A former New Zealand champion street-stock racer was flown to hospital in Auckland after being injured in a crash at Napier's Meeanee Speedway on Saturday night.
Brenden Gooch, of Gisborne, has travelled to Napier countless times over the last 20 years to race at Meeanee, and was the New Zealand street-stock champion in 2018, during what was reported to have been an unprecedented three years of podium finishes in the event in successive years.
On Saturday his car hit a wall during a race about 9pm, soon after a special feature of the night – the arrival on the track of Santa Claus.
Gooch, from a family of speedway racers and enthusiasts, was taken by a St John Ambulance to the Lowe Corporation Hawke's Bay Rescue Helicopter pad at Hawke's Bay Hospital to be flown to Taupo and then by a Waikato rescue helicopter to Middlemore Hospital, said Hawke's Bay rescue helicopter service general manager Ian Willmott.
No other details were available late on Monday.
