Trio of Kiwis take on Le Mans

Three Kiwi drivers will take part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans this weekend in France.

Held annually since 1923, this is the world’s oldest endurance sports car race and takes place near the town of Le Mans on a mixture of closed public roads and racetrack.

USA based Scott Dixon has had very little rest since his big Indy 500 crash back in May.

Having competed in two more IndyCar Series races since then (Belle Isle and Texas), Dixon will drive one of four Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Team Ford GT entries in the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Pro Class (LMGTE Pro) along with team mates Australian Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook from the UK.

Fellow Kiwis Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber are teamed up with German Timo Bernhard in the #2 Porsche in the top LMP1 Class and have a chance of an overall win.

Bamber has already tasted Le Mans victory, winning back in 2015 with Porsche.

Their toughest competition on track will be against three Toyotas LMP1 cars.

The Japanese manufacturer has yet to win Le Mans and last year came agonisingly close to achieving this, having to retire just minutes before the end of the race with a technical failure.

Co-drivers for Rally NZ codriver Academy

Six co-drivers from around the country have been selected to attend the inaugural Rally New Zealand co-drivers’ Academy in August with four coming from the South Island.

Sarah Brennan (Greymouth) currently co-drives for Chris McLean in the NZ 2WD Rally Championship and has two national titles to her credit.

Karl Celeste (Christchurch) co-drives for Deane Buist in the NZ 2WD Rally Challenge and finished third in the recent Rally Canterbury.

Samantha Gray (Christchurch) co-drives for Keith Anderson in the 4WD Rally Challenge.

Amy Stokes (Rangiora) codrives for her brother Robbie Stokes in the NZ 2WD Rally Championship.

She has previously co-driven for her father and former National Rally Champion Brian Stokes.

They will be joined by Malcolm Peden from Hamilton and Kieran Antis from Auckland.

The three-day academy is aimed at developing Kiwi codriving talent to compete at the top level of the sport.

The participants will receive coaching on all aspects of the codriver’s role including practical pace note writing exercises, event planning, fitness training and media promotional activities.

West Melton hosts ‘Clash of the off-road Titans’

The fastest unlimited-class offroad racers come together this weekend at the 2017 Hydraulink Mainland Challenge, a two-day championship race event at West Melton.

Going wheel to wheel are the turbocharged class one cars of local drivers Daniel Powell (Tatum Mazda) and Jacob Brownlees (Bakersfield Mitsubishi Evo).

The pair traded race wins at the opening round of the southern championship at Nelson during Easter; now on their home track the pair will do battle to decide who takes the lead in the class and potentially the championship.

The event is the second southern round of the 2017 Polaris New Zealand Offroad Racing Championship.

Short course racing starts at 10.30 am on Saturday and an endurance race gets under way at 10.00 am on Sunday.

Gate admission is $10 per person (Saturday only); children under 15 are free.