All facets of Skinny Colson's speedway talent were on show for the very large Baypark crowd on Saturday night.
Victory in the sprint car feature had the Taranaki crowd-pleaser celebrating NASCAR-style by scaling the safety fence while two of the other feature races were won by Colson-built cars.
Now starting his third
year in the sprint-car division, the former New Zealand saloon car champ feels his transition into open-wheel cars is nearly complete.
His first feature win came at Palmerston North's season opener last month and he added the second by taking the lead away from Tirau's Andy Gudgeon, easing away to a 4secs winning margin in the 20-lapper.
"At the end of last year after the NZ Champs at Christchurch I showed that I'd stepped up," said Colson.
"Now I feel like I did when I was on the top of my game on the saloon."
Colson said the big crowd was extra motivation.
"After two seconds [in the earlier heat races won by Ben Finemore and Colin Entwisle] I really wanted to win one in front of the crowd that was here tonight," said Colson.
"I've seen Tony Stewart [the reigning NASCAR champion] climb the fence so I thought I'd have a go. Besides, I'm too old to run around the track these days."
Driving a Skinny-built Corvette, Matamata racer Jeff Barron got the better of a close duel with Gavin Dyer (Tauranga) to win the saloon car feature, while Tauranga's Neville Stuart ran away from former national champs Tony Cardwell (Auckland) and Dean Waddell (Tauranga) to win the super saloon feature in another Colson design.
Colson was claiming a slice of that success was down to his coaching.
"I had lunch with Neville this week and gave him a few set up ideas," Colson said.
"And I told him he'd get a chance to win a race soon and that when he hit the front he `should just pin his ears back and go for it' because a lot of drivers make the mistake of easing up when they get to the lead.
"Neville just drove the wheels of the car."
In the stock-car feature it was Whakatane teenager Alan McRobbie who made some good moves in the early traffic to claim the win ahead of opening-night winner Graham Keatinge (Matamata) and young Tauranga racer Ryan Hunt.
