The Pivot

  Christchurch racer Bryan Chang is the first southern Thundertruck entry in his Giti Tyres Chev turbo. It was the first Thundertruck built in New Zealand to the popular ProLite design and is a multiple New Zealand champion. It's on: New Zealand’s newest race circuit kicks off the coming year with a new national championship offroad race event held over two weekends: the 2021 Mickey Thompson New Zealand Stadium Offroad Racing Championship. The new Manukau International Offroad Stadium on Prices Road near Auckland Airport is the venue for the two-round American-style stadium events, with racing to be held on 13 February and 6 March 2021. This is New Zealand offroad racing’s newest title fight and it brings the fastest and most spectacular race drivers to Auckland’s doorstep. The purpose-built racetrack features with tabletop jumps, berms, switchbacks and high speed straights, all set out to give spectators the best possible up-close view of the action. Already, entries for...

Five VIP wildcards have now been confirmed to line up alongside the rising race stars for January's New Zealand Grand Prix   Shane van Gisbergen Born 9 May, 1989. 31 years old TRS history: rising from karting and open-wheeler ‘feeder’ categories, van Gisbergen was second in the championship in the 2006-2007, driving as part of a two car International Motorsport team with Aucklander Daniel Gaunt. He only raced that season, stepping directly out of the Toyotas and into his first V8 Supercar Series, racing with Team Kiwi. He then jumped up to a competitive drive with the Stone Brothers team in 2008 and has been a leading name in the Australian series ever since. This will be his second New Zealand Grand Prix. “The New Zealand Grand Prix carries so much history. Hampton Downs is an awesome venue for it and will provide great racing. “Adapting to driving the cars will take a bit of getting used to, it is going to be a lot of fun and I will give it my best. It will be amazing to race alo...

  Jeez! The much postponed, much rumoured, hard to nail down TCR Championship and Super Production category race calendar has once more been 'tweaked' for 2021. It's now THREE rounds, starting in March, and has no racing up north.  Organisers have taken the 2021 calendar scheduled to kick off at Manfeild on January 22-24 in the new year and pushed it back and down - to Timaru in March. It is now a truncated three-round affair starting on March 5-6.   Organisers cite "international shipping delays for parts and logistical difficulties with the New Zealand Grand Prix occurring on the same weekend."   The new opening round at Timaru International Raceway will be the first time in seven years that championship level touring car racing will race on the South Canterbury circuit.   Following the series opener at Timaru, Super Production goes to Teretonga Park on March 20-21 and then up to Highlands Motorsport Park on April 23-24. Once heralded as a stand-alon...

Picfest! Ken Smith is going for his 50th GP start. He was the first entry announced. Shane van Gisbergen is back, all aglow from that Bathurst win and chasing the one that got away.   Now Chris van der Drift (below) lobs in an entry. The VIP Wildcard entries for the 2021 New Zealand Grand Prix outnumber the young hopefuls at the moment. Rumours about who else will put their hands up are flying thick and fast, and here's the most likely of them.  Dan Gaunt has two series wins to his name and two GP victories - Teretonga and Manfeild - to go with them.  He has done more laps of Hampton Downs than the other three VIP entries put together.  He's working as a driver coach and mentor (maybe I could get some tips...). He has also been doing great things in endurance racing here and overseas. In fact, he shared an LMP2 car with The Giz and Nick Cassidy in the Asian Le Mans Series not too long ago. He has driven every iteration of the TRS cars: FT40, FT50 and FT60. Who else ...

Saving the best for last, Kiwi race driver Marcus Armstrong set third fastest time in the final session of FIA Formula 2’s post season test at Sakhir in Bahrain.   Lapping consistently in the top ten on both days, Ferrari Driver Academy racer Armstrong (20) was running with the DAMS team. Relishing the chance to log track time with a fresh team and new engineer/mechanic line-up, he finished the two days with third fastest in the final session. He was first to break into the 1:43 second lap time bracket. The sessions were as much about gathering information on car set-up as outright lapping. Most of the drivers and teams were logging extensive track time to refine car setups. Being so instantly on the pace is an encouraging development for Marcus Armstrong coming out of his first season in Formula 2. He goes into 2021 with an extensive volume of data and experience on the new 18-inch wheel and tyre combination introduced this year and being rolled across into Formula One in ...