Yes, well 2020 eh! Like most of you I will be bloody glad to see the back of 2020…though in saying that I’m not exactly struggling to come up with a decent enough group of highlights. For the sake of regular readers, in fact, I’m going to keep my list short(er) this time than last too, with just six Bests and three Worsts. I’m also going to keep them all local (to Australia and NZ anyway), then invite you to debate them and/or share with the rest of us your own!
And, so my six ‘Best of 2020 motorsport moments’ start with;
1/ Shane Van Gisbergen’s stunning wins at…..
Forgive me if my ‘Best of’ reel jumps around a bit chronologically but how can I not start it late in the year in the verdant hills of south-east Auckland, where, in a borrowed car a driver with more kms under his belt on bitumen rather than gravel signed off a red-letter year with victory in the inaugural Repco Battle of Jack’s Ridge. Fresh from an emphatic first win in the annual Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 Shane Van Gisbergen was at his intense, eyes-blazing best on Andrew Hawkeswood’s self-designed and very much built ‘super’ rally stage, high in the manicured hills above Whitford, throwing down the gauntlet to eventual runner-up Phil Campbell with a best time in his final run of 1.20.00.
Also, it shouldn’t be forgotten that the day before, Shane easily won his class and finished a pretty amazing 15th overall in the associated City of Auckland Rally behind the wheel – no, not of the same Choice-built Mitsubishi Mirage AP4 4×4 he won the Battle of Jack’s Ridge in, but in his Dad’s gorgeous old-skool rear-wheel-drive Ford Escort RS1800
Of course, SVG’s performance in winning the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 was arguably even more impressive, considering the pressure he was under for virtually all the race – but in particular the last 18 laps – from Monster Energy Ford Mustang driver Cam Waters. Again though, Shane was at his absolute laser-focused best and went on to add the Bathurst title to the overall series one he won first, back in 2016.
Sadly, because of the COVID-19 travel restrictions Shane’s Mum and Dad could not be at Bathurst in person this year to watch their uber-talented son claim his first, historic, win in the ‘big race.’
As I said to his Dad Robert afterwards though, ‘maaaaaaaaate he’ll just have to win it again, next year’ (or the year after the way it is again looking across the Tasman this week.)
2/ My second ‘Best of’ also involves a Kiwi Supercars series driver, Scott McLaughlin; or more specifically his title-winning ‘three-peat’ in the Virgin Australia Supercars champs this year…. and subsequent ‘step-up’ with Roger Penske’s IndyCar squad in the US in 2021.
Who would have thought hacking around a track like Winton in rural Victoria (cue an image of old 1-tonne Holden Utes still being driven around ‘town’ by extravagantly moustachioned and beer-belied bogans, banjo cases bungee-corded to their flat decks) in a Ford Falcon or more recently a Mustang would be seen as suitable training for a pukka wings-and-slicks single-seat IndyCar? Roger Penske that’s who.
“The Captain’ as, apparently he is known to all and sundry back ‘home,’ may have been quick to disband ‘his’ fledgling’ ex-DJR team when he found that the income/cost model he has used with such success in the US didn’t work half as well across the Tasman or indeed here in NZ.
He made sure he didn’t leave empty-handed though – taking now three-times Virgin Australia Supercars champion, Christchurch-born, Hamilton-reared Kiwi Scott McLaughlin with him.
What Scott would have done without the ‘leg-up’ to the US-based IndyCar series is a moot point; as long-time rival Jamie Whincup has found out, your options appear to get more – rather than less limited – once you become a regular winner of Supercar races across the Tasman.
That will be the least of his worries now though, as he settles into life in the – hopefully Covid-19 vaccinated – US.
3/ Third up in the Good News stakes is Darren Kelly’s dream-drift-to-grip-and-back-again deal.
While COVID-19 was responsible for a wholesale ban on all sorts of sporting and cultural events all over the globe it also presented the odd golden opportunity, which – if like Auckland-based drifter Darren Kelly – you could, should you wish, grab with both hands, and run (away) with it.
In Darren’s case, the founder and chief benefactor of the Heart of Racing initiative, US gaming software entrepreneur Gabe Newell, his programme director Teegan Klein and team driver Alex Riberas just happened to be here on holiday. When Lockdown kicked in, so the trio hunkered down…and before long their thoughts turned to racing and their charity model.
Things started to get serious when the group realised that the Aston Martin GT3 cars they raced in the US would not only be eligible but competitive here and also that the North and South Island Endurance Series were about to start.
Never mind the fact that up until this point, ring-in local co-driver Darren Kelly had only drifted some of the corners he was going to have to hold the Aston flat through. Kelly acquitted himself like the pro driver he so obviously is, he and Riberas capping off an amazing two months with overall victory in the New Zealand Endurance Championship final at Highlands Motorsport Park on Saturday Nov-07.
4/ No ‘Good News’ story about 2020 written by me is going to skip over drifting either. In this case though I’d like to award ‘half points.’ The first lot (of half points) go to the irrepressible Brendon White for his stewardship of the 2020 Valvoline National Drifting Championship. As always Brendon was prepared to innovate, never easy when you have such a fickle fan base…and that’s just the drivers!!!!!
This year the favourite round I didn’t attend was the opening series one at Invercargill’s Teretonga Park, where its ultrafast series of sweeping right and left bends was finally made to look like a proper ‘drift section’ by the 750kW (1000hp) mobile mega wheel speed ‘n massive smoke machines of Cole Armstrong and Zak Pole. Oddly enough the favourite round I did attend was the one inside (yep that’s right INSIDE) the Auckland Showgrounds buildings where a couple of hundred kW (270hp) would have been enough to get you on the podium on the polished concrete floor surface.
The other half points go to Tony Gallacher and Guy ‘Mad Max’ Maxwell of Choice Events and Promotions. Between them these two livewires organise the best ‘car’ events I’ve ever attended yet they exceeded even their own lofty expectations with their inaugural Link-backed Choice Drift Series.
Like the (apparently) one-off MSC event organised and run by Sky Zhao at his now Genesis Massive-backed drift park at Meremere in December 2019, the three-round Choice series was set up to bridge what is now a sizable gap between fun-based ‘grass-roots’ events like Chris Picketts’ Two Rooks Cola-backed Spring, Summer and Winter-based Drift Matsuris at Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park, and the D1NZ Pro-Am series. And in word (or two) they did just that. More please lads, more please!
5/ To Karts, KartSport and Karting now and though the timing of the first COVID-19 Lockdown proved particularly hard on karters (The Sprint Nationals at Easter had to be cancelled outright while other major regional events had to be postponed, often by months) there was definitely an upside…or two.
The first was that the karters themselves organised their own weekly virtual series, on-line, sorting out platforms, suppliers, cars, and even sponsorships. This lasted well past the initial Lockdown period and had the added benefit of allowing drivers as young as 8 or 9 to confidently race wheel to wheel with their fellows, 2,3,4 and sometimes, yes, even more times their age; something they would never be allowed (not in a million years!!!) to do in the ‘real world.’
The second ‘GOOD THING’ to come out of 2020 as far as KartSport is concerned is a quantifiable boost in competitor numbers. With plenty of time on their hands during Lockdown, a popular pastime, apparently, turned out to be Googling words like Karts, Karting and KartSport and seeing where they took you. For many that obviously was ’all the way,’ because numbers have been up across the county as clubs started running regular events at their tracks again.
6/ Finally, it’s amazing how far a solid background in karts can take you these days, case in point, former 125cc Rotax Max class regular Anna Collins from Christchurch. This season Anna has stepped up from a Formula Ford to join younger bro Michael on the grid in the Leda LT27 he drove to victory in last season’s SAS Autoparts MSC NZ F500 Tasman Cup Revival Series. Anna, 28, qualified the older car 7th quickest at the opening round of this season’s 4-round SAS Autoparts MSC series at Feilding’s Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon in November but joined her brother (who this year is driving the Fluro pink ex-Graham McRae/Dexter Dunlop Leda /McRae GM1 also owned by Alistair Hey) on the podium in two of the three races (finishing third).
To the three WORST moments (of motorsport in 2020).
1/ Obviously, the main one was the COVID-19 pandemic itself and the effect that it has had on a range of events and activities around the world – something unprecedented in your and my lifetime. While I can’t – ever – remember my father talking about his own combat role in Italy during WW2, if prompted both my mother and mother-in-law would talk about what daily life was like here in New Zealand in the years WW2 was being fought in Europe (early on) then later, in the Pacific. The big problem, apparently, was that though the threat seemed very real, that’s all it remained, a threat – and you had no choice but to get on with your life. Which sounds a lot like my own experience of Lockdown?
2/ The second ‘WORST THING’ which happened in motorsport circles (IMHO) was that major events were still blithely being scheduled on the same weekend, some barely 300km apart. I’ve already said more than enough on the subject – and I note that Talk Motorsport has given MotorSport NZ’s acting CEO Elton Goonan an opportunity to provide some valuable background on the process by which decisions are made. I still can’t believe the fact that this year I’m going to be forced to miss the NZGP meeting because it clashes with the Taupo Historic GP meeting, on the very same weekend I – as a working publicist – have a commitment to.
3/ To my third and final WTF moment of 2020 and I’ll address this particular pearler to Aussie Supercars ace David Reynolds. I first met David when Craig Baird suggested him for a drive in the then booming Batterytown Porsche GT3 Cup.
At that point both the Batterytown series here and the Carrera Cup one across the Tasman were considered ‘waiting rooms’ for talented young Aussies and Kiwis keen on progressing ‘up the ladder’ to the ‘main game’ the V8 Supercar championship seirs. He, Bairdo and Alex Davison battled mightily in 2007 before Reynolds claimed the advantage and won the Aussie Carrera Cup title.
Fast forward 10 years and – after driving for a number of different teams in cars old, new, and in-between – Reynolds won the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 with co-driver Luke Youlden in the second year with the Erebus Racing squad.
He and Youlden were also in the box seat to win Australia’s ‘Great Race’ for a second time a year later only for Reynolds to lose the lead late in the race with fatigue.
Despite that his relationship with multi-millionaire team owner Betty Klimenko appeared water-tight, to the point where at the end of 2019 he signed an all-new (and thoroughly unprecedented) 10-year contract to continue to drive for Erebus – ‘for life’ is how it was described.
OK things didn’t go quite as well as planned for Reynolds at Erebus this year.
But they must, indeed, have been desperate for the bugger to change his mind so comprehensively in less than 12 months.
All, I’m guessing will be revealed at some stage, but with -COVID-19-willing – the first round of the 2021 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship due to be held back at Bathurst in late February (26-28) and most of the vacant drives already taken if the music suddenly stops Reynolds could well be left without a chair to sit on.
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