Speedway: Magpies prop Jason Long wins second Autumn Nationals title

Jason Long completes a victory lap after winning his first heat on Saturday night. Photo / John Faulkner

It was another of those nights when Hawke's Bay superstock driver Jason Long required every bit of stamina he could muster and he did.

Long, 26, won his second Autumn Nationals title at Meeanee, seven years after his first, and within four hours of completing 80 minutes for his Hastings Rugby and Sports team in their 52-18 Nash Cup quarter-final win against Napier Pirate Rugby and Sports in Hastings.

"When I got out to the track three races had already been raced. Fortunately our first superstock race wasn't until race nine. Dad and the crew had taken my car out to the track after watching my rugby game ... all I had to do was put my overalls on and I was good to go," Magpies prop Long explained.

Long recorded a first, second and fourth placing in his three heats to win the title by one point from clubmate Quinn Ryan. Bay veteran and "Mr Consistent" Marty Cooke was a further point back in third place and Rotorua veteran Pat Westbury was the best of the visitors with his fourth placing.

"I did well to win my first race but was pretty buggered when I finished fourth in my second. In the last race I knew who I had to pass to win the title and I did that on the first corner which was good because by then it was a one-lane track because of all the rain. I held on to second place which was enough to win the title."

It was Hawke's Bay champion Long's final meeting of the season as his rugby commitments are his priority until next summer.

Wellingtonian Josh Prentice became the second non-Hawke's Bay-contracted driver in the 12-year history of the Kuru Cup stockcar event to win the cup. One of only two visitors in the 23-car field, Prentice, the 2016-17 season national champion, surprisingly escaped any major attention from the host track drivers on his way to a two-point victory with two thirds and a first placing.

"I've been chasing this cup for seven seasons and I've been close a couple of times. To be the second out-of-towner after Luke [Miers of Palmerston North last year] to win it is quite cool," Prentice said.

"I didn't get touched at all. I've helped some Bay boys out over the years, the likes of Brandon Symes, Brett Loveridge, Michael Smith and Bryce Cross, and tonight they reciprocated," Prentice explained before heading off to receive some of the heaviest silverware on the New Zealand speedway scene.

The Hawke's Bay pair of Ben Milne and Symes were second and third respectively.

Wet track conditions towards the end of the meeting forced the 23-car Hawke's Bay ministock championship to be cancelled.

With three wins in the six-strong saloon field Hawke's Bay driver Josh Smith finished the season with nine consecutive wins, three at the previous Meeanee meeting and three at his last outing in Wellington.

"That has to give me confidence going into next season's nationals here on the home track," Smith said.

The Hawke's Bay sidecar crew of rider Andrew McNamara and swinger George Olsen did well to win all three of their heats in an eight-strong class.

Hawke's Bay's former national TQ champion Duane Todd won one of the three heats in his 12-strong field. Another former national champ, Gisborne's Dylan MacGregor, and Aucklander Cieran Rose won the other heats.

Hawke's Bay's Denton Hodgkinson again went all out to stop a visitors' clean sweep in the 14-strong production saloon class with his victory in the third heat. Gisborne drivers Lloyd Stranger-Stuart and Anton McKay were the other heat winners.

An action-packed 20-minute ramp derby ended the season. Nicole McLachlan, a sister-in-law of Hawke's Bay Hawkeyes manager Mike McLachlan, won the $300 first prize and experienced campaigner Beatle Tarrant and Brook Singer both deserved their $100 stirrers' prizes.