Jay Holtham has an impressive list of mates.

The Christchurch-based superstock racer, known to most as Huggies (more on that soon), got his
start in speedway running in youth ministocks alongside the likes of Asher Rees, William
Humphries, Jordan Dare, Chevron Taniwha, Darrell Wallace and Jayden Ward, among a host of
others.
If you don't know who those men are, maybe this sport isn't for you. Over many seasons, those

lads have made individual and teams podiums in stockcars and superstocks with Rees the most-
credentialled as the three-time defending champion in the superstock class ahead of the DC

Equipment national title meeting at Nelson's Milestone Homes Top of the South Speedway on
January 10-11.
While Holtham is no slouch – having featured among the placegetters at club and South Island
level – he's yet to reach the national heights of the drivers he competed alongside in Palmerston
North almost two decades ago. It was back then that Jay became “Huggies”, his dad suggesting
he'd need disposable nappies to catch an unhappy accident before the green flag in his first
ministock race. Turns out dad was partly right; there was no soiling, but Holtham did end up in an
accident, ploughing along the wall before he'd even made it to the startline as the big grid got
busy.

His early career was based on youth and adult ministocks and karting in Manawatū before work
and personal reasons called him to Christchurch. The earthquakes had created havoc across the
region and work was plentiful for a young engineer (Holtham calls himself a “pretend-gineer”).
Speedway took a back seat until former Nelsonian Jason Fletcher offered Holtham, who was
absorbing the finer points of set-up while he crewed for Fletcher, the chance to drive his stockcar
until it could be sold.
“I sucked,” Holtham admits. “The car was a handful, I'd been out of it for a while, Jase wouldn't
let me teams race it so I tried to go fast and felt like I had forgotten how to drive.”
While it wasn't the perfect way to make a comeback in the sport, Holtham had caught the eye of a
couple of fellow competitors in Canterbury and other opportunities presented themselves. He
raced a Tank superstock owned by Jacob Brownlees but really found his niche in stockcars,
through his connections with Dave Rosewarne and son Brad. Dave is the proprietor of Cylinder
Head Services (CHS, a leading engine builder in Canterbury) while Brad is the man behind the
Vortech chassis. A talented driver himself, Brad provided a pathway for Holtham to race better
quality gear, with CHS providing the motor-vation over almost a decade in partnership with
Holtham.

There were breaks to build a house and have a daughter and sporadic appearances, with some
success, in a stockcar but Holtham has really ramped up his racing again in the past couple of
summers. He made a number of appearances in Nelson in the stockcar, impressing at the NZGP

here, and building strong friendships with the Smith family [son Ben is a former 1NZ in stockcars
and is back from injury this season in 93N] and past national superstock champion Shane

Harwood. It was Harwood who broke the seal and got Huggies back into a superstock for a one-
off meeting.

“Shane is one of the guys putting the [PTS Superstock] Stampede together each season in Nelson
and I guess he was looking to get as many cars on the track as possible,” Holtham said. “I get a
call one day and Shane says 'there's a car up here if I want to come up and pedal it for that
meeting'.
“Shane and his family are great friends. He knew I had started to get some good results in the
stockcar and, like him, I'm right into things like geometry and setting up shocks and springs to get
the best out of a car – we are both into that sh*t. Anyway, I though he had some old bucket of
bolts for me but then he says 'It's the green pipe dream, mate' ... Harwood's own 1NZ car that him
and Charlie [Harwood] had parked up to look after it, once it had done its share of racing.
“I nearly jumped down the phone, saying 'don't tease me' but he was serious about offering me his
own car while he was in Blondie [the 693N Higgins-Ford]. I came up to help get it ready and, as
usual, Charlie and the boys had it perfect already. We had the second fastest lap time of the
meeting, behind Shane, by about 0.001 or something ... it just showed me that I could front it
with some of the best in the business.
“That gave me the confidence to go into a superstock fulltime and just see where we can go with
quality gear.”

While there are still plans around for the Vortech stockcar, and a new one being built for the NZ
champs at Woodford Glen next summer, Holtham has committed to giving superstocks a decent
crack, particularly on a Nelson track he knows well. Glen Leech of Leech Motorsport led the
conversion of QTR6, a Leech-built stockcar chassis, and CHS delivered a strong Toyota for the
317C super.

While the conversion was a huge job, Holtham said the fact he knew the pedal and seating
positions and the sight lines in the car made repurposing that chassis the best choice.
“I feel like I have the car to compete at this meeting,” he said. “There's going to be something
like 100 cars in the pits on night one but I genuinely believe we can give this a shot this year.
“I like Nelson, we've been up a few times already and got a feel for the car on the track and
started to get our head around the little tweaks that can make a big difference.
“I feel just locking in to the superstock for the season will help me as a driver. It's hard jumping
between classes because the power is different, the brakes are different, the grip in a superstock is
phenomenal compared to the stockcar – so making a commitment allows me to find that sweet
spot.”

The Rees chassis, especially in the hands of elder son Asher, has been the standard-setter and it's
not inconceivable that half the finals field at this meeting could have been welded up in a
workshop in Himatangi. Holtham has known since those youth ministock days in Palmerston
North just how much ability many of his fellow competitors have, Rees-mounted or otherwise.

 

“There's quite a few of those boys with the track record, eh? They've put up the results and I'm
just old hairy Huggies, likes a laugh and a frothy and has a thing for suspension geometry.
“But I actually feel this is the best chance I'll ever have to do something in a superstock. We won't
be leaving anything out there for another day, put it that way.”
Jay Holtham races the 317C QTR-Toyota with support from Vortech Engineering, Cylinder Head
Services, Leech Drainage, Fast Blast, Beem's Contracting and North Canterbury Collision Repair
Centre. Spinning spanners and yarns in the pits are B, Ants, Big Andy, Little M, Tom, Mikey,
Sleepy, Scotty and Mack.

• The DC Equipment New Zealand Superstock Championship, with support from Mean
Machine and TWS, will be raced over two nights, January 10-11, at the Milestone Homes
Top of the South Speedway.

Written by Pete McNae
Photos by Rebecca Connor Maling, BM Photography