Aucklander Hayden Guptill has dreamt about winning the New Zealand TQ championship since he was a youngster and those dreams became reality at Meeanee on Saturday night.
Guptill, 18, won the 31-car Efficient Moving and Storage championship after a three-car, four-lap run-off which saw Auckland rookie and former karter Kaleb Currie finish second and Hawke's Bay's sole qualifier for the top 24, two-time national champion Duane Todd, finish third.
"I've been in this class for three years. As was the case at my previous two nationals I was the top qualifier in my group this weekend but it was a case of third time lucky as far as the title was concerned. There was definitely a feeling of relief there," Guptill explained before the prizegiving.
A former Pakuranga College student who will start a sports health and physical education related course at Auckland University next month, Guptill, agreed the grid draw for the run-off was a key factor. He started from grid two, Currie from pole and Todd from grid three.
Guptill produced a 15.7s lap time in the run-off.