Motorsport: McLean catapults ahead to take race

Thomas McLean raises the winner's flag at the King Country TQ Midget Championship in Kihikihi.

Whangarei driver Thomas McLean took out the North Island Three Quarter Midget Championship at Western Springs last Saturday.

The championship win at the iconic speedway circuit in Auckland was the cream on top of an impressive spate of results achieved already by McLean this year including back-to-back feature race wins at both Kihikihi and Baypark speedways.

At Western Springs on Saturday evening the TQ Midget driver demonstrated his prowess in the car with an incredible run in the all-important feature race by adopting an astonishing line around the outside of Pinetree Corner where he had found some speed in an earlier race.

The superior grip enabled McLean, who started in fourth place, to build up momentum with each lap creating what can only be described as slingshot passes on each of the drivers ahead of him to take the lead of the 20 lap race.

"I was on the outside at the start and we had some tough competition on the inside so I thought we would see how it goes on the top," said McLean about his choice of tactics.

"I knew it was going to be hard to get around the other drivers. I built up some momentum at the top and put my head down and went for it."

After pulling a nice lead in the race a yellow flag midway brought McLean back into the firing line of those behind him.

The field was closed up as the other drivers lined up behind McLean in single file offering a new opportunity for those behind to mount a new challenge for the lead when the race went green again. "When the yellow came I looked at the big screen and saw Ryan Baker behind me and was pretty nervous so I just put my head down to go as fast as I possibly could," he said.

McLean held on to the lead at the restart and continued to use his unique line through Pinetree Corner to catapult himself ahead of the field and take the race win.

"We gave him a car which he could drive wherever he chose to drive it. I saw him taking a look at the outside of Pinetree in the previous race and that's where he decided to go," said race engineer Murray McLean.

The 17-year-old was Rookie of the Year last season and won his first ever feature race this January at Kihikihi Speedway following that up with his second feature win immediately afterwards at Baypark Speedway. McLean will race again at Western Springs Speedway tomorrow night.