Speedway: Todd denied back-to-back titles

A protest room relegation prevented Hawke's Bay TQ driver Duane Todd from becoming the third member of his family to be a two-time national champion in Greymouth on Saturday night.

"I'm pretty disappointed to be fair. It should all be decided on the track where I won the title. I'll reluctantly accept the 2NZ title and won't appeal the decision like last year because it's not worth it ... it is only an amateur sport," the Maraenui Golf Club-based professional coach said.

Todd, 36, had to wait for an appeal process to be completed last year before he was given the 1NZ title and had he retained the title on Saturday night he would have joined his cousin and clubmate Craig Todd as a back-to-back champion and his father Steve and Craig as two-time winners of the title.

"I won the first protest on Saturday night but lost my second," Todd said.

He was initially relegated to second for not having a crash bar but later proved there was enough of his crash bar on his car to meet the regulations. He was then one of three drivers to be relegated for a pole line infringement.

"After that relegation I should have been tied for points with the other leader. But as I said I'm not going to appeal it. It came down to a technicality and an official doing a power thing ... the 1NZ title is becoming a joke," he added.

Todd finished second in his first heat from grid four, sixth in his second from grid 16 and fifth in the third from grid 18. Craig finished 11th in the first heat from grid 20 and was running fourth in the second when his chain broke.

Canterbury's Matthew Leversedge travelled home with the title and Aucklander Danny Keane was third.

Hawke's Bay's Quinn Ryan has a five-point lead after the second of three rounds in the Hawke's Bay Superstock Championship was raced at Hauraki Meeanee Speedway on Saturday night. Ryan started the round two points behind clubmate Matt Demanser who experienced mechanical issues and failed to score any points in the round.

Another Bay driver, former 3NZ Thomas Stanaway, will start the Good Friday final round in second place and Hawke's Bay's Marty Cooke a further 26 points back in third place. Experienced Hawkeye Steve Jude, who didn't race in the first round, was the most impressive of the 17 starters on Saturday night with a first and two seconds.

Hot favourites, Meeanee Mauler Randal Tarrant and Palmerston North's 2NZ Jayden Ward, captured the $1000 first prize in a tame 11-team Best Pairs stockcar event. They finished 27 points ahead of another Meeanee-Palmy combo of Josh Swannell and David Lowe and the Hawke's Bay pair of Jason Penn and Stacey Smith.

Regan Penn did the best of the Hawke's Bay contingent in the premier division of the Ministocks in Paradise meeting in Rotorua at the weekend. The Hawke's Bay champion finished second to Wellingtonian Joshua Patterson.

Penn's Hawke's Bay clubmates Jakob Flynn and Trent Palamountain were fifth and sixth respectively.