Kiwi van der Drift parks the Porsche
Highly regarded driver gets stint with Holden team in Supercars endurance races
There will be an unprecedented seven New Zealand drivers contesting the Pirtek Enduro Cup rounds this season in the V8 Supercars’ championship.
Chris van der Drift will share driver duties with Shae Davis at Erebus Motorsport in the No 4 Holden.
The European- based Kiwi joins the field for the three endurance rounds at Sandown, Bathurst and the Gold Coast alongside fellow Kiwis Shane van Gisbergen, Fabian Coulthard, Scott McLaughlin, Chris Pither, Andre Heimgartner and another Kiwi codriver, Richie Stanaway.
With that number of New Zealanders in the field, it’s odds on at least one of them will be standing somewhere on the podium over the three races.
Van der Drift has plied his trade overseas for the majority of his career, and of late has been looking to try his hand at Supercars.
“I have been racing outside of Australasia nearly all my career and have always said I would love to come back and carry on my career in Australia in the Supercars series,” said van der Drift.
“I am over the moon to have signed with Erebus, it has been a dream for many years to try and secure a drive and this is a great way for me to get my feet in the water.”
The Kiwi has spent the last decade racing single seaters and, more recently GTs, in Europe and Asia.
He has three European championships to his name — Formula BMW, Formula Renault 2.0 and International Formula Masters — and most recently won the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia series with seven victories and six pole positions from 14 starts.
At present he’s racing in Europe in the German ADAC GT Masters with the odd stint in the China GT Championship.
On and off for the past three years, van der Drift has been trying to break into the highly competitive Australian tin top series, and while not quite a complete rookie in the category, will be on a steep learning curve.
He did test for Brad Jones Racing in 2014 and raced in the now defunct Sandown 500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . September 18 Bathurst 1000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . October 9 Gold Coast 600 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . October 23 New Zealand SuperTourers in 2012.
“I would probably say I’ve been trying to break in for about three years now, so it’s great I will be able to experience it.
“I jumped into the V8 SuperTourers a few years ago, which was great fun, and the test with BJR was a great experience.
“Both cars were very different than what I have been used to, but I love how much [ horsepower] you have under your right foot.
“I am really looking forward to working with the guys in the team and the first race can’t come quick enough.” said van der Drift.
Erebus Motorsport’s general manager, Barry Ryan, had heard of the flying Kiwi in the past and knew he was a well- regarded racer.
Van der Drift was at Sydney Motorsport Park for the last round of the series and former V8 Supercars stalwart Greg Murphy put the two of them together.
The four- time Bathurst winner highly recommended van der Drift and, with the likes of Porsche guru Craig Baird chipping in with positive comments, Ryan was comfortable in signing him up for the three- round series within a series.
Van der Drift will get his first taste of the Erebus car at the team’s test day in Winton on Tuesday. Youngster Thomas Boniface has landed a drive with Team Kiwi Racing. The 12- year- old had been promised a drive with the team on winning the national schools’ karting title, which he duly did. Craig Baird will mentor Boniface and his first race will be at the Endurance Series meeting, September 30 and October 1 at Ruapuna Park Raceway. The KartSport Hamilton club hosts the final double- header round of this year’s Rotax Max Challenge this weekend with the race for a place on the team to represent New Zealand at the annual Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals in Italy during October. North Island motorsport fans get their first opportunity to watch GT racing at its best next month when the Australian Endurance Championship ( AEC) visits the revamped Hampton Downs circuit. The Hampton Downs 101 ( October 28- 30) is the first Australian GT event to be held at the Waikato racetrack. Supercars has delayed the launch of its 2017 calendar as work continues on finalising the revised schedule. In the past the calendar has been announced before the Sandown 500, but has been put on hold. Organisers are waiting on confirmation of dates for next year’s Australian Grand Prix. Only in motor sport could you come across examples of too many cooks spoil the broth, if it ain’t broken don’t fix it and paralysis by analysis. The Macau Grand Prix has been the jewel in the F3 crown for many years and now organiser since 1985 Barry Bland has walked away. Two new Macau sporting bodies decided to get involved and the FIA wanted more involvement and wanted to change the event to be part of F3 World Cup. With all these changes things have ground to a halt and it looks like the once great junior formula race is finished.