Singing to the chequered flag
Plenty of people sing while they’re driving, but few do it better than Callum Crawley.
The 17-year-old will line up on the grid for the fifth round of the Formula First summer series during the New Zealand Grand Prix weekend at Manfeild.
And he is also preparing for the lead role in the combined Palmerston North Boys’ High School and Palmerston North Girls’ High School musical Anything Goes, which starts on March 15.
It means a busy schedule for the talented Year 13 student.
On Thursday night he was in full rehearsal mode, but he had to quickly jump back into his motorsport mindset for Friday’s Formula First practice sessions.
Crawley said switching between the two meant he had to be organised.
Thankfully, production director Chris Burton had been very understanding.
‘‘I have been having to miss out on a couple of practices here and there, but I am just making sure that I catch up on notes or learning dances from my understudy and that is really helpful,’’ he said.
But while he loved being part of the production, motorsport was his passion.
Crawley said he hoped to continue to move up the ranks to the Toyota 86 class and then the Toyota Racing Series.
‘‘Overseas would be the goal and like any young driver, Formula One would be the ultimate goal,’’ he said.
He got his start, like many drivers, in karting, supported all the way by his father Tim Crawley, who formerly drove rally cars and now owns Autokraft in Palmerston North.
Aside from his father, Crawley said he looked up to legendary driver Bruce Mclaren.
‘‘He had an amazing ability to build the cars and drive them as well.
‘‘He did that in a number of different motorsport arenas. I look up to him as an example of how knowing what your machinery can do and how it works is really important to doing extremely well.’’
Heading into the weekend, Crawley sits third after four rounds of the summer series.
‘‘We had a bit of a character building weekend last weekend.
‘‘A bit of contaminated fuel and things, not too good,’’ he said.
He was hoping for a top weekend in front of his hometown fans.
‘‘Manfeild is a cool track. It will be a really cool atmosphere with all the people there and all the different classes.’’
‘‘Overseas would be the goal and like any young driver, Formula One would be the ultimate goal,’’ Callum Crawley