Hawke's Bay Hawkeyes fail to retain SuperStock title after qualifying win disallowed

Hawke's Bay's SuperStock team the Hawkeyes were unable to win the national championships for a second year running. Photo / Ben Le Prou

The Hawke's Bay Hawkeyes were unable to defend their title over Waitangi weekend at the ENZED SuperStock Teams Champs at the Robertson Holden International Speedway in Palmerston North.

The Hawke's Bay team were stopped from making the semifinals after their victory over the Auckland Allstars was taken off them in the final race of the opening night.

This meant that drivers Quinn Ryan, Randal Tarrant, Mike McLachlan, Quintin Butcher, Hayden Hart and Kairyn O'Brien didn't get the chance to defend their title in the final.

The Rotorua Rebels were this year's fastest SuperStock team, taking the bragging rights of their championship win back to the Bay of Plenty.

South Island team Canterbury Glen Eagles drove into second place and the Gisborne Giants were third out of 13 teams competing.

Despite the disappointment of not placing in the top three or winning, Tarrant said the team had a good weekend.

"We won our first qualifying race against the Manawatu Mustangs but also lost Mike McLachlan for the weekend after his car was badly damaged," he said.

Tarrant said they initially won their second race against the Auckland Allstars.

"It was a brutal race with plenty of action – which put us into the semifinals," he said, "but a protest was put in for an infringement Quinn Ryan did so the win was taken away from us."

They were then subsequently placed into the second tier races for night two.

The 27-year-old driver said their first race on night two of the competition against the Gisborne Giants was always going to be tough.

"Unfortunately we lost 98B Quinten Butcher early so we were three against four and Gisborne got the win," he added.

Thousands of speedway fans travelled to Palmerston North in support of their local teams in the championship's 41st competition.

A total of 16,000 tickets were sold to the biggest event in the SuperStock calendar.