A rare clean sweep held special significance for New Zealand Sprint Car champion Daniel Thomas at Baypark Speedway on Saturday night.

Thomas (Hamilton) won both of his heat races and dominated an incident-packed 20-lap feature race, then dedicated the win to his grandfather

“He passed away last Sunday and really I wanted to win for him tonight,” says Thomas.

The impressive performance was a turnaround for Thomas after some troubles at the Labour weekend season opener. “With a flat tyre and a little mechanical problem we didn’t do enough laps to know if the car was any good,” he says.

“Kihikihi last weekend showed we’re on the right track. It’s a credit to Jason McIndoe and the team who spent so much time putting a new car together over the winter and to Kevin Duncan from Flying W Shocks for making the car so stable and comfortable,” says Thomas.

The heat race wins put Thomas on the front row for the feature race and he chased Michael Pickens (Auckland) in the early laps.

Pickens was a threat on the restarts but not able to match Thomas’ pace which included a 13.109secs lap – the quickest seen at Baypark since the 2006 Outlaws international event.

It was an action-packed race for the big Fireworks night crowd with the grippy track producing huge wheelstands, light drizzle falling in the middle stages and heavy crashes for Cole Wood (Tauranga) and Max Guilford (Auckland).

The soft track conditions were the result of 80mm of rain the previous day and the challenging bumps rewarded experience. The places behind Thomas were filled by the five previous national champions on the 22-car grid – Pickens and Dean Brindle (Hamilton) completing the podium ahead of Jamie McDonald (Auckland), Rodney Wood (Tauranga) and Jamie Larsen (Kapiti).

Bodie Abrahamson (49) won the South Pacific Super Saloon Car Championship.

Whitianga’s Bodie Abrahamson won the South Pacific Super saloon car title in his Stealth chassis Corvette but was under pressure in the closing laps from Rotorua’s Damian Orr.

On the final lap the battling pair split a lapped car then came together which saw Orr losing ground with a half spin but able to stay ahead of third placed Sam Waddell (Tauranga).

Midget Car competition was also intense with Brad Mosen (Auckland) battling with Michael Pickens until two laps from the finish.

Brad Mosen (2) battling with Michael Pickens during the Midget Car feature race.

Mosen made light contact with the lapped car of Connor Clarke and with nowhere to go Pickens collected Clarke’s car.

Mosen took the win pursued by the young stars of the Baypark Midget ranks with Shayden Austin in second ahead of Campbell Stewart and Luke McClymont.

For the second night of the season a strong Super Stock field delivered close racing with Kerry Remnant winning the opening heat before Elias Dykstra raced back to winning form with two wins and the overall points victory.

The next Baypark Speedway event is the Bays of Thunder meeting this Saturday (Nov 11) featuring the BOP Champs for Sprint Cars, Midgets and Six Shooters.