Fortunes can change quickly in the sport of speedway - just ask Tauranga super saloon car racer Gavin Dyer.
Two weeks ago the opening night of the new Baypark season saw Dyer unable to finish a race. His Corvette would produce a few laps of promising performance and then frustratingly begin to misfire.
With the problem traced to the magneto, Dyer got his season started properly at Saturday's Fireworks meeting - after a painful workshop accident and a last-minute dash to the track.
Early afternoon Dyer was making suspension adjustments on the car when he lowered the car off a jack and trapped the tip of a finger between the coils of a suspension spring.
"Three hours later when I walked out of the doctors it was pouring with rain. I thought it (racing) was never going to happen," said Dyer.
But the afternoon band of rain from the west proved short-lived and Dyer made a late arrival before posting three wins from three starts in a car that performed strongly.
"The car is well balanced and really forgiving which makes it easy to drive," said Dyer of his Pro-X Chassis Corvette.
Dyer raced to the front in the opening heat race and battled with Russell Donovan in heat two, gaining the win when Donovan was penalised by officials for being too eager on the final restart.
Donovan was again the threat in the feature race with his car working well on the inside line and taking the lead from Dyer. Dyer changed tactics to run a higher line and re-passed Donovan.
"I wasn't sure what was up there (on the higher line) before I went looking for it," said Dyer. "The thing I'm most pleased about tonight is how good the car felt when I tried out wide."
Donovan finished second ahead of Auckland's Nigel Mouat.
With former national champ Brent Emerson making it to the track in time for the last race and the expected return of Dean Waddell - with a new car - and young Thames racer Matt Smith the super saloon field will gain strength for the next meeting on November 17.
In other racing on Saturday night Tirau's Michelle Wymer won the saloon car feature race. Her main opposition came from Tauranga brothers Steve and Chris Cowling.
Steve Cowling chased Wymer in the early stages before stopping with overheating problems. Chris Cowling then ran a tight race with Wymer and the margin between them at the finish was just 0.3secs.
Karl Daniel won the stock car feature race with an untroubled run at the front of the field and Trent Amrein held off Jason Gillon and Sam Waddell in a close finish to the Youth Mini Stock main event.