• Martin keeps Bay saloon championship title in family

Martin keeps Bay saloon championship title in family

Hawke's Bay saloon car driver Kevin Martin saluted a good piece of "kiwi ingenuity" after he won the provincial championship for the class at Meeanee last night.


"After the first race I realised I had smashed the steering rack. It was held together by a hose clamp for the remainder of the night," Martin explained after he claimed his first Hawke's Bay championship title in the 13-car event.


A brother of four-time champion and title holder, Steven Martin, the 26-year-old Napier Collision Centre panelbeater beat Gisborne's Bailey Curtis by one point and Hawke's Bay's Shane Laking and Hawke's Bay-based Palmerston North-contracted Josh Smith were a further five points back in third equal place.


"Before the meeting we were joking and imagining if I could take the title off Steven," Martin recalled.


'All my ducks landed the right way. Hopefully I can retain my Manawatu championship title in Palmerston North on Saturday night," Martin added.
His Hawke's Bay clubmate Wayne Melling rolled out of contention on lap four of the second heat.


Hawke's Bay's Brett Loveridge (pictured below) captured the $750 first prize which was up for grabs in the 27-car Dash for Cash stockcar event. This is a continuation of a memorable summer for Loveridge who earlier in the season retained the Hawke's Bay championship title and also won the Kuru Cup. Fellow Meeanee Maulers team members, Regan Penn and Daniel Melling, finished second and third respectively.


Ministocks, streetstocks, TQs and production saloons provided the support class action. Hawke's Bay's Bailey Smith, the son of Josh Smith, won two of the heats in the 26-strong ministock class and clubmate Henry Steel took out the other.


Jacob Martin, a nephew of Kevin and Steven, became the latest third generation racer to join the class when he celebrated his debut meeting.


Hawke's Bay clubmates, Darren Melling, Tim Towler and Dave "The Sheriff" Brand all had victory laps in the 10-strong streetstock class. Gisborne's Dylan MacGregor won two of the heats and Hawke's Bay's Tony Meechan the other in the 13-strong TQ class.


Hawke's Bay's two-time national TQ class champion, Duane Todd, produced a 15.9s lap time in his first heat and after rolling in the second lap of the feature was still able to contnue racing.



Whanganui's Brent Hackett won two of the heats and Hawke's Bay's Tanga Walsh the other in the 15-strong production saloon class. Hackett set a new track lap record of 19.32s on lap four of the second heat to beat the previous record of 19.70s set by Hawke's Bay's Denton Hodgkinson.


Meanwhile defending champion Randal Tarrant was one of three Hawke's Bay superstock drivers to last night qualify for tonight's championship races at the 132-car national championship for the class in Rotorua. Tarrant was the second qualifier in his group as was fellow Hawkeye and 2019 winner of the title, Magpies rugby prop Jason Long.


Another Hawkeye, Quinn Ryan, was the top qualifier in his group. Their Hawkeyes teammate, Quintin Butcher, rolled out of contention in the second of his three qualifying heats.


Long finished second by two points to the Kihi Kihi-contracted Asher Rees. Tarrant finished fourth equal and Ryan seventh.