Donna Collins
‘Lady Luck’ is smiling down at Allan Martin, who drove his lime green and white Hot Rod 16-valve ‘bullet’ into first place, during the past action packed Dirt Track Oval Championships event held at the Walvis Bay Desert Raceway.
Allan, is currently leading the 2017 Dirt Oval championships in his class, and with his competitive streak, is hoping to secure the trophy at the end of the season, but with a few more surprises up his sleeve.
The event brought over 30 competitors to the track, and a full programme of racing, but for Allan who has been leading the season’s scoreboard in the Hot Rod category it was a dramatic race, as he pipped his rival Jan Everson to the post that literally saw sparks fly.
Gino Meyer clinched the number one spot in the thunderous V8 division with Roberto Schneider and Johnny Doeseb in second and third respectively. Michale Behnke led the 8-Valve Class with Zachary Martin tailing a close second and Frank Burruso in third. Dirk Kotze Jr took the Quad category.
‘Woema’ caught up with the busy Walvis Bay businessman who is no stranger to the motorsport scene, having started competing over seven years ago, and describes himself as being completely passionate about motorsport.
Allan claims to be the only competitor in the country who is competing in all four motorsport codes, namely dirt ovals, rally, circuit racing and drag racing, and the multi-talented ‘petrol head’ says he is aiming to clinch at least two titles this year, if he works really hard.
But it doesn’t stop at this. Allan owns a fleet of four souped-up high performance cars, each one modified for the different task ahead. On the oval track you’ll find Martin behind the wheel of his Hot Rod Corsa body, powered by a 13B Rotary engine. On the rally scene, he’s amongst the front runners in a state-of-the-art Polo S200o 4×4, and if you bump into him at the Tony Rust Raceway, he’ll be racing his Golf5 GTi rocket.
All these high performance cars are colour coded his statement lime green and white combination, bearing the name “Sideways” on them. Ironically the name “Sideways” was born after he did a photo shoot with one of his cars, for a speed and sound magazine in South Africa a while back. The guys referred to his car as being an “Outsider” – which gave rise to “Sideways”, which is an apt description of Allan in action at the Desert Raceway.
The only one that is different from the pack is his metallic royal blue Skyline RB, which he drags, but is planning on rebuilding the car to get up better times, since drag racing is becoming very competitive and the guys are putting some ‘mean machines’ on the strip.
Over the years Allan has clinched numerous championship titles, which included being crowned Rally champ in 2013, and held the Dirt Oval title for three successive years, as well as being the fastest car on the drag strip.
“I just love doing what I do, and the more cars and events I race, the more I am able to participate in,” who added he would race every week-end if he could. Allan is also preparing his rally car, to take part in his first rally of the season, which is being held in Swakopmund on 15 July, and sponsored by Steckels Toyota.