There I was, all serious like a proper racing driver, doing a track walk of what then was known simply as ‘Ruapuna.’
The year (I think, anyway) was 1988..or perhaps it was early 1989. Though I had raced a Formula Vee at Ruapuna the season before (yes you read that right, and a story for another day perhaps), my first race meeting at the track in the Fuelstar Mazda RX7 had been a bit of a blur.
To put it bluntly, I hadn’t been very happy with my pace, so before the second Ruapuna round of the Pyrotect South Island RX7 Series (later on in the season) I decided I’d better take a closer look at the track – on foot.
Ruapuna (or Mike Pero Motorsport Park, as the circuit is now known) is one of those deceptively simple looking tracks which takes either years of trial and error, or the guiding hand of a knowledgable local to help fast track the process, to learn.
Good mate Wade Henshaw once told me, for instance that ‘there’s a second – at least – in ‘the complex’ (the mix of winding rights and a pair of lefts from the hairpin to the sweeper), but never actually told me how to find it!
Which neatly brings me back to my track walk.
Early on it all seemed fairly straightforward. Though your eye line is at least half a metre higher than it is when you are strapped into a car, you definitely see ‘the lie of the land’ much clearer when you walk a track. There’s plenty of room to ditch hook the inside of Ruapuna’s first turn, for instance (or at least there was then), but the kerb on the inside of the track is so much taller and its side so much steeper at the next corner (Pothole) I always stayed well clear of it.
In theory, too, there should be more than enough room braking into The Hairpin to put a move on someone. But when you walk the track you realise that because it is so wide – into, through and as you accelerate out of the corner – that it is almost impossible to make a move stick unless the bloke or bloke-ess you are passing is in a significantly slower car.
And I could go on, but this is not supposed to be about what I know about the track (and anyway, if you want to read about the minutiae of a lap, Mike Eady of driver training company TrackTime has written The New Zealand Race Track Manual (to buy one go to http://www.tracktime.co.nz/nz-racetrack-manual/) with just that in mind.
No. What I wanted to write about this week is what has to be one of New Zealand motor racing’s best kept secrets, the Canterbury Motor Racing School.
Originally set up in 2000 by 1984 New Zealand Formula Ford champion John Crawford and wife Trish, and using the services of another highly rated local single-seater ace Andy Neale, the school quickly developed a reputation for not only being able to help newcomers unlock the secrets of the Ruapuna track, but also to ease the transition from karts to cars for wide-eyed kids transitioning to either Formula Ford or – latterly – the TRS.
In fact, in the time he was directly involved Andy Neale developed a real ‘horse whisperer’ sort of reputation as the coach who could – through a combination of theory, practice and infinite patience – coax a confidence and with it a lap time out of even the most recalcitrant of pupils.
In the early years of the TRS the school also got around the lack of available wings-and-slicks TRS cars by acquiring for its use some – broadly similar – Tatuus Formula Renault single-seaters.
More recently the school has been bought by one of its other long-term instructors, Chris Hyde, and incorporated with his other business, V8 SuperDrive, in a brand new building at the eastern end of the Mike Pero Motorsport Park complex.
Like Neale, Chris – son of venerated Christchurch racer Avon Hyde – has earned a reputation second-to-none as a driver coach. Which should come as no surprise to those who have seen him drive everything from karts to Formula Fords, Mazda RX7s and the McRae GM1 Formula 5000 single-seater he used to win the MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series in 2008.
What might surprise some of you is that the key to unlocking the secrets both of the Ruapuna track, and the skill or otherwise of a pupil, are laps – with either Hyde, Neale or one of his other instructors – in a Mazda RX7. For years it was the ex PAD Racing ‘Fuelstar’ Series 1 I raced back in the day (and which was acquired by the Crawfords and Neale after my second (half) season in the car) More recently it has been a (much) later model FD ‘Batty.’
That’s right, where further up the ladder, learning your way to a lap time is pretty much all simulator-based, the Canterbury Racing School’s success is still very much based on getting in a car and doing laps. And more power to them I say!
Another factor in both Hyde and the school’s favour is its location, and mutually beneficial relationship with the circuit’s owner, the Canterbury Car Club and its circuit-based management team.
If you – or your Dad – are serious about your career you can literally book a one-on-one session any day of the week (that there isn’t another event on, obviously) then fly in from anywhere in NZ (or the world) and learn things about the track and your own ability to take and use instruction that might otherwise take years. All at a fraction of what it would cost for the same sort of personalised, very much hands-on, service in the UK, Europe, the States and even Australia.
It’s not uncommon, for instance, in my own work as a publicist, to be talking to a Dad and, on enquiring of the health, whereabouts or general attitude of ‘number one son’ get the response, ‘yeah, he’s been down there all week’ (meaning doing laps of Ruapuna under Chris or Andy’s tutelage) or ‘nah, I can’t do anything with him anymore so I’m going to pack him off to Ruapuna and let Chris sort him out!’
A few months later I’ll be flicking through the results of a race meeting at the track and, what do you know, there is ‘number one son’s’ name in the top two or three in the South Island Formula Ford championships or in the top six in the Castrol Toyota 86 class.
It is only scratching the surface, but on the school’s Facebook page Chris lists some of the higher profile drivers he has helped over the years.
Included in that list are the likes of two-time former TRS champion, NZGP and Lady Wigram Trophy winner Daniel Gaunt, Formula BMW Asia winner, Porsche Carrera Cup Asia, Porsche Super Cup and now two-time Le Mans 24 hour race winner Earl Bamber, TRS champ Andy Knight and – coming right up to date – current Castrol Toyota 86 Champion Jack Milligan and current Aussie Formula Ford championship ‘wunderkid,’ Hunter (son of Andy, and grandson of Rod) McElrea.
Like me all those years ago, all – I’m betting – will have taken the time to walk the full length of the 3.33km Grand Prix circuit. The difference is that between then and now the Canterbury Racing School has been able to add a whole new level – or rather, levels – of observation, analysis and application to the process of unlocking a driver and car’s ultimate lap time potential around the Ruapuna track.
And in doing so John, Andy, Chris et al have been able to help literally everyone, from kart champs to keen club racers, go faster, quicker.
Which, afterall, it’s what motor racing is all about!
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