The Pivot

New Zealand driver Marcus Armstrong has finished fifth in the final race at the opening round of the 2021 FIA Formula 2 championship. Driving with his new DAMS team in the three-race championship opener session at the 5.421 km Bahrain International Circuit, the 20 year old racer had a mechanical issue that put him out of the first sprint race, then bounced back with a top ten finish in the second. Armstrong put in a storming drive in the longer feature race, carving through from a start position of 14th to score fifth and then bank ten points. “The conditions were quite extreme here this weekend but we were fast, whatever the weather threw at us. We had very positive long run pace, especially on soft tyres.” Armstrong said the car lacked power from the beginning of the first race and then “eventually it just let go.” In the second sprint race he charged through the field, running as high as second. “A podium could have been possible but we didn’t have a new se...

Mechanical issues saw New Zealand driver Marcus Armstrong unable to finish the opening sprint race of the FIA Formula 2 championship, but he was able to run as high as second overall during the second race.  Driving with his new DAMS team in the three race championship opener session at the 5.421 km Bahrain International Circuit, the 20 year old racer was disappointed by the first race, having completed 21 laps before coasting to a halt, but takes some encouragement from being able to run at the front in the second.  In the latter, he made the most of using Pirelli’s ‘soft’ tyre to climb from 20th to eighth after eight laps. Armstrong went to second when the rest of the field pitted for tyre changes, but then fell back. Race weekends are all held at rounds of the FIA F1 Championship and there are three races per event. The overall number of rounds have thus been reduced to eight, with 24 races to decide the title. Combined with new part-grid reversals of qualifying places this...

A motorsport legend reaches the finish line Larger than life, always ready with a laugh and always keenly interested in the people he met on his own journey - ‘Rocket’ Ron Kirkman passed away in Whangarei on 22 March, aged 84. Rocket became a motorsport media darling when he contested the first Silverstone Race to the Sky at Cardrona at the tender age of 70. In the company of a bevy of fast racers half his age, Rocket contested every Race to the Sky. Each time, he stormed up the hill at the sharp end of the open wheeler field and usually came away with a podium placing. He won his class in 2001. Held in the Cardrona Valley near Wanaka, the high-profile event known as the Highlands Race to the Sky began in 2007 and was last held in April 2015. It was the longest gravel hill climb in the world, covering 14.5km, with 135 turns as it climbed from 450 metres to 1500 metres above sea level. More than 100 vehicles contested that final event. Kirkman’s Super Quad suffered a fuel pump f...

  Linc Whiddett: more talent at thirteen than many twice or even three times his age Brightly coloured, at least: the inaugural New Zealand stadium offroad racing championship in February and March featured three race vehicles that can shine a light on the future of offroad racing in this country. Among the crash, bash biff and bang, the dust and flame of the mass-grid heats were the 450 Trophykarts of Linc ‘Hot Wheels’ Whiddett and Paul Hackett and the raucous wee Red Bull truck of master showman Mad Mike Whiddett. The event was huge. Round one gridded up 107 race cars and trucks, a paying crowd of around three thousand, the 850-car spectator parking area full to the brim. The last time I remember seeing that in the national championship was… oh, never. The second round went ahead in March despite the best efforts of the modern plague to derail the show. Some might also say the health bureaucrats were complicit in their obsessive conservatism. We got 75 cars to that one,...

New Zealand driver Marcus Armstrong has gone fastest at the FIA Formula 2 pre-season test in Dubai. Driving with his new DAMS team in the three day session at the 5.421 km Bahrain International Circuit, the 20 year old racer was third fastest on day two then dominated the time-sheets on the final day. The team carried out extensive work on the first day focussing on race setup, meaning Armstrong had limited time in the car. He returned to the track on day two and posted third fastest time overall. The Ferrari junior then set his stamp on the official test sessions with fastest speed - 1:42.173 - in the morning session of the final day. “Performance runs this morning went quite well. Overall, it’s been a good day with a lot of laps completed.” With the last of the fresh tyre allocation used, times in the afternoon session were around three seconds slower across all teams. Armstrong says he is excited by the developing involvement with DAMS. The Ferrari junior said he and the team had pu...