Month keeps on giving
Acouple of Saturdays ago, I mused in Drivesouth about the potential for a brilliant opening to May for Kiwi motorsport competitors abroad becoming a memorable month.
Since that editorial we have seen further strong performances on the international stage, with Otago competitors leading the way.
As we enjoy the final weekend of the month, the biggest May bouquet must surely go to East Otago’s Courtney Duncan, who followed her winning run in the Spanish round of the Women’s World Motocross Championship (WMX) with another double triumph at the French round of the series. As well as extending her advantage in the run for what would be her fourth world title, the Kawasaki rider’s French success saw her become the most successful WMX competitor of all time in terms of race wins, with 22 career victories.
Dunedin’s Emma Gilmour was also scaling new heights, with a second placing for McLaren in the latest round of the Extreme E world series. This result, earned on the second leg of the Scottish round of the series, was the best yet in Extreme E for her, driving partner Tanner Faust and the McLaren team.
For Cromwell’s Hayden Paddon, a comfortable victory at Rally Whangarei and a harder fought run to second place on Rally Poland over consecutive weekends consolidated his leads in both the New Zealand and European Rally Championships.
Among the nonOtago drivers racing overseas, Liam Lawson has most reason to smile right now, as a win in the latest round of the Japanese Super Formula Championship has earned him the series lead. It was a potentially timely win for the Red Bull driver’s F1 ambitions too: Dutchman Nyck de Vries, who beat Lawson and others to the second seat at the Alpha Tauri F1 team for 2023 has struggled to make his mark so far; talk from within the Red Bull empire suggested de Vries is now ‘‘on notice’’ and it seems that Lawson would be his most likely successor.
The Indycar scene hasn’t proved such a happy hunting ground for Kiwis this month. Scott McLaughlin, Scott Dixon and Marcus Armstrong all had their struggles in the Indycar championship GMR Grand Prix round. Qualifying for this Monday’s (NZ time) Indianapolis 500 has not been especially kind to McLaughlin or Dixon either, while Armstrong is sitting out the specialist oval event. Dixon will start fifth on the grid for this year’s Indy event, while McLaughlin is 13th; mind you, either is capable of bursting into contention from those grid positions, and Dixon in particular is a master tactician when it comes to the long (500 mile) Indycar races.
Looking beyond the Indy 500, and on to the start of June, next weekend features Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans flying the New Zealand flag as the Formula e world championship drops into Jakarta. Cassidy leads the series at present, Evans won in Jakarta last year, and the pair finished 12 at the previous ePrix event in Monaco, so they are favoured to do well.
Haydon Paddon, meanwhile, is heading to the Caribbean for the June 911 Barbados Rally. It’s his first attempt at this 100% tarmac event, which — like Rally Otago — is part of the TER world series.
Changing tack completely, this weekend’s Drivesouth road test features the flagship model of the new Mercedes allelectric EQE range. The test car attracted plenty of attention while in my hands, almost all of it positive.
However, I did endure one quite bizarre incident when the owner of Nissan Leaf told me off when I pulled into a charge station. Having informed me in no uncertain terms that I couldn’t park in a space reserved for electric cars, he continued to harangue me as I plugged the rapid charger into the EQE and activated it.
‘‘Well it’s not a proper electric car is it,’’ was his final remark before I asked him, with as much politeness as I could manage, to ‘‘just go away.’’
My dented faith in the EV community was restored within half an hour, when I returned to the charger, and was accosted by another Leaf owner. This Leafist was quite excited about seeing an EQE, and we chatted away happily for several minutes.
Drivesouth