The Pivot

Teaser time - lead-in fragment for the coming month's NZ4WD column Disappointment. Just when the entry list was looking good and we were ready to go show people what the Giti Tyre Chev ProLite can do, that virus raises its nasty head again. For the first time in its 40 year history, the Ashley Forest Hillclimb is cancelled. I’m feeling disappointed but more so for the event and the many crews who were looking forward to tackling that high speed hill The worst thing for us is the loss of an opportunity to spread the Gospel of Offroad Goodness to people who still think the sport is about tractors in mud wallows. Never mind. When the alert level shifts in our favour we’ll look for some opportunities to display and demo the truck around Canterbury. People down here are hurting pretty bad, but the lack of social events is making it worse. A&P shows, community events, all the things that are ‘glue’ for people down here where they get together and hang out with neighbours, fri...

     An E46 race build under way. RCIS photo   The biggest race series in New Zealand has announced a new single-specification class for the coming season, using the E46 coupe and four door versions of BMW’s ever popular 3 Series. Organisers say the aim is to give competitors a chance to compete in motorsport at reasonable cost by limiting permissible modifications In fact the class prohibits any modification not specifically tagged in the rules. The E46 class features ‘showroom’ 320i four or two door cars with the M54B22 24-valve, twin cam six cylinder engine. Gearboxes allowed are the Getrag and ZF manual five speed transmissions used in the road cars. There are upwards of 12 cars in-build for the current season. The BMW series started in 2006 with a single-class competition for BMW’s E30 3 Series. Inspired by a similar competition in the UK, it rapidly grew to be the most successful such series in the country. It soon expanded to include a class for 2.0-litr...

Post-Covid - if we ever really ARE post-Covid - what will motorsport actually look like? Where will it resurge from? Will there be more false starts? What will our premier series look like and how will we watch or participate? Here are three views on the future, each with a unique perspective on motorsport post-Covid 19: Broadcaster David Turner discovered motorsport at age 6 when his Dad took him to the old Levin circuit and on to the very first race meeting held at Manfeild. “ Then we moved onto racing gas powered radio controlled cars and by 14 it was karting. Apart from karting at national levels in the Yamaha Class for many years I did try Formula Ford via the Richard Lester Motorsport school and there was some talent but maybe not enough! “Finding out I was not a hot shot driver as such and having started work, TV became the main goal.” Turner edited coverage of the inaugural Nissan Mobil 500 street race and worked on motorsport coverage until in 1998 he launched TV O...

Kiwi Marcus Armstrong has once more put in a gritty drive in the latest round of the FIA Formula 2 Championship.   Knocked off the track at the fourth turn of race one and stranded in a sand trap, he was then forced to start off the back of the grid for race two of the weekend’s FIA Formula 2 round at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain. His fight back in that second race put no less than six of his rivals behind him at race end. After two difficult weekends at Britain’s famous Silverstone circuit, Christchurch-born Armstrong (20) was aiming to turn the corner and post good results in Spain but had no chance when he was nudged off the track in a multi-car tangle on the opening lap of Saturday’s race. Because the first race sets the grid for Sunday’s sprint race, Ferrari Driver Academy member Armstrong then faced a start off the last row of the grid. He made a blisteringly fast start and fought his way in a determined drive through to 15th place at the finish having ...

He left it to the very last race, but Auckland racer Simon Evans has won the Jaguar i-Pace Trophy series, a single-make support competition featuring Jaguar’s stylish EV sedan. An ecstatic Evans slipped past defending champion Sergio Jimenez in the standings with second-place finish in the season finale at Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport circuit on 13 August. The performance sealed his maiden drivers’ championship by just one point. Evans came into the round a strong contender for the title but trailing Jimenez on points. In the first three of the opening four races he had struggled to make any headway on runaway leader Jimenez. That changed at the final as the Asia New Zealand team unlocked fresh speed for their driver. Evans took three consecutive wins before running a cautious strategy in the final to ensure he finished ahead of his main rival. “Unreal to win the championship in the last race by only one point. Mega pace all week and today I just did what I needed to do. Thanks to the ...

Giti Tyres offroad race team column for NZ4WD magazine Having run for over 40 years, Ashley Forest Rallysprint is a true Kiwi classic event. In the 1980s it was a regular commitment – a few brews, a barbecue and an afternoon spent watching the pretty well produced TV programme. It’s close to my place too – just outside Rangiora in North Canterbury. The rallysprint features a snippet of the infamous ‘Mt Grey Road’, with a short 1.7km blast up and down the hill. Over the years, winners have included New Zealand national rally champions Neil Allport, Tony Teesdale, and the late Possum Bourne, together with other big names in the sport including Alistair McRae. Last year’s winner, WRC star Hayden Paddon, smashed the previous Sloan Cox record on his final run. This year, Paddon is set to return in his Hyundai i20 AP4 hillclimb monster. He is also bringing along a strong contingent of crosskarts to debut at the event, with another national champion, Joe McAndrew, amongst the high profile nam...