Having looked the car to beat all night Pickens entered the midget feature as overwhelming favourite. He jumped straight to the lead of the race and it seemed a foregone conclusion he would be the Auckland midget champion on opening night as well.
But late in the race, as lapped traffic became a factor, Pickens was a touch cautious and second-placed Williams made an aggressive but clean move for the lead.
Pickens threw everything into a last-ditch attempt to get to the lead and even managed to leave himself vulnerable to a dive on the line by Brock Maskovich, who pipped him for second.
"You can blame everything else but at the end of the day we just got stuck behind some lapped traffic and it was super hard to pass – especially at [turns] three and four," Pickens said.
"I just took my time probably a bit too much with it and Hayden did a good job and saw a gap and went for it."
The track proved troublesome on opening night but all drivers were subject to the same conditions.
Pickens' experience and racing ability shone out like a beacon as he demonstrated how to master such challenging tracks.
"You have to have your car right and you just have to attack it the right way and sort of drive around the worst part of it. That is the key to it," he said.
Kenny Roberts won the F2 midget feature race while Scott Baker triumphed in the TQ feature.
The next meeting is the Summer Bash – North Island Midget Title and North Island Sprintcar Title event on November 30.
