Veteran Smith part of stellar allKiwi field
MOTORSPORT
IT will be a home win in the New Zealand Grand Prix tomorrow — that is a given.
All 16 entrants in the 66th grand prix come from New Zealand and a wide range of ages and talents will be on display.
Veteran Kenny Smith will make his 50th start in a New Zealand Grand Prix and most of the field he will be competing against have enjoyed his help and advice over the years as they have climbed the racing ladder.
The field for the race at Hampton Downs in Waikato includes Shane van Gisbergen and Andre Heimgartner from Supercars, former NZGP winners Greg Murphy and Daniel Gaunt, former A1GP Team New Zealand driver Chris van Der Drift, Brendon and Damon Leitch and a significant group of young racers who represent the best young racing talent in New Zealand today.
The field this weekend boasts a total of well over 50 national and international championship titles covering everything from karting to V8 Supercars, GTS and international singleseaters.
Smith will set a record for FIAsanctioned grand prix races, including Formula One, that is highly unlikely to ever be beaten.
The names of drivers against whom he has competed over the previous decades is exhausting and impressive and he has won the race no fewer than three times as well.
At 79, he will need a few stars to align if he is to win against such stern opposition, but ever the true professional, Smith has been busy recently getting up to speed in his oldergeneration TRS car after injury.
With no previous races to gauge form and with this being the first time the Toyota Racing Series cars have competed on Hampton Downs’ long 4km international circuit, picking a winner is not easy.
Fitness over the 28 laps might be his biggest challenge.
Most drivers have been working on that and have done several tests and longer runs in the FT60 around Hampton.
Twotime NZGP winner Gaunt, van der Drift, Tom Alexander and former TRS racers Chris Vlok and the Leitch brothers could all excel. All are fast, skilled and accomplished racers who know how to win.
Then there are the young guns. Every year the Castrol TRS attracts the top young singleseater talent in the world and that includes the top Kiwis. This year is no different.
Kaleb Ngatoa, Matthew Payne, Billy Frazer, Peter Vodanovich, Josh Bethune and Conrad Clark have all won in their respective racing categories before their TRS debuts.
Fourtime Bathurst winner Murphy said it was an honour to be in the field.
“I’m in not because I thought I could win the event,” he said.
“I grew up with single seater racing and the New Zealand Grand Prix means so much. We need to realise how prestigious this event is not only in New Zealand but on the world stage.
‘‘I want to support that and we have some great milestones with Kenny Smith’s 50th start; that really is something to celebrate.
“I’m honoured to have the opportunity to be a part of it, to support it and put my weight behind it and to help make people realise just how important an event this is.
‘‘And for this particular grand prix, you could say as Kiwis it’s the strongest and most interesting lineup we’ve had maybe since way back in the ’80s or ’90s.”
The race will be broadcast on Spark Sport.