Exclusive: Stockcar ace fights for life

One of New Zealand's best stockcar drivers is fighting for his life after being seriously injured in a crash with a logging truck while travelling to the national teams championship in Rotorua.

Brett Loveridge, 23, of the Meeanee Maulers stockcar team, was airlifted to hospital in Hastings by the Lowe Corporation Rescue Helicopter after the ute he was in, towing a stockcar, collided with a logging truck near Te Pohue on SH5 about 10am yesterday.

Mr Loveridge was one of five injured people tended by ambulance crews. One of the injured was another motorist who gashed an arm while helping at the scene.

The stockcar team was travelling in convoy to Rotorua, and the crash blocked the Napier-Taupo Rd in both directions.

St John Hawke's Bay acting district-operations manager Brendon Hutchinson said two of the men, one later identified to Hawke's Bay Today as Mr Loveridge, were airlifted to Hawke's Bay Hospital in a critical condition.

Mr Hutchinson said they had serious lower body and arm injuries.

The two other passengers in the ute were transported to hospital by ambulance.

The driver of the logging truck was shaken but unharmed.

Mr Loveridge was last night in a serious condition and in intensive care, while a 29-year-old man was in a critical condition in intensive care. The two other men, aged 20 and 19, had been discharged, according to hospital reports.

Mr Loveridge is considered Hawke's Bay's top stockcar driver and was one of the country's best last summer.

He only recently recovered from a broken foot, suffered while racing for the Maulers at the Huntly Teams Champs last November. Last season he won the East Coast, Hawke's Bay, Gisborne Classic, Huntly Speedfest, Kuru Cup and Peter Barry titles.

Yesterday's crash delayed motorists for several hours as traffic came to a standstill until the road was reopened about 3.30pm.

Central Hawke's Bay Mayor Peter Butler was travelling back from a business trip in Taupo when caught behind the carnage.

"We saw the helicopter, the ambulances ... once the emergency services had cleared, a policeman told us it could be a four-hour wait and they were treating it as a potential fatal," he said.

The serious crash unit is investigating.