The road trip from Gisborne to race at Baypark Speedway is paying dividends for young saloon car racer Dan Corrin.
The 18-year-old engineer has three wins from six starts, following up his opening night heat victory with a second on Saturday night before leading the feature race from start-to-finish ahead of national champ Brent McClymont.
Corrin is in his second year in the saloon car ranks and is another example of the driving talent emerging from speedway's youth ministock category.
After racing an older car at his home track last year he has a 2005 model Kevin Moore-designed Corvette and has decided to register at Baypark in search of higher level competition.
"Baypark is the track where most of the best drivers are, so this is the best place to race and learn," said Corrin. "Winning races just makes the long trip from Gisborne even more worthwhile.
"Tonight we had the car hooked up really good. It's a fairly new car and everything about it better than the one we had last year."
Tauranga drivers won the other feature races, headed by former sprint car champ Rodney Wood, super saloon racer Russell Donovan, stockcar front-runner Stacy Keach and youth ministock pace-setter Marc Dunn.
Donovan showed that suspension design changes to his late-model style Chevrolet Impala SS have improved its handling. He passed Dean Waddell early and held off a strong challenge from Karl Hanlon late in the race.
Wood had his Mopar engined sprint car on song and claimed a heat and the feature victory.
"We've been trying a few little tricks on the car to get better side bite and drive," said Wood.
"We didn't have the car right in heat one but it was good later in the night."
Wood started the feature from grid three and made a decisive inside pass on New Plymouth's Skinny Colson before racing away to win just over three seconds. Colson battled with Tokoroa's James Dahm before finishing second.
"Skinny didn't have the side bite and I could see he was struggling," said Wood. "After I'd passed him I kept it nice and safe down on the inside because the track was quite rough up high and I didn't want to risk jumping out of one of the holes."
It was stronger second night performance from Colson who had three seconds. He'd lost valuable set-up times at the opening meeting solving a fuel filter issue with his ex-Steve Kinser Maxim.
Visiting California-based Australian Peter Murphy made an immediate impression for the Daltons team and won the opening heat and followed up with a third placing in heat two but his car suffered a driveline breakage early in the feature race.
Murphy plans to return for the next Baypark meeting on November 19.
Baypark Speedway - results:
Youth Mini Stocks:
Heat 1: 1 Nathan Smith 46m; 2 Marc Dunn 8m; 3 Jayden Steiner 18m. Heat 2: 1 Dunn; 2 Steiner; 3 Aidon Decke 88m. Feature: 1 Dunn; 2 Jordan Latham 84m; 3 Decke. Allcomers: 1 Smith; 2 Decke; 3 Steiner.
Saloon Cars:
Heat 1: 1 Colin Dyer 89m; 2 Steve Muir 16m; 3 Murray Belz 15m. Heat 2: 1 Dan Corrin 124m; 2 Daryl Ainsley 5t; 3 Brent McClymont 1nz. Feature: 1 Corrin; 2 McClymont ; 3 Neil Head 10m.
Stockcars:
Heat 1: 1 Ryan Hunt 29m; 2 Ryan Smyth 84m; 3 Les Hepworth 22m. Heat 2: 1 Stacy Keach 97m; 2 Karl Daniel 23m; 3 Hunt. Feature: 1 Keach; 2 Hepworth; 3 Hunt.
Super saloons:
Heat 1: Matt Smith 46m; 2 Dean Waddell 81m; 3 Jarred Fletcher 8m. Heat 2: 1 Karl Hanlon 76m; 2 Russell Donovan 71m; 3 Smith. Feature: 1 Donovan; 2 Hanlon; 3 Fletcher.
Sprint Cars:
Heat 1: 1 Peter Murphy 11usa; 2 Skinny Colson 66m; 3 Rodney Wood 51m. Heat 2: 1 Wood; 2 Colson; 3 Murphy. Feature: 1 Wood; 2 Colson; 3 James Dahm 6m.