A celebratory cool down lap turned into a flash fire after New Zealand Super Saloon Car Champion Chris Cowling (Tauranga) made a winning return to Baypark Speedway on Saturday night.

In his first home track appearance of the summer, Cowling started from the second row of the 25-lap feature and worked his way past Scott Hayward and his brother Steve to take the lead after 11 laps.

From there he built a 3.7secs lead at the finish to secure a Cowling family 1-2, which is where the drama began with power steering fluid igniting on a hot engine.

“The power steering hose blew off. I smelt it with maybe a lap or go and then all of a sudden there were flames under the bonnet as I finished my cool down lap,” says Cowling.

Cowling drove to the infield fire crew who extinguished the fire.

The Super Saloons produced spectacular racing on a smooth and wide track with Steve Cowling and Scott Hayward taking the heat race wins and securing the front row of the grid for the feature.

Steve Cowling led the first 11 laps with the battle for the lead against his brother producing a side-by-side duel. Steve was working the outside line and Chris making ground and eventually moving ahead on the pole line. Even further up the wide racing groove was Palmerston North’s Ian Daniel who made an impressive charge to third place.

“It was a really good track,” says Chris. “Even in the heat races the track was wide. I wasn’t sure if the top or the bottom was faster, but when you’re out in front you don’t really want to be trying to something different.

“Racing side-by-side with Steve was really cool. The team spent a ton of time on the car during the week because we’ve been struggling with a few things, and it was definitely better.”

Both Bay of Plenty titles contested during Saturday night’s Bay Invasion were decided by a single point.

Elias Dykstra claimed the BOP Super Stock Championship with a decisive pass on race leader Kerry Remnant on the final lap of the third heat. The move switched a one point advantage in Remnant’s favour into Dykstra’s winning margin. Rotorua’s Gary Hunter finished third three points further back.

Rotorua drivers swept the podium in a 31-car BOP Stock Car Championship fought out over three races with Karl Garnett taking the win by one point ahead of Scott Fredrickson and Milla Theobald.

The F2 Midgets class looked like producing a fourth consecutive feature win for James Earl, who led for the first 17 laps. But a determined chase and a well-timed pass moved Corbin Anderson into the lead to win by less than a second.

The next meeting at Baypark Speedway is on Saturday March 9 headlined by the annual Harry Fredrickson Memorial Gold Cup for Stock Cars.