Life in the fast lane
We may be in the midst of another golden era for New Zealand motorsport. David Long reports.
Hey New Zealand motorsport fans, have we ever had it so good? It’s easy to hark back to the 1960s and 70s when Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme and Chris Amon were doing the business in Formula One and regard that as the golden age of New Zealand motor racing.
But while that was a special time, we’re in another one.
‘‘I definitely think we’re in a golden era for the Kiwis,’’ said Earl Bamber, the two-time Le Mans winner and current World Endurance Championship titleholder with compatriot Brendon Hartley.
‘‘If you look at it, we’ve got someone doing something at a factory level in almost everything, on every continent around the world.
‘‘Scott Dixon was the first guy and is still in Indy cars fighting for wins. You’ve got Brendon in Formula One, which is amazing and a massive achievement, especially to get there under the circumstances and some people still don’t really understand what that means.
‘‘Then you’ve got Nick Cassidy in Japan [winning the Japanese Super GT], Mitch Evans in Formula E, then you’ve got the Supercars, where a quarter of the grid now will be Kiwis.’’
Greg Murphy, the four-time winner of the Bathurst 1000, feels the current wave of Kiwis competing worldwide is reminiscent of when New Zealand had more of a presence in Formula One, although the environment is very different now.
‘‘We’re breaking ground that we thought was only possible back in the 1960s and 70s, when you could wander over to Europe or the States and if you could drive, you could find yourself in a car,’’ Murphy said.
‘‘We’d been in a period for a long time where there have been good drivers out there, but they weren’t always in the right place at the right time.
‘‘But at the moment, we’ve got all these guys out there who’ve worked incredibly hard to make a career in motorsport and have managed to find the opportunities to prove themselves.
‘‘It’s just all going on. I thought last year and the year before that was good, but it seems to have expanded and these guys are finding themselves with these amazing opportunities to showcase their skill sets.
‘‘It has come with massive amounts of support from the people around them, but also from huge fights from them individually to be there.’’
It’s been often said over the past couple of years that New Zealand is punching above its weight in motor racing.
The sport remains a minor one in the country, with only the Pukekohe round of the Supercars attracting big crowds each year.
Top New Zealand drivers realise they have to go overseas at an early age if they want to build a career for themselves.
‘‘When I was growing up we had a very strong tier-one level of motorsport, which attracted great sponsors, big TV and media coverage, which allowed young guys to be able to get into cars and gain experience before they went overseas,’’ said Bamber, who was competing in the Formula BMW Asia championship at the age of 16.
‘‘Also, our tracks are great. OK, they haven’t been updated for a long time, but that’s also what makes us good, because normally if you make a mistake you’re hitting a wall. That’s what breeds great race car drivers.
‘‘We’ve also seen in the last couple of years a lot of the top young international drivers have been coming down to New Zealand to do the Toyota Racing Series and cut their teeth in that.
‘‘It’s given the sport in the country a boost, so we have a fantastic breeding ground to produce great drivers.’’
But motor racing is an expensive sport and so often it’s how much money you’ve got, or what sponsors you can bring with you, rather than how fast you are, that gets you a team drive.
‘‘It’s harder because the financial side of things limit so much of what you can do and where,’’ Murphy said.
‘‘Everyone has been assisted in some way by people in New Zealand. You look at Earl, he went up to Asia and did driver training and impressed one of the guys there and that led to him becoming a Porsche junior driver.
‘‘Being in the right place and working hard to build relationships, the Kiwi guys realise they need to do more than that, more than the others, who’ve got a straight line because of the financial position they’re in, to be able to go and drive a car.
‘‘But the Kiwis guys have to find support in some shape or form. They sleep on a couch because they can’t afford a hotel, or they have spaghetti on toast for dinner.
‘‘Those are the sacrifices and extra things a lot of them have had to do, because they don’t have the extra funding to go down other pathways. We just accept that that’s the way it is. This is an expensive sport, it’s no-one’s fault.
‘‘You need to create an opportunity and when you get one, make the most of it and I think that’s what a lot of Kiwis do well, because they may not get another.’’
While Kiwi drivers are doing so well internationally, the sport at a domestic level is struggling and Murphy has concerns about how young drivers are being developed in this country.
‘‘The local scene is in an interesting space; there is still no clear pathway,’’ he said.
‘‘I am a big fan of the one-make stuff; TR86 is a great class and I’m surprised there aren’t more drivers doing that.
‘‘But we don’t have as much of a flow-on, stepping-stone pathway as some other countries.
‘‘I don’t think we’ve got a clear plan. If you want to be a professional race car driver, we don’t have anything that’s laid out.
‘‘We have the academy and there’s lots of good work that’s put into that, but it doesn’t give you a free season racing in Australia or somewhere else.
‘‘You’ve still got to come up with the funding to take the next step and we need something in New Zealand that’s a proper scholarship, that will give someone enough money to do the Dunlop series or Carrera Cup in Australia. Something that’s a decent step.’’
The Toyota Racing Series is an open-wheel championship that takes place over the summer months and entices some of the best young drivers around the world to come to New Zealand.
However, for each of the last four years, only one Kiwi driver has finished in the top six of the championship.
‘‘I don’t see that we’ve got a championship that’s a stand-out, other than TRS,’’ Murphy said.
‘‘We’ve seen how hard it is for Kiwis that haven’t got a lot of open-wheeler overseas experience, to jump into the TRS, against the guys that are coming from overseas to do it.
‘‘TRS is a fantastic formula and a great initiative, but getting a Kiwi in there to compete and showcase their skills, with the way it’s put together with the international drivers, who are using it as an off-season preparation tool, it’s hard to compete and then follow on, using that season to springboard you somewhere else.
‘‘That’s because you’ve got to have the half a million Euro or whatever, to go to that next phase overseas.
‘‘So we don’t really have the platforms, that’s the hard part and most of the drivers have felt that at times.
‘‘But Shane [van Gisbergen] did TRS before he got picked up by the Stone brothers and went straight to Australia.
‘‘It’s still very difficultly to get into and what that means for the future, for up and coming drivers who want to be the next Shane van Gisbergen, Scott McLaughlin or Mitch Evans, I don’t see the success the Kiwis are having overseas as opening up massive chances for them.
‘‘If they’re able to present themselves at the tight place at the right time, then being a Kiwi isn’t going to be a negative, it’s going to be a positive.’’
"I thought last year and the year before that was good, but it seems to have expanded."
Greg Murphy
"Our tracks are great. OK, they haven't been updated for a long time, but that's also what makes us good, because normally if you make a mistake you're hitting a wall."
Earl Bamber