Motorsport and racing briefs

There was almost a "new season" feel to Saturday night's speedway meeting at Baypark.
Rain and other events at the stadium had created a five-week racing drought, finally broken by an entertaining North Island Stock Car Championship.
And in the support classes the roll-out of new cars was like the beginning of a new racing season.
The much anticipated return of twice NZ super saloon car champion Dean Waddell could hardly have gone any better with two wins and a second placing.
Waddell's new Corvette super saloon is a collaboration between Bryan Fraser Engineering and Waddell's crew and uses the Roger Bertram prepared engine from the car Waddell raced last at the end of the 2008-09 season.
Waddell says the car was originally built to race in Australia as part of the Steve Williams organised transtasman challenge last year before his plans changed. It's been completed in recent weeks with the intention of getting fully sorted for next season.
While there have been some radically different-looking super saloons built in recent years Waddell's retains a more traditional bodystyle. Under the bodywork he says the car is an evolution of conventional design.
"We thought we'd build a new chassis to try some new ideas and to incorporate the latest safety equipment," said Waddell. "One of the main things we're trying is some new ideas with shocks and springs."
Prior to its Baypark outing Waddell had given the cars two days of shakedown at the private Patetonga track which is now being regularly used by speedway teams.
"You never really know how a car is going to go until you race it," said Waddell.
"But it felt really good. It was a little tight getting into the corners but there was no problem getting off the turns. In the feature the car was getting better as the race went on."
Just across the pits the saloon car field for the opening round of the La-Z-Boy saw three new cars hitting the track.
In another collaborative effort Steve Muir and Maurice Cowling have created two new Pro-X chassis which are the first C6-bodied Corvettes in the saloon car class.
"Achieving a better balance in the car by working on the front to rear weight distribution," is how Muir describes the design objective.
Muir raced the striking green and black Corvette to three solid races on debut and is fifth in the La-Z-Boy standings after the first round.
Former national champion Cowling completed a shakedown in the other Pro-X Corvette which will now be raced by his younger son Chris. It's a move that expands the Tauranga ITM team to three cars with brothers Steve and Chris Cowling to be joined by step-sister Keira Nesdale who raced in the Youth Ministock class until last season.
The other newcomer was former stock car front runner Graham Keatinge (Matamata) who has stepped into the saloon ranks with a Corvette he has built from Ben Harding's previous super saloon car chassis.
It was a shakedown effort for Keatinge who found some overheating issues to solve. With plenty of experience in both streetstocks and stock cars Keatinge should emerge was a competitive new addition to the saloon ranks.
Cooper a winner
Suzuki star Cody Cooper (Papamoa) made a winning start to his Australian motocross campaign on Sunday.
The opening round of the Australian Nationals was raced in very muddy conditions at Victoria's Broadford track and saw Cooper win two of the four MX1 races. He is second in the series standings behind Scotsman Billy McKenzie (Kawasaki).
The format for the Australian champs features two pairs of back-to-back races. In the first pair Cooper posted seventh and 14th placings but he hit top gear for the Rockstar Motul Suzuki squad and won both portions of the second pair of races.
McKenzie leads the series with 89 points from Cooper on 71 and Suzuki rider Lawson Bopping on 70.
"One of my races was terrible with no visibility," said Cooper.
"I ran off the track into some PVC piping and then having trouble remounting the bike and getting it going. I am happy to still manage to finish the day in second place overall.
"Those good starts helped out a lot and I want to get a few more of them this season."
Two other Kiwis are in the MX1 top-10 with Josh Coppins (Yamaha) in seventh place on his Australian Champs debut while Honda racer Michael Phillips (Mt Maunganui) is 10th overall after a sequence of fifth, seventh, 11th and 17th placings.
The Kiwi trio now switch their attention back to the final two rounds of the Demon Energy NZ Motocross Champs at Rotorua this Sunday and New Plymouth on March 27.
The Rotorua Motorcycle Club's track on State Highway 30 near Horohoro is the venue for round three with Coppins enjoying a lead of six points over Cooper with Phillips in third place.
Drag weather
With round two of the Century Batteries Power Series washed out at Masterton last month, drag racers are hoping for fine weather this weekend for the New Zealand Nationals at Fram Autolite Dragway.
The strongest field assembled in some years sees 10 drivers contesting the Top Alcohol division and a full eight-car field entered in Top Doorslammer.
BOP contenders include Te Puke's Dave Gauld who lines up his crowd pleasing Fiat Topolino altered in the Top Alcohol ranks and the wheelstanding '69 Camaro of Steve Milne (Tauranga) contests the Top Doorslammer category.
Mt Maunganui's Spike Allen holds the national series points lead in Competition Bike with his Harley Davidson Destroyer and Tauranga's Karen Hay - who recently reset the BB/Altered national record - chases success to the Competition category with her supercharged '27 T Roadster.
The Nationals are a two-day event with qualifying on Saturday and eliminations on Sunday.
Best on gravel
Subaru driver Ben Thomasen won the Motorsport BOP gravel motokhana event at the TECT All Terrain Park on Sunday.
A field of 17 drivers competed over four course layouts to decide the event with Thomasen the overall winner by more 10 seconds from the Sunbeam Imp of Chris Flegg and Ford Fiesta driver Phil Campbell.
The next fixture on the Motorsport BOP calendar is the Old Coach Rd tarmac sprint on March 27.
Motorsport BOP Motokhana - results:
1 Ben Thomasen (Subaru Legacy) 3m 31.87s; 2 Chris Flegg (Sunbeam Hillman Imp) 3m 42.12s; 3 Phil Campbell (Ford Fiesta) 3m 43.36s; 4 Shane Tofts (Toyota Sprinter) 3m 51.26s; 5 Keith Penny (Honda Civic Type R) 3m 55.52s; 6 Peter Housham (Subaru Impreza WRX) 3m 56.52s; 7 Tim Webb (Toyota Starlet GT) 4m 00.92s; 8 Mitch James (Toyota Starlet) 4m 09.43s; 9 Shane Hinga (Toyota Starlet) 4m 17.14s; 10 Chris Hawkes (Chevrolet Camaro) 4m 24.48s.