Donna Collins
Walvis Bay father and son team, Allan and Zachary Martin, are dominating the 2019 circuit race meetings and last week end delivered a blistering performance at the Tony Rust Track in their J&P Hydraulics racing cars to snatch top podium slots in the second leg of the National Circuit Racing Championships.
An unplanned wet week-end which saw the Friday evening drag races being postponed due to rain, left the track surface for Saturday’s races wet and slippery. But despite the unpredictable weather, the guys pushed on with a good race, and conservative times with 15 entries at the start. Both father and son were confident to give it their best shot with a good show and loads of adrenalin pumping excitement in the first heat. The duo maintained a strong lead whilst putting on crowd wowing ding dong battle against each other as they sped around the track.
The raced finished with Allan surging power from his GTi racing Golf to speed past the chequered flag in 1st spot, ahead of Zachary who took 2nd place.
Allan once again showed great sportsmanship in the second race, whilst dicing young Zachary, and got the crowds all worked up as they flew around the circuit, displaying some nifty driving skills in their colour-coded lime green and white ‘rockets’.
Sadly, on the final lap the tables turned against Allan, who had to pull over when his Golf suffered gearbox problems, opening a gap for Zachary who whizzed past the finish line for a win.
Allan who holds multi-national motorsport titles over the years claims to be the only competitor in the country who has tackled four different motorsport codes, namely dirt ovals, rally, circuit racing and drag racing. He also owns a fleet of souped-up high-performance cars; each one modified for the different motorsport disciplines and is a force to be reckoned with.
The multi-talented ‘petrol head’ and busy Walvis Bay businessman, says he is aiming to clinch at least two titles this year now that the rally championships is back on track, and with his son in the game, and just as passionate about motorsport – this could be an interesting season for the Martin ‘boys’.
The race day ended with Zachary taking home 1st overall for the day and in Clubman’s Class B, while Allan had to be content with1st in Class A and some valuable points bagged on the championship scoreboard.
Meanwhile, Michael Rust, who was pushing his Volvo S40 sedan to keep up with the front runners, finished second overall in the B Class. The Clubman’s class also known as the “Golf Class” due to the large field of Golf’s brought some exciting action with Michael Strydom winning Class D and Jaco Nel taking Class E.
Sadly, the drags were once again rained out but everyone was in high spirits as rain is always welcome in our dry country.
The event was hosted by the Windhoek Motor Club who will be staging a three-day Motorsport Expo taking place on the 25-27 April, followed by the third national races on 11 May.