Speed demoness 
New Zealand racing star Christina Orr will be competing in this year's Bathurst 12 Hour Race, driving for Jim Hunter Motorsport. The 2008 Bruce McLaren New Zealand Driver of the Year will be teaming up with Heather Spurle MBE and Molly Taylor on the all girl team #66 Subaru RS. Orr has been racing since the age of six, and finished fifth in 2005 in the New Zealand Championship racing in Formula Ford. She has recently spent time in America for the test of an Indy Lights single-seater; earning her the respect of racer's the world over. When it comes to issues of gender, Orr has her priorities set. "I am a Driver Racer first and a female second," says Orr, "I have raced with boys all my racing life since I was six. As soon as I put my helmet on and pull down my visor I am a driver not a female I am their equal. I have no problems with the guys I race with as they do respect me as an equal. It sometimes is the fathers that get upset when I beat their sons. You hear them say on the grid afterward, 'why did you let that girl beat you.' Its sad really."
(19 January 2009)

Queen of the track 
Current world champ Katherine Prumm enjoyed back to back wins in the opening round of the Australian Women's Motocross Championships in Victoria. The South Auckland Kawasaki rider was her own harshest critic, claiming "I didn't ride well; I could have won by more." At just 18, Prumm is already a certified star of the sport. Last year Prumm was crowned women's world champion after winning both rounds of the series, in Germany and Sweden. She also competed in the WMA (US) Championship and shocked the Americans by winning both races in the opening round. A broken hand prevented her from advancing to the finals. At Motorcycling New Zealand's annual awards night in February, Prumm was named MNZ Off Road Rider of the Year for 2006 and received the Special Achievement Award. 
(19 March 2007)

NZ's home of motorsport 
Taupo's inaugural A1 Grand Prix meet for the World Cup of Motorsport was a huge success, with 80,000 spectators packing the stands. Adding to the experience, Team NZ placed third overall in what was the first podium finish by a host team in the event's history. "That was a tough race for us all and I'm happy with third place," said NZ driver Jonny Reid. "This is our second best overall placing at an A1GP event so we can take those points and look forward to Eastern Creek (Sydney)." Auckland businessman and motorsport enthusiast Colin Giltrap came up with the idea of holding an A1GP event in Taupo and has pulled it off despite numerous naysayers. "A couple of years ago Aussie V8 boss Tony Cochrane sneered at Taupo's ability to host a big event," notes NZ Herald columnist Bob Pearce, "As he contemplates the three men and a camel who watched his Bahrain Supercar venture, he might have to eat his words." 
(21 January 2007)

Kiwi creation joins world's supercars 
NZ's first supercar, the Hulme.F1, secured a rare invitation to show at Britain's prestigious Goodwood Festival of Speed. The annual event showcases the latest designs by big names Ferrari, Maserati and Aston Martin, as well as those of boutique car makers. Named in honour of Kiwi Formula One champ Denny Hulme, the Hulme.F1 has been developed in secrecy over the last two years. Hulme Supercar Managing Director, Jock Freemantle, explained the significance of showing at Goodwood in NZ's Sunday Star Times. "We are getting in front of the most exclusive prestigious market in the world. Probably a very high percentage of the supercar owners of the world will be there." Designed by Tony Parker, the Hulme.F1 has received financial backing from fashion label Zambesi, Air NZ, paint company Dupont, and former Air NZ CEO Ralph Norris. 
(7-9 July 2006)

Boy racer
NZ racing star, Scott Dixon, achieved three consecutive pole positions in the Indy Racing League last month, and broke the track record at Nashville in the process. His winning streak was cut short by gearbox problems in the Emerson Indy 250, causing him to forfeit what was a certain victory. He remains the "man to beat" on the IRL circuit.
(July - August 2003)
     NZ racing star, Scott Dixon, achieved three consecutive pole positions in the Indy Racing League last month, and broke the track record at Nashville in the process. His winning streak was cut short by gearbox problems in the Emerson Indy 250, causing him to forfeit what was a certain victory. He remains the "man to beat" on the IRL circuit.
(July - August 2003)
    

Slightly missed
"Aaron Slight worked very hard for the team in the seven years he was with us and everyone at Castrol Honda is very appreciative of that. He played an important part in the development of the RC45 and VTR machines and is one of the hardest working riders I will ever work with.” Honda team manager Neil Tuxworth during the announcement of Slight's replacement on the team.
(17 November 2000)
          

Jammin' in the air
The 2010 Farm Jam, New Zealand's premiere bike jumping event, was recently held on Dan Frew's land near Winton and included FMX, MX, BMX and MTB (mountain bike riding) spectacles. Riders were split into groups of three and had three 7-minute sessions to show their stuff on the technical course. Making a comeback at the 2010 Farm Jam was New Zealand golden boy Palmerston North's Levi Sherwood. After recovering from a wrist injury and knee reconstruction, Sherwood, 16, came out firing, throwing nearly all of his hardest tricks on a KTM 250SX two-stroke. Sherwood won the 'rider of the day award,' which was voted on by his fellow riders. Sherwood stands as the youngest rider to win a Red Bull X fighters event.
(11 March 2010)

A man and his machine 
Extreme enduro rider Aucklander Chris Birch, 29, "is expected to be one of the guys to beat in the World Xtreme Enduro Championships (WXEC)" reports The Independent on Sunday. With boyish good looks and a disarming line in self-deprecation ['Birchy'] has come from nowhere to challenge the biggest names in the sport: despite being a full-time rider only since 2008, he won his first 'Big Five' extreme enduro event, the Roof of Africa, that year, a race he won again in 2009. Extreme enduro is a relatively new sport, which has taken elements of enduro racing, supercross, motocross and trials riding to create the ultimate test of man and machine. It is survival of the fittest on a dirt bike," explains Jeff Pakosta, the man behind the new WXEC. "It is about these guys challenging themselves against the clock on the most brutal terrain." The first race in the Championships takes place on February 6 at Hell's Gate in Tuscany, Italy. 
(5 January 2010)

Burt's fine wine 
"It was 1962 and Burt Munro had somehow managed to get his suped-up Indian motorcycle from New Zealand to the Salt Flats, where he hoped to set a record," writes Tom Wharton for The Salt Lake Tribune. "'I passed this old guy pushing his motorcycle across the salt,' recalled 75-year-old Jeff Shipley of Upland who first came to Bonneville in 1958 and has more or less been involved in seeing how fast his vehicles can go across the salt ever since. 'I asked him where his crew was. He didn't have one. So I took the front wheel of his motorcycle and helped bring it back to the pit. He made three runs after that.' Shipley suggested Munro try a blend of nitro fuel, a concoction that increased the speed of the Indian by about 10 mph. He gave his newfound friend about five gallons to take back to New Zealand. Airport security, of course, had a bit of a problem with that, so Munro drove to Shipley's California home to return the fuel. That was near wine country, so Shipley talked to a friend who put the fuel into bottles and placed it in a case labeled, 'Fine California wine,' which was shipped back to New Zealand … Greg Carlson, another Salt Flats veteran remembered another New Zealand racer named Rollie Free who in 1962 raced across the Salt Flats in a Speedo swimsuit on an ironing board in order to cut down the friction and get more speed." Edendale-born Munro set an under-1000cc world record, at Bonneville on 26 August 1967. The record stands today. 
(8 October 2009)

Flawless performance 
Palmerston North Formula 3 driver, Brendon Hartley, 19, won his maiden European Championship race at Brands Hatch in England last week, and is delighted to be back on the top step of the podium after a grueling first season in the world's toughest junior racing category. "Scoring my first win in the Formula 3 Euro Series is just great. I didn't make any mistakes during the race … but we were also lucky because I picked up a slow puncture and the tyre was almost flat by the time I got back to parc ferme after the finish," said Hartley. It was Hartley's first victory since the British Formula 3 race at Spa in 2008 and he led from start to finish. Not only did the result mark the former Red Bull Racing Formula 1 test driver's maiden triumph at the level, but it was also his Carlin Motorsport team's breakthrough success as the 19-year-old produced a flawless performance to stave off Mücke Motorsport pairing and home favourites Alexander Sims and Sam Bird for glory. 
(7 September 2009)

Aiming for two 
Auckland Indy Car champion Scott Dixon, 28, "is the driver to catch" ahead of the Rexall Edmonton Indy on July 24–26, and with three wins under his belt already this season, Dixon says he hopes to win a second championship title. "I think we're definitely in a position to do it. I think I had four wins at this stage last year, so we have to pick it up a little bit," he says. "I think it's definitely a possibility and something we can achieve, and that would be a hell of a goal to go for. You have to try and keep those high expectations. It's very hard to do, it's very tough. I guess the challenge is going for records and saying you won two in a row. That's the motivation." Dixon won his first championship for current team Target Chip Ganassi Racing in 2003. He lives in Indianapolis. 
(19 July 2009)

Hartley's gets wings 
New Zealander Brendon Hartley, 19, has been granted his motor racing super-licence and will join Red Bull as a reserve driver, the Formula One team said. The former Palmerston North Boys' High School student, who is now based in the UK, won the Formula Renault 2.0 World Series for 2007. Hartley will join Red Bull as the reserve driver ahead of next week's Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona. He will understudy German Sebastien Vettel and Australian Mark Webber, and will take the wheel if either fall ill or get injured leading into the race. "This is a great achievement for Brendon as he is the first New Zealand driver in over three decades to have achieved F1 driver status," said Motorsport NZ president Steven Kennedy. Hartley most recently raced in Belgium in the second round of the World Series by Renault championship at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Since the Formula One championship began in 1950 only eight New Zealand drivers have competed, most recently Mike Thackwell in 1984. 
(1 May 2009)

Faster than lightning 
New Zealander Jock Freemantle's $1 million Hulme CanAm supercar, named after racing driver and 1967 Formula One world champion Denis "Denny" Hulme, is, writes Britain's Times Online, "a machine with the power to rival the fastest Ferrari, but which carries less weight than the lightest Ford Fiesta. It has a power-to-weight ratio that would make a Bugatti Veyron blush, and a look that exudes pure, undiluted menace. Best of all, it should be on sale here next year." Currently touring New Zealand to accrue capital for production of the vehicle, Freemantle said: "In Jeddah we had a son of the King of Saudi Arabia try to give us $1 million to take it straight away. But we didn't even have an engine in it at that stage." Freemantle is convinced it can realise his dream of establishing New Zealand as a producer of top-quality cars. For after all — as he points out — "We have more individuals per head of population working in motor sport than any other country in the world." If his plans come to fruition, he will start to build the CanAm in tiny numbers (probably no more than 30 a year), early in 2010. 
(15 February 2009)

Speed demon's dream  
Wellington entrepreneur Richard Nowland is the man behind the only jet-powered car ever designed and built in New Zealand. Nowland purchased a Rolls-Royce Avon 206 turbojet engine and intends to transform it into New Zealand's first purpose-built land- speed record car. Aiming to blitz the record at home (347kmh) and in Australia (801kmh), the carbon-kevlar- over-steel-space-frame project is entitled Jetblack. Its name picks up on the propulsion of the vehicle and also its symbolisation of how New Zealand can compete with the best the world has to offer. Nowland, the project manager and probable driver, hopes Jetblack will be seen as a metaphor and an inspiration for Kiwi capabilities. "I want to involve as many New Zealanders as possible, especially our future generation of engineers and innovators, and I will be approaching schools and universities to invite them to participate in the project," he said. "The whole thing with the project isn't just to have something to go fast, it is about promoting New Zealand engineering and technology." Jetblack is on track for testing to begin early in 2010. 
(26 January 2009)

Eight points up 
Wanganui teenage racing driver Earl Bamber has taken a podium finish at China's Formula 1 Grand Prix meeting in Shanghai, repeating his recent result as part of the A1 New Zealand team in the Netherlands. The 18-year-old proved just as competitive in his GP2 class debut in China, qualifying his My Team Qi-Meritus.Mahara ninth and starting Sunday's 120km feature race from P3 on the second row of the grid after finishing sixth in his debut race in the category on Saturday. The result is that Bamber heads to the second round of the 2008/09 GP2 Asia Series at Dubai in the UAE in December fourth overall with eight points. "We know we can compete with these guys, so let's hope we can continue in the next couple of races. It's a very high level of driving," Bamber said. 
(19 October 2008)

Series victory for Dixon 
Aucklander Scott Dixon has won his second IndyCar Series championship at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois driving for Target Chip Ganassi Racing. Though Brazilian Helio Castroneves won the race by .0033 of a second, which translates to 12 1/8 inches, Dixon knew coming in that he had to finish only eighth or better to win the title. He came into the race with a 30-point lead and wound up winning the title and the $1-million bonus that goes with it by 17 points. "I still can't believe it, what a race," Dixon told ESPN straight afterwards. "My year in general, getting married to my beautiful wife Emma and having the season that we've had has been amazing." Dixon last won the series in 2003, when it was known as the Indy Racing League.
(8 September 2008)

Toward NASCAR
Auckland speedway driver and Midget racer Michael Pickens, 25, is on the way to his dream of a NASCAR future getting stock car experience on paved tracks this summer in the ASA Late Model Series North Division races at Wisconsin International Speedway. Pickens is the latest in what is becoming a flood of talent emerging from New Zealand's domestic speedway scene. Racing in the US, he won USAC, Powri and Badger-sanctioned (dirt midget) feature races in 2007. Pickens arrived in Illinois in early April this year and will leave in October, arriving home just in time for the Midget season in New Zealand. "I miss my family the most," he said. "But when you are racing, it keeps your mind off it." 
(21 July 2008)

Saloon win for Williams 
Tiger Woods' caddie Steve Williams, 47, has won the New Zealand Saloon Car championship at Mt Maunganui's Baypark Speedway. It was his first national championship in the saloon class and came on the heels of his victory in the North Island Saloon Championship. Williams, whose team, Caddyshack Racing, is named after Tiger's favorite movie, said he treated stock car racing as "more than a hobby." "People recognize me as a caddie, but I treat my racing equally as seriously as my career as a caddie," he said. 
(10 January 2010)

Something gained 
Defending IndyCar Series champion New Zealander Scott Dixon, 28, has won the Road Runner Turbo Indy 300 at Kansas Speedway. "We needed something," Dixon said. "You know, even a sniff of something. Because so far all we've had is a sniff of the tail end of the field." The victory was the 17th of Dixon's career, second only to the 19 won by Sam Hornish Jr., now competing in NASCAR. He also vaulted from 17th to fourth in the points standings. "Every year, I set two major goals," Dixon said. "At the top of the list is to win Indy; second is to win the championship. Indy comes early … you can chase the championship later in the year. So we had to come out fighting. More importantly, going into the 500, it's huge for the team." Dixon next races in the 93rd Indianapolis 500 scheduled to be run on May 24. He was selected 2008 New Zealand Sportsman of the Year at the Halberg Awards held in February 2009. 
(26 April 2009)

 



Legend of The Bear lives on 
NZ car racing great Denny Hulme was the subject of a retrospective article on the sport in the Guardian. Known as The Bear for his rugged looks and gruff manner, Hulme dominated Formula One and Can-Am sports car racing in the late 1960s. His winning streak began in 1967; the same year F1 became the big money business it is today. Guardian: "Grand-prix racing became 'Big Time' but the reigning champion as motor racing entered this new era was possibly the most low-key driver ever to win the title." Hulme was crowned F1 World Champion in 1967 and Can-Am champion in 1968 and 1970. Despite his personal successes on the track, Hulme was dogged by tragedy throughout his career. In 1970 he was rocked by the death of mentor and fellow New Zealander Bruce McLaren, of McLaren Racing. Hulme went on to lead the team and hold it together, despite his reluctance to assume a centre-stage position. He retired from F1 in 1974 but continued to race trucks and touring cars in Australia. In 1992 he suffered a fatal heart attack at the wheel while competing in the Bathurst 1000.
(11 March 2007)

And France makes three
Kiwi motor cross stars Ben Townley and Josh Coppins finished first and second respectively at the French Grand Prix in St Jean d’Angely. The win marked the third Grand Prix title of Townley’s rookie season. “At the moment I'm taking it race by race and it's going really well,” said a modest Townley at the finish line.
(26 June 2005)
    

Catch me if you can Merriman
NZer Stefan Merriman won the 250cc two-stroke class riding for Australia at the 2003 International Six Days' Enduro in Fortaleza, Brazil. "The three-time world champion was an intimidating force on his Honda CRE250 two-stroke machine, easily outpointing Frenchman Arnaud Demeester to win his intra-class battle and overall honours. 
(3 November 2003)
    

Life in the fast lane
Scott Dixon has been dubbed "the new man to beat" on the Indy Racing circuit after a series of remarkable performances behind the wheel. The 22-year-old followed up his Honda Indy 225 victory by blitzing the field at the Sun Trust Indy Challenge in Richmond, Vancouver, in what was the first wire-to-wire victory in Indy Racing League history.
(June 2003)
  

Black Beauty takes two 
The Indonesian round of the A1 Grand Prix saw a historic double victory for NZ, with "Black Beauty" driver Jonny Reid winning the 47-lap feature race as well as the sprint race earlier in the day. The sprint win marked NZ's first ever A1 victory. "To come back from 16th-fastest in the opening practice to take a win, well, I'm just ecstatic," said Reid in the NZ Herald. The December 10 event was the fifth round in the international A1 Grand Prix competition. 
(10 December 2006)