Speedway: Hawkeyes send strong message to opposition

Hawke's Bay's Mike McLachlan, right, puts Bay Park's Kyle Fraser into the wall in the first major hit of last night's superstock teams race at Meeanee. Photo/Duncan Brown

Could this be an omen for the Palmerston North Superstock Teams Championships in February?

This question has to be asked after the Hawke's Bay Hawkeyes demolition job on the Bay Park Busters in the first Superstock Teams race to be staged at Hauraki Meeanee Speedway in at least 20 years on Saturday night. The Hawkeyes won 165-20 a week after beating them 135-60 in Mount Maunganui to complete a 300-80 victory in the two-leg event.

"It will definitely give us confidence in the buildup to Palmy," said one of the Hawkeyes' heroes, Steve Jude, as he pondered the February 7 and 8 Palmerston North events, the most prestigious teams meeting on the Speedway New Zealand calendar.

The longest serving member of this summer's Hawkeyes team, Jude, not only repeated his race win at Bay Park, he also produced a crucial and spectacular hit on lap seven of the 10-lap race in front of 2243 spectators. Shortly after Bay Park's Tony Wootton took Adam Groome to the grass, Jude rolled Wootton.

"Everyone worked well together ... the likes of Regan [O'Brien] and Mike [McLachlan] made my job a lot easier," Jude said.

"None of us were rolled and considering we are a new-look team we have to be happy with what we achieved," he added.

Jude had every right to praise captain McLachlan and O'Brien's contributions. McLachlan smashed former national champion Kyle Fraser into the wall on lap one and as McLachlan left the contact area Fraser rolled, much to the delight of the home crowd.

O'Brien took Busters captain Ross Ashby to the fence at a crucial stage of lap six. Jude secured the lead on lap eight and retained it until the flag.

Groome and O'Brien finished second and third respectively.

Hawke's Bay-based Palmerston North-contracted national champion Shane Penn and three former national champions, Hawke's Bay's Joe Faram, Fraser and Palmerston North's Wayne Hemi were among them.

Hawke's Bay's first season driver in the class, Jarrod Lindsay, won the first heat.

Heat two was dominated by the big names with Hemi becoming the first driver in the class to break the 18s lap time mark this season with a 17.9. Penn and Faram were second and third respectively.

Faram also recorded a 17.9s lap on the way to a second placing to Penn in heat three. His Bay clubmate Tony Meechan was third.

Hawke's Bay ministock driver Sheldon Mataira-Evetts was taken to Hawke's Bay Hospital for checks after he rolled on the first lap of his first heat which saw Wellington visitor Jacob Free capture the chequered flag. His clubmate Benjamin Prebble rolled in heat two which saw three third generation drivers from three prominent Hawke's Bay speedway families, Jakob Flynn, Regan Penn and Sam Warner, take the first three placings.

Warner's brother Brandon raced in the kiwilite class for the first time. He had a DNF in the first heat won by class stalwart Justin Power and in the second and third heats drove Power's car to victory to claim the driver of the night award for the class.

In-form Hawke's Bay streetstock driver Darren Melling had two wins in his own car before completing a hat-trick for the night with a victory in clubmate Ben Yeoman's car.

Hawke's Bay's former national TQ champion Craig Todd clocked a 17.2s lap on the way to winning heat one. His cousin and clubmate Duane Todd won the next two heats.

Hawke's Bay sidecar crew Dave Black and Cole Pettersen celebrated their return to racing with a win in the only completed race for their class.