News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Shane Van Gisbergen Claims V8 Supercars Title

Shane Van Gisbergen Claims V8 Supercars Title

“As he became the first Kiwi champion since Jim Richards, Van Gisbergen rubber-stamped the final Sydney Olympic Park race with a race and title-winning burnout,” writes James Phelps for The Daily Telegraph. “It…

Scott Dixon Wins at Watkins Glen

Scott Dixon Wins at Watkins Glen

Watkins Glen International is a special place for New Zealander Scott Dixon. He showed why again winning the IndyCar Grand Prix at the historic New York race track. Fastest in every practice and fastest in qualifying, Dixon,…

McLaren Back at Scene of Triumphs

McLaren Back at Scene of Triumphs

If Formula One belongs anywhere, it is in Spa-Francorchamps and if one team belong there then they are McLaren, who approached the past weekend with optimism, if not so much for that race as…

Mad Mike Whiddett Drifts into Swindon

Mad Mike Whiddett Drifts into Swindon

If you are a hesitant driver, if T-junctions make you shudder and merging makes you quail, New Zealander Mad Mike Whiddett’s antics are not for you, warns Scotland newspaper the Daily Record. The notorious

Revived Team McLaren Returns to Grand Prix

Revived Team McLaren Returns to Grand Prix

Team McLaren, founded in 1963 by owner-driver New Zealander Bruce McLaren and the second-most successful team in series history, returns this weekend to its home Grand Prix, celebrating 50 years in Formula One –…

Earl Bamber Driving His Own Way

Earl Bamber Driving His Own Way

Earl Bamber grew up on a hunting-safari farm in Jerusalem on the Whanganui River, where he was home-schooled by his mother until he was 8. He liked to entertain himself by driving around the…

Monaco Full of McLaren Memories for Dave Ryan

Monaco Full of McLaren Memories for Dave Ryan

When Manor racing director Dave Ryan started working for the McLaren Formula One team in 1974, the New Zealander was handed a mop and told to clean the floor. The job got more complicated…

McLaren Lauds Its Hero 50 Years On

McLaren Lauds Its Hero 50 Years On

McLaren is celebrating its Formula 1 heroes and history with a 50th anniversary campaign. An online video charts some of the pivotal moments in the team’s history kicking off at one of McLaren’s earliest…

Hayden Paddon Wins Rally of Argentina

Hayden Paddon Wins Rally of Argentina

New Zealander Hayden Paddon, 29, has kept French world champion Sebastien Ogier at bay to win the Rally of Argentina for his first world rally championship success. The Hyundai driver, tipped as a future world…

Phillip Island V8 Win for Scott McLaughlin

Phillip Island V8 Win for Scott McLaughlin

Christchurch-born Scott McLaughlin, 22, has claimed a commanding V8 Supercars win in Race 1 of the WD-40 Phillip Island SuperSprint in Australia after winning his first pole of the season. McLaughlin, who is the youngest…

Brendon Hartley Endures for Porsche in Bahrain

Brendon Hartley Endures for Porsche in Bahrain

New Zealand’s Brendon Hartley, 25, (pictured far left) has won the FIA World Endurance Championship in Bahrain alongside Porsche teammates, former Formula One driver Australian Mark Webber (right) and German, Timo Bernhard. The trio took…

Racing Star Mitch Evans Proponent of F1 Noise

Racing Star Mitch Evans Proponent of F1 Noise

New Zealander Mitch Evans, 21, one of the leading lights of single-seater junior auto racing, says he believes Formula One’s audiences could accelerate if the series returned to 2.4-litre V8 engines which it dropped…

Scott Dixon Wins Fourth IndyCar Championship

Scott Dixon Wins Fourth IndyCar Championship

Scott Dixon has won Sunday’s race at Sonoma Raceway to clinch the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series championship. He was awarded the title because he had three victories this season as opposed to Montoya’s two,…

Shane van Gisbergen Says Rival Drivers are no Wet-Weather Specialists

Shane van Gisbergen Says Rival Drivers are no Wet-Weather Specialists

Shane van Gisbergen says he looks good in wet-weather V8 Supercar races because his Australian rivals are so bad. “I don’t like driving in the rain. I’m just more used to it”, said the young…

Mitch Evans Is Formula One’s next Big Thing

Mitch Evans Is Formula One’s next Big Thing

The brightest star in the Formula One (F1) feeder series GP2 is Aucklander Mitch Evans who has amassed an impressive list of accolades despite being just 21 years old. He also has an attribute…

New Zealand Drivers Come First and Second for Porsche in Le Mans 24 Hours Race

New Zealand Drivers Come First and Second for Porsche in Le Mans 24 Hours Race

New Zealand racers Earl Bamber and Brendon Hartley, driving for Porsche, have come first and second in the Le Mans 24 Hours Race ending Audi’s five year winning streak. The winning Porsche “had both pace…

Bruce Anstey Wins RST Superbike TT Race

Bruce Anstey Wins RST Superbike TT Race

Bruce Anstey, riding for the Valvoline Racing by Padgetts Motorcycles, has taken “the chequered flag with a margin of just over ten seconds from PBM Kawasaki’s Ian Hutchinson” on the famous Isle of Man…

Dorothy Caldwell, 97, to Race Across N America in Rolls

Dorothy Caldwell, 97, to Race Across N America in Rolls

New Zealander Dorothy Caldwell, 97, believed to be the world’s oldest rally navigator will race over 9500km across North America guiding her 72-year-old son, Alastair, through the 22-day trip for the Endurance Rally Association’s…

Van Gisbergen Joins McLaren Factory Line-Up

Van Gisbergen Joins McLaren Factory Line-Up

V8 Supercars star Shane van Gisbergen has been added to the McLaren line-up and will race in Europe as a factory driver this season. His exact role is yet to be announced, but it is…

Scott Dixon Sets Crazy Pace Winning Daytona’s Rolex 24

Scott Dixon Sets Crazy Pace Winning Daytona’s Rolex 24

New Zealand’s most famous speedster, three-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon (pictured right), was the key to team Ganassi wining the prestigious annual Rolex 24 at Daytona on 25 January, according to team members. Dixon, 34,…

Kiwis’ Continue Country’s Tradition of Great Motorsports

Kiwis’ Continue Country’s Tradition of Great Motorsports

Driving legend Scott Dixon and newcomer Earl Bamber are carrying on New Zealand’s long tradition of motorsport racing heralded by Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme and Chris Amon. Dixon, a three time IndyCar champion, has signed…

Bruce Anstey Cruises to Isle of Man Formula 1 Win

Bruce Anstey Cruises to Isle of Man Formula 1 Win

New Zealander Bruce Anstey dominated the Classic TT Formula 1 race in the Isle of Man with a victory margin of over one minute, setting a record lap speed of 123.894 for two-stroke machines…

California Victory Brings Scott Dixon’s Career Wins to 35

California Victory Brings Scott Dixon’s Career Wins to 35

With IndyCar champion Scott Dixon’s latest Grand Prix win in Sonoma, California, the 34-year-old New Zealander has earned his 35th career victory and is now tied with American legend Bobby Unser for fifth place…

Scott Dixon Wins 5th Mid-Ohio IndyCar in 8 years

Scott Dixon Wins 5th Mid-Ohio IndyCar in 8 years

New Zealand racer Scott Dixon went from last in qualifying to capture his fifth win at Mid-Ohio in the last eight years. Dixon coasted in on low fuel Sunday to finally end his team’s victory…

McLaren’s Legacy Captured from the Inside

McLaren’s Legacy Captured from the Inside

Racing car legend Bruce McLaren is the subject of former mechanic American photographer, Tyler Alexander’s book McLaren From the Inside, which is reviewed in the New York Times this week. “In 1963, Alexander (pictured), a…

Anstey Clocks Unofficial TT Record for Electric Bikes

Anstey Clocks Unofficial TT Record for Electric Bikes

Professional motorcycle road racer Bruce Anstey, originally from Wellington, has set an unofficial record for electric bikes, on the same day he broke the outright lap record on a petrol bike, at the 2014…

Dixon Tearing Through IndyCar Record Books

Dixon Tearing Through IndyCar Record Books

While his team struggled with setup and speed, New Zealander Scott Dixon, 33, has flown under the radar during preparations for the Indianapolis 500. It’s exactly how he wants it. It’s how he has…

World Rally Car Driver Hayden Paddon Has Sights Set on next Year’s Races

World Rally Car Driver Hayden Paddon Has Sights Set on next Year’s Races

26-year-old New Zealander Hayden Paddon drove a modern generation world rally car at the Rally de Espana in Spain last month, making him the first New Zealander to do so. The car Paddon was driving…

Dixon Does It Again Claiming Third IndyCar Title

Dixon Does It Again Claiming Third IndyCar Title

New Zealander Scott Dixon has claimed his third IndyCar championship, regardless of a fifth place finish at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. Dixon won the title by 27 points over Power teammate Helio…

Chronicle of a Life and a Motorsport Legacy

Chronicle of a Life and a Motorsport Legacy

As part of its 50th anniversary celebrations this month, the McLaren team is publishing a book celebrating its achievements, McLaren: 50 Years of Racing, which includes contains numerous never-before-seen photographs. Bruce McLaren, a New Zealander,…

50th Birthday for Late Motorsport Legend

50th Birthday for Late Motorsport Legend

This week marks the 50th anniversary for the legendary racing team established by New Zealand motorsport legend Bruce McLaren and which bore his name. The good folk of Woking, where McLaren established his sporting…

Grand-Am Victory for Formula 1 Test Driver

Grand-Am Victory for Formula 1 Test Driver

Twenty-three-year-old Palmerston North-born Brendon Hartley has won the 70-lap GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series at Road America in Wisconsin. Starworks Motorsport team owner Peter Baron said the kid can drive. And not just theoretically. “He’s…

Shifting into Another Gear Ahead of Baltimore

Shifting into Another Gear Ahead of Baltimore

New Zealander Scott Dixon, who has the most wins (31) in the 17-year history of the Indy Racing League and who is the only driver to finish in the top five of both runnings…

Multi-talented McLaren Transformed Racing

Multi-talented McLaren Transformed Racing

In his all-too-brief life, New Zealander Bruce McLaren, who died in 1970 at the age of 32, managed an impressive list of successes, writes Jason Stein for Wheelbase Media. “His European driving career began…

Another Win for IndyCar Racer Dixon in Canada

Another Win for IndyCar Racer Dixon in Canada

New Zealander Scott Dixon has won the 31st IndyCar race of his career with victory in the first of two street races in Toronto. The Honda Indy Toronto win has moved Dixon into a…

McLaren’s Motor Racing Adventure Continues

McLaren’s Motor Racing Adventure Continues

“The design and manufacture may have been rudimentary by modern-day standards – the first McLaren racing car was put together in a rented shed with a mud floor – but winning meant just as…

Britten Bike Revs Up for Isle of Man Lap

Britten Bike Revs Up for Isle of Man Lap

One of the most iconic racing motorcycles of all time, the Britten V1000, brainchild of Christchurch-born John Britten, returns to the track on 26 August as part of the inaugural Classic TT Races…

Persistent to the Chequered Flag

Persistent to the Chequered Flag

It’s hard to ignore New Zealand IndyCar driver Scott Dixon’s consistency, according to the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin’s Robert Morales. “After an up-and-down first four years in IndyCar, he has not finished lower…

King of the Hill Returns

King of the Hill Returns

New Zealand racing legend Rod Millen “conqueror of Pikes Peak – the world’s ultimate hillclimb event, is one of those rare men who competes in cars that he conceived and built.” Millen, “a firm…

Absolutely the Real Deal

Absolutely the Real Deal

Christchurch-born teenager Scott McLaughlin, 19, continues to impress with slick showing in Albert Park V8 Supercars Challenge warm-up. McLaughlin, a Garry Rogers Motorsport driver, was impressive in the opening practice sessions of the Challenge…

Looking Back at the Beginning

Looking Back at the Beginning

In the year of McLaren’s 50th anniversary celebrations, a new short film directed by leading Swedish music-video maker Marcus Söderlund, sheds light on McLaren’s very human back-story – namely that of New Zealander Bruce McLaren,…

Unleashing the Brapp

Unleashing the Brapp

“A.J. Fairbairn mashes the 1966 Ford GT Mark II’s throttle, unleashing the brapp of its NASCAR V-8 as it echoes off the safety walls of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway,” Todd Lassa writes for Motor…

Half a Century of Legend

Half a Century of Legend

Fifty years ago, New Zealander Bruce McLaren launched a company that has gone on to become one of the greats of world motorsport and on 2 September this year, McLaren…

Rubberman Prevails

Rubberman Prevails

Palmerston North 21-year-old freestyle motorcross champion Levi Sherwood has become the youngest-ever winner of the Red Bull X-Fighters tour championship beating French rider Thomas Pagès on Cockatoo Island in Sydney. “All I came here…

Elegant and with Punch

Elegant and with Punch

“A track-only racing car built without the restraints of racing regulations, the 12C Can-Am is based on the 12C GT3 racer – but it goes well beyond what the FIA…

Remarkable Command on Tough Track

Remarkable Command on Tough Track

New Zealand IndyCar champion 28-time winner Scott Dixon, 31, took top of the podium at the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix in Detroit. Dixon pulled away on lap 55 for his first win of…

Cool Little Boost in Dubai

Cool Little Boost in Dubai

Twenty-year-old freestyle motocross rider Levi Sherwood from Palmerston North has won the 2012 Red Bull X-Fighters series opener in Dubai. He finished Australian Rob Adelberg off with a run featuring a mix of old-school…

Motorcycling’s Ultimate Race

Motorcycling’s Ultimate Race

New Zealand’s top motor sports rider Chris Birch, 31, who recently took second place at the 2011 Roof of Africa race, will ride in the 34th running of the Dakar Rally, which begins 1…

Top of the Podium for Dixon

Top of the Podium for Dixon

New Zealand speedster Scott Dixon driving for Ganassi Racing, has won the IndyCar Series’ Indy Japan 300 mile auto race at Twin Ring Motegi in Motegi. And if there’s one word that describes Dixon…

Another Star Has Been Born

Another Star Has Been Born

Twenty-one-year-old Stone Brothers Racing driver Shane van Gisbergen had a day he will remember forever earning his maiden victory in the Hamilton V8 Supercars race. Auckland-born Van Gisbergen has come agonisingly close to his…

Personal Race Track Antics

Personal Race Track Antics

New Zealand racing competitor and vehicle designer Rod Millen has unveiled his new mile-long asphalt driveway — which doubles as a hillclimb racetrack — in a video which shows Millen behind the wheel of…

Impressive on Wheels

Impressive on Wheels

A New Zealand mountain biking trip features in the extras of Canadian adventure documentary DVD release, Follow Me, which is paired with a slide show by New Zealander Caleb Smith of Wellington-based mountain bike…

Indian on Show

Indian on Show

Burt Munro’s world famous Indian Scout motorbike, used to set land-speed records in the 196s, was on display at October’s Oildorado Days Rails to Trails Car Show in Taft, California. In 1967, on the…

Speed Queen on Salt

Speed Queen on Salt

Christchurch-born Miriam MacMillan is the third New Zealander and first New Zealand woman to earn a “2 MPH hat”, which she claimed driving a 2.1 litre Honda CRX at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah,…

Thrill-seeker Flips

Thrill-seeker Flips

With this “insanely-extended Hart Attack backflip” (above), Palmerston North daredevil Levi Sherwood, 19, won the fifth stop of the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour, held at Battersea Power Station in London. This is Sherwood’s…

Rules Are Rules

Rules Are Rules

New Zealand IndyCar driver Scott Dixon has won the Honda Edmonton Indy, the second win of the year for the 3-year-old racer with the Target Chip Ganassi team. This latest victory however was somewhat…