Speedway: Borrowed sidecar a winner for couple

Hawke's Bay's Kim, right, and Kerry Johnston take a corner on the way to a second Hawke's Bay Sidecar Championship title at Meeanee on Monday night. Photo / Andrew Brunton Photography

Husband-and-wife duo Kim and Kerry Johnston rode a borrowed motorbike to their second Hawke's Bay Sidecar Championship title at Meeanee on Monday night.

"We've got to give a huge thanks to Mike [former national champion Zachan]. He let us borrow his bike while he sorts out handling issues on our bike ... we might be taking his bike home now," Kim said after the 15-crew championship.

"We knew we had to get out of the gates quick and we did," he told the 4000 spectators.

The 2013-14 season champions who are in their third season racing together recorded third and first placings in their qualifying heats before the winner-takes-all final. While the Johnstons were full of praise for Zachan they must have been equally as grateful for the assistance received from the officials.

A Palmerston North crew of Mark Whye and Wade Blackley won both of their qualifying heats to earn the favourites' tag for the final. However, officials relegated them from the final for a barging infringement.

A Gisborne crew of Rob Miller and Bradley Soloman finished second to the Johnstons in the final but were later disqualified for a similar discretion to the Palmy crew. In the wake of this disqualification the championship ended in a Hawke's Bay trifecta as Dave Black and Cole Petterson were promoted to second place and Andrew McNamara and George Olsen to third.

Zachan proved he has just about solved the handling problems on the Johnstons' bike when he and Jason McKinley rode it to fourth place in the championship. Hawke's Bay-based Auckland-contracted former national champions Russell Stuart and Andrew Parker won the consolation final.

Gisborne swinger Anita Hayward dislocated a shoulder when she and Steve Krynicki flipped on the first corner of the first heat in the championship. Krynicki was uninjured.

A 52-car ramp derby was the other feature attraction. After 18 minutes of often brutal action Hawke's Bay's Sean Holder was declared the winner and fellow Bay competitor Lucas Anderson had the best roll.

Whanganui visitor John Caird bettered the production saloon class track lap record of 19.724s four times on the way to winning his third heat and it is 19.2886s. Caird had earlier won heat two and Hawke's Bay's Greg Reddington won heat one in an 18-strong field.

There was plenty of action in the 12-strong stockcar class and the best hit of the night saw Ben Milne and Tony Darroch shove their Hawke's Bay clubmate Michael Smith up the wall in the feature. Former Hawke's Bay champion Jason Penn won the first two heats and his clubmate Bryce Cross took out the feature.

Magpies rugby prop Jason Long joined Hawke's Bay clubmates Wayne Talbot and Tony Meechan as the heat winners in a nine-strong superstock class.

Hawke's Bay champion Jakob Flynn won two of the heats in a 24-strong ministock class and former Bay champion Regan Penn the other.

Two-time champion Craig Todd did the best of the Hawke's Bay trio at the Western Springs, Auckland-hosted national TQ championship on Monday night with a fifth placing. David Wilson was sixth and Todd's cousin Duane Todd, who was hoping to secure a third consecutive title, was eighth.

Hawke's Bay's Flynn brothers, Grant and Steve, finished second and third respectively behind Auckland winner Ben Harding at the Mount Maunganui-hosted North Island Super Saloon Championship on Monday night. Steve Jude did the best of the Hawke's Bay contingent at the Rotorua-hosted North Island Superstock Championship on Monday night with a fourth placing.