Speedway: Quiet achiever gains hero status

Hero status: Hawke's Bay's Wayne Talbot on his way to a heat win on Saturday night. Photo/John Faulkner

"Quiet achiever" and "big improver" are a couple of labels used to describe Hawke's Bay superstock driver Wayne Talbot in recent seasons.

Those descriptions were replaced by the "Hawke's Bay hero" tag after Friday and Saturday night's Easter meetings at Meeanee. During a weekend when Hawke's Bay drivers managed to win just two of 10 individual titles up for grabs and a share of two of the Best Pairs titles Talbot, 52, won a first East Coast title and with Hawke's Bay-based, Palmerston North-contracted Andy McCabe retained the Best Pairs title they won last year.

"Andy and I were a bit lucky in the pairs. We both had top 10 finishes in all three races," former Hawkeye Talbot said as he reflected on the 16-team Best Pairs event.

"Consistency was the key in the East Coast championship. I came from grid 17 to fourth in the first heat, won the second and got a fifth in the third. Matt Demanser [one of Talbot's clubmates] helped me out by taking out one of my closest rivals Pat Westbury of Rotorua but at the same time Ron Tye was having a go at me but I used my experience," Talbot said after the 21-car event.

"It was a good way to finish the season on a high because I don't race in the Autumn Nationals. I'm one of the sponsors for that meeting through my Motorworks business so I bring some of my sponsors out to thank them for their support," Talbot said referring to the next Meeanee meeting on April 29.

This is the first season Talbot has raced the car which was previously raced by Palmerston North's Kerry Humphrey and this has been a contributing factor to his improvement this summer.

"We are a family team with my wife [Maria], daughter [Bridget] and a mate in the crew. We're not a big-budget crew like some of the others we are up against so this makes titles like these particularly pleasing," he said.

Experienced streetstock driver Wayne Melling was the other Hawke's Bay individual title winner when he won the 11-car East Coast championship on Friday night. Rotorua's national champion Trevor DeMalmanche was third and another Rotorua starter, Alan King, second.

Promising first-season Hawke's Bay stockcar driver Regan Penn combined with Wellingtonian Josh Lockett to win the 18-team Best Pairs event for their class on Friday night. But there was no room on the podium for a Bay driver after the 29-car East Coast stockcar championship on Saturday night.

Palmerston North's 1NZ Josh Prentice won the title by three points from Stratford's Tyler Walker and Aucklander Keegan Orr was a further two points behind in third place.

There was plenty of carnage during the two nights. Palmerston North superstock driver Chad Ace put a huge hit on Hawkeye Mike McLachlan on Friday night. This was a payback for a hit at the New Zealand champs and Ace bounced off McLachlan and ended up the safety fence in a vertical position.

Hawke's Bay's 3NZ Duane Todd was one of three TQ drivers to roll at the same time during the 20 lapper for their class on Saturday night which was won by Auckland's national champion Hayden Guptill. In his previous race, the third and final heat in the East Coast championship, Todd was unlucky to be on the receiving end of some contact with Aucklander Lawrence Baker which cost him the victory in the race and a possible podium finish in the championship.

Hawke's Bay superstock driver Maddie Wise, Bay streetstock driver Jesse Pollock-Houston, Guptill, Hawke's Bay stockcar driver Bryce Cross, Wellington ministock driver Vaughan Smith and Hawke's Bay stockcar driver Hayden Barnett were among others to roll during the weekend.