Speedway: Teen shares superstock title

Superstock car racer Maddison Wise. PHOTO GEOFF BICKNELL

Make the necessary adjustments when required and the rewards will come ... just ask Hawke's Bay superstock driver Maddison Wise.

"Tonight's the first night everything has gone to plan. Previously this season the engine has been coughing and spluttering and our set-up wasn't right. We've changed heaps on our set-up," Wise said after he shared the Tony MacIntosh Memorial Trophy with Hawkeyes captain Steve Jude at the Meeanee-hosted Christmas Special meeting on Saturday night.

A five-time national karting champion during his younger days, Wise, 19, is in his second full season of superstock racing.

"I'm pretty stoked to share a title like this with a legend like Steve. This has to give me confidence going into next weekend's North Island championships in Huntly and then the nationals early next month in Palmerston North. They're going to be my first big meetings and I haven't set any high goals ... I just want to get a feel of them for the future," he said.

Wise won the third heat for his 16-strong class after recording second and fifth placings in his previous two heats. Jude recorded a second and two third placings.

Former Hawke's Bay TQ, stockcar and ministock driver James Tollison won the second heat, his first victory in this class, and the Palmerston North-contracted, Hawke's Bay-based Andy McCabe won the first heat.

It was the night for 19-year-olds as another, Palmerston North's David Lowe, won the 27-car Hawke's Bay stockcar championship. It was the second consecutive year a visiting driver had captured the title and Lowe couldn't believe his luck.

"I was the only Palmy driver here. I thought the local boys would have been all over me," Lowe said afterwards.

"This is my first ever title after four years racing in the class," he added.

For the second straight year a three-car run-off was required to decide the title.

However Hawke's Bay's Regan Penn, who continues to shine in his first season in the class after graduating from the ministock ranks, had to withdraw from the run-off with a blown gearbox and clutch issues.

This left Lowe up against Hawke's Bay's two-time winner of the title, Randal Tarrant, in the four-lap run-off. Lowe showed more brutality on lap two and had superior pace for the remainder of the race.

Close, spectacular racing was a feature of the super saloon and saloon classes. Hawke's Bay's Jakob Flynn, in his first season out of the ministock class, did well to drive his father Grant Flynn's super saloon to victory in a 13-car feature for both classes.

Flynn's clubmate, Sam Croy, produced some classy drives in the saloon class. Hawke's Bay's Brent Redington won two of the heats for the 11-strong streetstock class and clubmate Daniel Melling the other.