- Saturday 31 July 2010
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Birthday treat at stockcar champs
Chris Flett – number 3 in New Zealand.
IT was a dream come true and the best birthday present he could have wanted on Saturday night, when Chris Flett took away third place at the New Zealand Stockcar Champs in Wanganui.
He is the first Stratford driver to get into the top three positions of the highly competitive stockcar championships.
Chris, who turned 39 on Sunday, took the placing in a borrowed car. Three weeks out from the champs he blew the motor in his own car and borrowed Mark Cox’s car, 686.
‘We’re best mates and share each other’s cars. It worked out quite well.
“There was some big-budget machines racing so it was great to do so well in a reliable low budget car – a bit of canny driving and a bit of luck,” he said.
There were 157 cars entered in the event, which started with 18 heats to find the top 30. Four Stratford cars were still in the running at that stage.
Three 15-lap final races then sorted out the top three on points. The other Stratford cars dropped out with either front wheel damage or flat tyres.
“It was good hard racing and I went into it without any expectation against some very experienced drivers.”
Chris, who is an operations manager with Fulton Hogan, is in his fifth year of driving stockcars.
He is following in the footsteps, or is it the tyre tracks, of his father Adrian, who was an ex-North Island stockcar champion.
Chris’s brother Sandy also races and was in the field on Saturday night. Unfortunately his car suffered major damage and he didn’t qualify.
Chris can now put 3NZ on the side of his car and his win qualifies him for the World of Stocks meeting at Rotorua on March 27 and Best of the Best at Huntly on April 15.
He is unsure if he will be competing in his car or Mark Cox’s.
He is a member of the Stratford Stormers stockcar team and is also in the Stratford Scrappers Superstock team.
His next racing will be at Stratford Speedway on March 6.
