Pickens Grabs “Barry Butterworth Classic” Cash.

It was a race that Barry Butterworth would have been proud of. Michael Pickens capped a dominant National Midget Car Series season with a hard fought win over New Zealand Champion Shayne Alach in the inaugural Seamount sponsored “Barry Butterworth Classic” 40 lap midget car feature last Saturday night. A big crowd was on hand at Waikaraka Park to watch Pickens and Alach duel it out over the last 35 laps. Alach made a valiant effort over the last few laps but Pickens held his nerve to win his 9th straight NMCS feature and the $10,000 winners purse..

A Shaun Insley spin on lap two saw a good portion of the field sprawled across the track and with 9 cars going to the tail of the field it swung an immediate advantage in Pickens’ favour as the #54 went from a grid 13 starting spot, he dropped a rocker in his heat race, to be in 5th place on the lap 2 restart.

So the green flag waved again, and out front Alach was steadily pulling away from the field. A yellow on lap 15 put Pickens in a challenging position and a small Alach bobble a few laps later gave Pickens the advantage he needed to seize the lead, a lead he would never surrender.

Meanwhile Brad Mosen held third place and went into battle with Scott Buckley. Buckley continued his good late season form but a broken oil pump drive belt would ultimately bring Mosens race to an abrupt stop with only a handful of laps left leaving Buckley to collect the $3000 for 3rd place.

Graham Standring, who had to come from the back drove a brilliant race to finish 4th after a tremendous battle with Shaun Insley, Angus McLeod, Michael Brunt and Lance Beale. Beale was top qualifier on the night and took the “$15,000 front row challenge”. He went to dead last starting spot for the feature event and eventually finished 7th.

Rounding out the top ten were Jo Malone and Wayne Green.

Pickens had already wrapped up the NMCS points title but Carl Worboys, who was taken out in the 2nd lap incident, breathed a collective sigh of relief when Mosen stopped. Worboys and Mosen have battled most of the season for the $7500 second place in the NMCS, so with the Mosen DNF, Worboys hung on to 2nd place in the series.

All in all a terrific night’s racing and a fitting finale in the NMCS to honour one of New Zealand’s great drivers.

what year did Barry B pass away???

Congrats to Pickens!!.....Thanks to "NMCS" for nice recap of "Barry Butterworth Classic" on Sat.!!...........
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Brucer'

Hacksaw, he passed away 9th November 1993 .

Anyone know if Pickens has anything lined up here in the States this summer? I think he should come and run some sprints.