Higgins' retirement not a done deal

MURRAY WILSON/Manawatu Standard

NZ1: Speedway driver Brendan Higgins,

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Despite the perfect season, Brendan Higgins won't be swayed about his intentions to hang up his boots – at least temporarily.

Higgins carries the 1NZ number as national individual champion as well as being the outstanding driver in helping the Nelson Tigers to a second national teams' championships at Arena Manawatu last month.

"I'm not saying I'm retiring, but I've got a young family and there's lots of work around the house to do," he said. "There's a lot of money tied up in the stockcar that will come in handy.

"Saying that though, if the car isn't sold I guess I'll have to roll it out next season."

Higgins said he was always open to driving for someone else, but wasn't keen on borrowing a car just for the major events next season.

"It doesn't work only racing the big events," he said.

"I tried it a couple of years ago and it showed me that to be race fit you've got to race for the full season."

Higgins said his big aim was to win the teams' championships in Palmerston North.

"I've always enjoyed teams racing, it's the pinnacle for a stockcar driver," he said.

"We've been working hard over the last two years to put it together and after failing so badly last year it was good to put it together this time."

Higgins had thought his chances of winning the national title were gone after a poor start to the third heat of the final at Kihikihi, but with the high rate of attrition he hoped he might podium for the second consecutive year.

"There was a chance of a podium finish, but I didn't really realise how many of the top drivers were being taken out of the race. It shows that to win anything you need luck on your side."

After tying on points with Palmerston North rookie Bevan Humphrey, Higgins won the run-off after Humphrey narrowly missed taking him out.

Higgins has no thoughts on how he'll go when he lines up at the Robertson Holden Speedway tonight in the qualifying rounds of the Palmerston North PartsWorld NZ Grand Prix.

"I'll just go out there and have some fun and see what happens," he said.

With 30 Palmerston North superstocks among the 60 starters tonight, a home-town win is on the cards, especially if any Palmerston North driver in the hunt has Andy McCabe or the Joblin brothers, Scott and Simon, to help.

McCabe was outstanding last week, while the Joblins showed they're two drivers with enormous potential.

Shane Penn, Wayne Hemi, Peter Bengston, who was less than three laps from winning the national title last week until he rolled, Clive Elliot and Kev Smith are all likely contenders.

Another rookie, Kerry Humphries, has shown loads of pace in the month he's been racing, and if he is able to come to grips with the big fields he could surprise.

Dale Ewers, Brett Nicholls and Shane Harwood (Nelson), Malcolm Ngatai (Christchurch), Ross Ashby and Kyle Fraser (Rotorua) and new 3NZ Murray Long (Hawke's Bay) mean it won't be one-way traffic.

The Roskilda Auto's North Island Minisprints will be about the young set of impressive Palmerston North drivers' ability to match it in traffic with NZ2 Daniel Thomas and NZ3 Shaun Cooke (Huntly).

Quin Clark, Stephen Buys, Chad Ace and Jason Larsen have a lot of potential and are fast becoming major threats at the big events.

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