Yes, well I stuffed that one up, didn’t I? In theory this ‘Four of 2021’s best’ column should have run LAST TUESDAY, as a sort of coda to wrap up the year.
Instead, I found myself side-tracked by what went on at the final round of the 2021 F1 World championship series at Abu Dhabi; meaning my ‘best of 2021’ has ended up coming out in the first week of 2022.
Which, in this fast-paced world we now live in rather defeats the purpose of a ‘look-back (in anger or otherwise); – because, in theory, anyway a lot of us will already be racing, lemming-like into a New Year, and to hell with any lingering thoughts of the old one.
Be that as it may if Journalism (which in its most basic form, that of reportage) is widely regarded as ‘the first draft of history,’ then writing a weekly column must be a very close second ……..if only to make sure that in the unwholly rush to simply get the story out in the first place you didn’t wrong slot an otherwise innocent person, fudge an important fact, stuff up some important equation, or get a name (or the spelling of) wrong!
The silly thing is that despite the stop/start nature of the year, thanks largely to the restless, and apparently on-going, spoiler that is COVID-19 – 2021 was another standout year for motorsport here in NZ and involving Kiwis competing at an elite level ‘overseas.
Boiling it down to just four real ‘Highlights’ – for me anyway – wasn’t exactly easy but I figured that in this particular case, less is actually more!
So here goes. Four on my 2021 ‘Best ofs’ include:
– Shane van Gisbergen’s incredible year
– Courtney Duncan winning her third straight women’s world MX championship.
– Liam Lawson and Marcus Armstrong on the cusp of F1, and….
– Tony Quinn’s on-going investment in NZ motorsport
1/ SVG’s incredible year first.
The past two years have been absolute standout ones for Shane van Gisbergen. Starting with his breakthrough win at Bathurst in 2020 the now 32-year-old came home and proved both his versatility and desire to be treated no differently to any other driver despite what is obviously a colossal natural talent backed up by a savant-like ability to apply a laser-like focus in as well as (when needed) outside the car, by winning the inaugural Repco Battle of Jack’s Ridge (on gravel) as well as the New Zealand Grand Prix at Hampton Downs (on seal).
By time he has returned to Australia, and the 2021 Repco Supercars championship, SVG was both well-rested and incredibly race-fit – and the rest – as they say – is history.. which by coincidence you can relive here (https://youtu.be/52wg3eVrV84)
Starting as he meant to go on, the Kiwi won the first six races on the trot and could well have made it seven had teammate and 2022 Team Boss Jamie Whincup not held him out – just – in the second race at Tasmania’s Symmons Plains.
Shane was back on the top step of the podium in both races at Hidden Valley (Darwin) and in three of the five races at the two double-down rounds at Townsville then after a three-month break came out fighting to win three of the 11 races at the special season-ending series Repco series’ ‘run-offs’ held at Sydney Motorsport Park over consecutive weekends from the end of October until late November.
In doing so SVG ended up winning his second Aussie Supercars Championship with a round (the Repco Bathurst 1000 km race) to spare.
A delaminating tyre eventually cost SVG the opportunity of battling for a third Bathurst crown in ‘the Great Race’ but SVG remains the standard setter in the Aussie tin-top series and looks set to remain in that exalted position for some time to come.
2/ Courtney Duncan
Every so often a youngster emerges from somewhere so far away from the usual hotspots that you have to ask yourself, ‘what’s in the water down that way?’
Such a now ‘not so’ youngster (at the travel and battle-hardened age of 25) is Courtney Duncan from Palmerston in North-East Otago. This is the documentary local TV1 show Sunday produced here earlier this year.
Before a tousle-haired young Duncan emerged from the local (Dunedin) Jnr MX ranks Palmerston was known nationally for (what?) being the turning off point of ‘The Pig Route’ to Ranfurly and the Maniototo Plain, and eventually Alexandra and ‘Central’ (Otago), as well as being the spiritual home of the ‘world-famous-in-NZ,’ McGregor’s Pies.
It wasn’t as if Dunedin or the larger southern area (ironically which really stops just up the road from Duncan’s stamping ground) hadn’t produced riders of rare natural talent before (and here I’m thinking about the likes of MX-turned-international road racer Gary Goodfellow from Dunedin and top National level MXer Trevor King from Mosgiel) it’s just none had a bloke like Courtney’s step-father Noddy variously pushing her talent and application, pulling every string he could think of to nurture and advance said talent and application, and – loading up his humble, ultra-high mileage Toyota Hiace van and making multiple long-distance trips north – first to Canterbury, then on to ‘the North Island’ so that his talented and very determined young charge never lacked for the best competition NZ could provide.
Sadly, this sort of restless mentorship is still very much the exception which proves the rule here in NZ, and though Courtney had some missed shifts in her early career she emerged at a time when the FIM had finally recognised that – particularly in its off-road disciplines – it had a large female membership and put together a separate “World Women’s MX championship’ for riders like Courtney to focus on.
Just how good Courtney is, is reflected in the fact that the 2021 title she finally made her third on the trot (consecutive) in Italy over the October 23-24 weekend could well have been (and arguably should have been) her sixth.
In her first year contesting the World Women’s championship (2016) she crashed heavily after hitting a ‘photographer’ who bizarrely was standing on the track on the (unsighted) lee side of a jump at the German GP and was forced to miss the two following GPs to allow her injuries to heal.
In 2017, meanwhile, the title fight went down to the wire with Courtney leading the final race; until it was red flagged and race officials declared that no points would be awarded; effectively gifting Italian Yamaha rider Kiara Fontanesi her fifth title from France’s Livia Lancelot (Kawasaki) with Kiwi Courtney Duncan (Yamaha) third.
2018 proved to be another star-crossed year as well, an injury to her right foot sustained at a big international meeting in France mid-season proving slow to heal (no pun intended) and ultimately forcing her to sit out the final two rounds of the World Women’s Championship that year.
They obviously breed ’em tough down East Otago way however and with a new bike (a Kawasaki KX250) and new team (The British-based Bike It MTX Kawasaki squad owned and run by former Yamaha UK team manager Steve Dixon) 2019 was indeed a turning point, Courtney winning nine of the 10 races to claim the first of what is now three FIM World Women’s Motocross championship titles.
3/ Liam Lawson & Marcus Armstrong on the cusp.
It was with great pleasure – not to mention considerable relief – that I noted Marcus Armstrong winning a race at the penultimate round of the 2021 FIA World Formula 2 championships at the brand-new Jeddah Corniche circuit in Saudi Arabia late last year.
OK it wasn’t quite the dominant ‘second junior formula championship title win in two consecutive years win’ by hot young Aussie kart-turned car star Oscar Piastri.
However, it certainly proved that – like fellow Kiwi up-and-comer Liam Lawson – Marcus Armstrong is very much ‘the real deal’ and – should the cards fall, his way would make as good an F1 Rookie as …for instance, Brit stars Lando Norris and George Russell have.
Of course, getting a foot on the ladder in F1 is one of the hardest things to guarantee though both Armstrong (courtesy of his Ferrari Driver Academy links) and Lawson (thanks to Red Bull and its Alpha Tauri team) have already driven contemporary F1 cars ad acquitted themselves well.
Thanks in large part to his outgoing personality and Red Bull’s mastery of modern media and the way we as fans of motorsport around the globe are choosing to consume it Liam Lawson is arguably in a better position to make the (ultimate) move to F1.
Another year – particularly with a new team – could well be the making of Armstrong however – a driver whose single lap pace is truly impressive and who is as quick as his car (and the way it is set up) in every other circumstance.
And Liam Lawson? Liam will definitely make it to F1; if not as a replacement for an injured AlphaTauri driver this year, at least on his own terms in 2023.
Marcus Armstrong should also make it to the premier class within the next 18-24 months. If not with Ferrari, then I would say with someone like Williams, Alpine or Haas F1.
4/ Tony Quinn’s on-going investment in NZ motorsport.
Imagine waking up one morning and realising that money was no longer the ultimate limiting factor in your life. And for the first time in your life, you were absolutely free to do anything, or – more to the point – buy anything you bloody well wanted – without anyone telling you that you couldn’t.
Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen, to the (very different) world of Tony Quinn.
When Quinn finally cashed out of his thriving, Yatala, Queensland=-based pet food manufacturing and distribution business, VIP Petfood, his majority stake in it was said by sources to be worth a cool $AUD 41 million.
Be that as it may Quinn actually worked long and hard building up that business as well as plenty of others besides it, so he was never going to morph into the sort of easy come, easy go Lotto winner dishing out crisp $100 ‘Rutherfords’ willy nilly to anyone who asked.
Instead he has chosen to combine business and pleasure – purchasing existing circuit-based motor racing operations like Hampton Downs and now Taupo Motorsport Park then using lessons learned from his own green-ish field site, Highlands Motorsport Park near Cromwell in Central Otago, to attract more people ‘through the gates’ Monday through Saturday to help supplement what would under previous (usually club) ownership would have been the only ‘earner’ (and then usually, once a month), race day, Sunday.
The advantage for schmucks like the rest of us is obvious; access to truly world-class tracks complete with world-class facilities, all at a range of prices anyone in work can afford.
And that’s just Tony’s investment in infrastructure. The bugger has also been active in driver development of late, setting up the Hampton Downs Academy with former TRS champion Daniel Gaunt to help youngsters bridge the gap between karts and Toyota’s national championship level single-seater and tin top classes
Quinn also announced during 2021 that – as part of his recent purchase of a sizable shareholding in the Triple Eight Supercar championship team across the Tasman – he would offer the winner of his summer’s Best Bars’ Toyota 86 Championship Series a full-blooded test in one of the team’s Supercars.
Sure, I know plenty of people who can talk the talk when it comes to how they think a ‘seriously coined-up’ bloke like Tony-Bloody-Quinn should be spending his money.
Tony, on the other hand, is usually way too busy – literally – minding his own business – to worry about what others might think.
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