He made a late start to the speedway season, but Tauranga’s Chris Cowling has wasted no time racing to another cache of major Super Saloon Car honours, including a successful defence of the NZ Championship and NZ Grand Prix titles.

One thing Cowling hasn’t done this season is race at his home track, but that will change on Saturday night when he takes to the Baypark clay among a 17-strong field of Super Saloons.

The Cowling Motorsport team was busy over the winter building its latest CB2 designs for customers, which meant new cars for brothers Steve and Chris made it to the track later than planned.

“We built nine cars over the winter and the new ones for Steve, and I were the last ones to get finished,” says Cowling.  

“That’s why I missed the early meetings at Baypark and didn’t get on track till Christmas time.”

But in spite of limited track time Cowling raced to his second New Zealand at Cromwell in January ahead of fellow Baypark racer and North Island champ Sam Waddell.

A week later, Cowling won the NZ Grand Prix at Woodford Glen near Christchurch, his fifth consecutive GP success and he also posted two second finishes during the recently contested international series.

He says going into the New Zealand title with only one race meeting in the new car was nerve-racking. 

“The new car has some more development from ideas we had in the off season. Some of them are better and some are things we’re still working on.  

“I definitely wasn’t as confident going in this year [to the NZ title] as I was last year. We’d only run the new car once and damaged it quite badly.”  

Now local fans get to see Cowling’s latest NZ1 machine in action for the first time.  

“This weekend it will be good to be racing at home again after all of the travelling we’ve been doing. It looks like there’s a quality field and I’m looking forward to it,” says Cowling.  

The Super Saloon entry list includes Waddell, early season feature winner Damian Orr and Steve Cowling who recently won the international event in Palmerston North.

There are four drivers making their first Baypark appearance this season – Waihi racer Garry Edwards in his new car, Kihikihi’s Benji Sneddon and Hawke’s Bay drivers Chace Rodda and Jason Long.  

A strong field of Super Stocks will compete for the BOP Championship on Saturday night.

The Bay Invasion meeting also features the Bay of Plenty Championships for both Stock Cars and Super Stocks.

A 32-strong field will contest the Stock Car title including visitors from Rotorua, Gisborne, Huntly and Auckland while 20 drivers have signed on to contest the BOP Super Stock champs.  

F2 Midgets and the Youth Mini Stocks complete the programme with racing underway from 6.30pm.