The Pivot

I never saw the like. The first motor race I watched live and trackside as media was the 1985 Benson and Hedges 500 at Pukekohe. Ray 'what briefcase' Smith and Denny sharing a gold Holden. Sunburn, leggy young ladies in short (short) shorts, sunhats and filmy blouse things. A classic (horrible) Pukekohe hotdog (cure for constipation!). We travelled there and back in my mate Daine's green and silver 240Z. Bit of a perfect day really. There have been a fair few races flit past the lens of my SLR since then. But this weekend I saw the race of races. I watched speechless as Shane van Gisbergen won the 66 th New Zealand Grand Prix in a storming drive from from dead-last in pit lane to a 2.2 second lead at the flag. The NZ Motor Cup becomes his first trophy of 2021, coming on the heels of his 2020 Bathurst 1000 win, a class win in the Rally of Auckland and the outright win at the inaugural Battle of Jacks Ridge late last year. The 2016 Supercars champion had won the first t...

  My favourite event in all of racing and rallying is happening right now in the searing wastes of off-highway Saudi Arabia: the Dakar. It's mad. Hammering flat out across dunes, down 'roads', over huge distances, for days at a time. The motorsport equivalent of the Tour de France. It nearly didn't happen though. The organisers have revealed how close the race came to being stymied by fell victim to 'The Covid'. Like so many others. Saudi Arabia announced the closure of its land, sea and air borders just 13 days before the start of the second Dakar in the Arabian Peninsula, responding to the new more virulent strain of Covid that is running rampant in Britain and has since spread to other countries. You can imagine - that set off all the alarms at organiser Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO). But, in the face of the restrictions imposed by Saudi Arabia to limit the spread of COVID-19, ASO chartered 18 flights to get officials, crew and competitors to the event....