Top 6 Shoot Out
1st-$150,   2nd-$100,  3rd-$75,  4th-$50,  5th-$40,  6th-$35
National Title
1st $1000
2nd $700
3rd $400
4th $200
5th-10th $75
11th-16th $50