WALVIS Bay motorsport ace, Allan Martin has scooped the National Dirt Oval Track Championships following his electrifying performance during the past week-end’s dirt oval races held at the Walvis Bay Oval Track, where a total of 28 vehicles competed for the last points.
Driving a Fibreglass ‘Hot Rod’ Corsa Spaceframe fitted with a 13B Mazda Rotary engine, Martin was the man to beat in the 4-Cylinder 16-Valve Class, and put on a crowd wowing performance. He kept a cracking pace during the four heats, with a tight battle between the ‘main manne’ Freddie Stander and Frank Burrosi who finished second and third respectively.
Spectators were also treated to flying dirt and nail biting action in the 4-cylinder 8-Valve Class, with Michael Behnke, Richard Owen and Leonard Martin driving the hell out of their 8-Valve VW Golf engines.
Some heavy power from the 6/8-Cylinder Category, saw Frank Steyn putting ‘pedal to the metal’ driving a sleek RX7 Mazda powered by a Lexus V8 engine, which finished ahead of Vernon Knowles and Jan Liebenberg who gave chase. All categories raced four heats for the day with the grand finale – the ‘King of the Oval’ race, featuring 11 vehicles in the 4-Cylinder Class, bringing the house down with a thrilling dice around the track.
A total of nine quads raced the day, and in the Quad 350cc Class Michael Behnke took the trophy. Jaques Simon won the Quads 300cc Class, Zander Everson the 100cc Quad Class with Jean Simon
The oval races experienced a good turnout of spectators, and there was huge excitement throughout the day’s racing, which experienced good weather in the harbour town, and Dirt Ovals ended on a high note. The event was organised by the Walvis Bay Motor Club who are celebrating their club prize giving this Friday night.
Meanwhile Allan has made motorsport history this year, after clinching two 2013 National championship titles – an achievement which has raised the bar in motorsport. He took the honours after finishing in the top five the Total Tara Rally last week-end – clinching the rally championships victory in his potent 2-litre VW Polo 4×4. He topped this off this week-end by adding the Dirt Oval Championship trophy to his name.
Commenting on his achievements Allan said that it hasn’t sunk in yet, but he is sure that he will be very excited once he receives his trophies at the prize giving function. Whilst remaining humble throughout the year, Allan has put a lot of hard work, consistency and team work into his motorsport career which only started two years ago.
BY Donna Collins