Cowling Motorsport team sweeps New Zealand Super Saloon Car Grand Prix podium

New Zealand Super Saloon Grand Prix winner Chris Cowling. Photo / Stuart Whitaker

Tauranga's Cowling Motorsport team swept the New Zealand Super Saloon Car Grand Prix podium at Blenheim's Eastern States Speedway on Friday night.

With the team expanded to three cars, defending GP title holder Chris Cowling led home the trifecta in the 20-lap Grand Prix ahead of Tauranga's Peter Dickson and former national champ Steve Cowling in third place.

In the 20-lap final Chris Cowling started from the outside of the front row alongside Christchurch driver Ryan Marsden and grabbed an early lead, He stayed in front through two caution periods and was 0.87secs clear of Dickson at the finish.

"I was side-by-side with Ryan for the first lap and then he pulled off with a problem,'' said Chris Cowling.

"After that I lead the rest of the race but Peter was close behind. Steve got up to third with a couple of laps to go.

"A 1-2-3 is a first for our team and it was great to do it at a Speedway NZ title.''

It was a late decision to campaign three ProX2 cars at the Grand Prix. Since contesting the previous weekend's NZ title in his own car, Dickson had flown back to Tauranga and spent two days preparing the third car which is being used to develop new suspension ideas.

The effort paid off with the car immediately on the pace and Dickson qualified fourth. The first and second place Cowling Motorsport cars were the only cars to dip into the 16secs lap range in the feature race.

Having claimed back-to-back GP wins, Chris Cowling will chase a third win at home when Baypark Speedway hosts the next season's Grand Prix.

Newly crowned national champion Sam Waddell (Tauranga) started eighth in the GP, lost ground in the early laps after he ran wide on a slippery track, then advanced to finish fifth behind Canterbury racer Trevor Elliott.