Motorsport Plus Magazine. Issue 002.

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NOVEMBER 2014

THAT COVER THOUGH! Special thanks to Maria Panova Photography for the mega action image of Anthony Marsh.

To see this and thousands more epic pieces of photography, search up and like Maria Panova Photography on Facebook.

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12 NEWS PLUS FEATURE: 14 MOTORSPORT JAKE LEWIS

A N T H O N Y M A R S H : L I F E I N T H E F A S T L A N E 18 RALLIART I20: NXT GEN RALLYING?

Motorsport Plus gets an exlusive insight into the mind of one of New Zealand’s quickest and fastest motor powered men. Anthony Marsh.

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We hear from one of the country’s top hopes for a Super Bike World title, Christchurch’s Jake Leiws.

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We look into the next generation of future proof rally machines, the RalliArt Proto’s.

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We review the 2014 Targa Rally, based Andre Heimgartner gives us an insight in the South Island. into life at the mountain during one of the more memorable Bathurst 1000’s.

RALLYING:

PLUS Q&A: 20 MOTORSPORT RYAN BAKER POST: 22 GUEST ANTHONY MARSH 26 TARGA 2014 TARGA RALLY PLUS BLOG 28 MOTORSPORT ANDRE HEIMGARTNER

30 THUNDER IN THE PARK 2014 EDITOR Ayrton Brant editor@motorsportplus.co.nz INSTAGRAM: @Motorsportplus_Ayrton DESIGN + IMAGING Ayrton Brant ADVERTISING COORDINATOR(S) sales@motorsportplus.co.nz CONTRIBUTORS Maria Panova Photography, SE Photography, Anthony Marsh, Andre Heimgartner, Jake Lewis, Ryan Baker, Speedcompany/Ross McKay. PUBLISHER Motorsport Plus Ltd (09) 239 3495 PRINTERS PMP MAXUM Ltd. (09) 928 4200

Disclaimer MotorsportPlus Ltd. has a copyright and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission of the publisher. Neither editorial opinions expressed or facts stated in advertisements are necessarily agreed to by the editor or publisher. Whilst all efforts are made to ensure accuracy, no responsibility will be taken by the publishers for inaccurate information or for any consequences of reliance on the information.

SNAPSHOT

With a newly developed Rotary motor pushing over a reported 1600hp+ the Curran Brothers Racing team were out in force @ Meremere Dragway recently testing before round one of the national series.

SNAPSHOT

Nitro Shootout 2014 was one to remember, more so for the Marsh family. After a day of sub five second passes and no major destruction, Father Tony shows his appreciation to his son.

You can read about Anthony Marsh ‘s Nitro Shootout memories and his rise to the Top Fuel ranks in this issue of Motorsport Plus.

SNAPSHOT Laying in wait.

With the Speedway season underway, this would be a common sight in many a shed. Baker Racing will be out in force this season and you can read about Ryan Baker’s journey in this issue.

SNAPSHOT

Just when we thought a twin turbo Porsche-powered Crawford Daytona Prototype was good, things got even better recently when Kerry Halligan brought in number two. The 5.0 litre Pontiac powered Crawford DP 002 is the same one Jimmie Johnson co-drove to 2nd overall at the Daytona 24 hour race.

1NZ Mark Osborne in dominant form early

Mark ‘Big Mac’ Osborne practically started where he left off last season in the SuperSaloon series, claiming victory in the first feature at Bay Park for the year.

After signing a multiple year deal with fast-food chain, McDonalds, Osborne put on a display of top level driving during the 20 lap event, leading from start to finish. With the 2014 Pro Dirt Series looming, Osborne is in ominous form going heading into the first major events of the year.

Stanaway poduims in China

New Zealand’s Richie Stanaway and his co-driving duo of Kristian Poulsen and David Heinemeie recently took to the Shanghai circuit in China for the FIA World Endurance Championship and left with a second place on the podium.

The second place in China was the sixth consecutive podium finish of Young Driver Aston Martin Racing, the #95 Aston Martin finished first or second in all rounds of the season.

As in the previous rounds, the Young Driver AMR trio had an all race long battle with the #98 Aston Martin Racing sister car. During the six hour long race, Poulsen/Heinemeier Hansson/Stanaway took the lead three times, but finally finished second after the #98 Vantage GTE, in which “Young Driver” Christoffer Nygaard scored his second win of the season.

“Considering our solid lead in the championship, we decided for a conservative approach of this weekend”, Jan Struve of Young Driver AMR explained. “Here in China, our sister car was a little bit quicker and we were not looking for the ultimate pace and didn’t take any risks. Richie Stanaway could have pushed much harder at the end of the race, but we told him not to risk anything.

The main goal was to bring the car to the finish and score good points. This is what we did. We have only two more rounds to go and we made a further important step towards the title. Our Young Driver Christoffer Nygaard, who races this year with the #98 crew, won today and we are very happy about him taking the win.”

The WEC heads to Bahrain for the penultimate round of the series.

Maskovich warming up to 2014/15 season.

With opening night at Baypark speedway signalling the start of the speedway season, MotorsportPlus’ featured driver, Brock Maskovich, got his underway in promising fashion.

The 2013/14 Midget competitor of the year had new car issues early on, but managed to compete with the best come feature time.

“We started grid 9th with a lot of good guys starting around us, made my way up to the top shelf and picked off a few spots to make it into 4th spot – a huge run considering the talent around.” “We just ran short of a few laps to catch the leaders ahead.”

“Huge thanks to my crew Stevo Morris, Ricky Barry, Danny Keene and also Clark Performance and Autosure New Zealand.”

HLR’s duo would take two spots on the podium, with Hayden Williams claiming the victory and the debut of Leon Burgess in a Geoff Harper owned BSL Esslinger seeing him finish third overall. The Pak’n’Save Botnay Downs CP3 machine of Chris Gwilliam would take second place respectively.

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E A R L

B A M B E R

PORSCHE SUPERCUP WORLD CHAMPION.

At the very last round of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup season New Zealander Earl Bamber became world champion at the event in Austin, Texas. The 24 year old scored second place at round ten which earned him the points he needed to take home the trophy. The Porsche International Cup Scholarship driver pumped his fist on the way to celebrating his triumph. “I’m the happiest guy on earth right now. It was a fantastic Supercup year topped off with a nerve-racking race at the end. This title means so much to me,” explained the ecstatic Bamber. At the wheel of his 460 hp Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, which is based on the seventh generation of the 911, Michael Ammermüller (D/ Walter Lechner Racing Team) was the actual winner of the action-packed tenth round ahead of Bamber and Philipp Eng (A/ Team Project 1).

Bamber took up the race from pole position, but in the second of 14 laps had to relinquish the lead to Austria’s Eng. The tension in the trailing pack was almost palpable with the front-runners constantly swapping positions with spectacular manoeuvres. Ammermüller got off the mark from second but became caught in a tussle with his Lechner teammate Nicki Thiim starting from third. Thiim spun on the track and had to slot back in down the field. In the meantime Bamber had fallen back to third. All eyes, however, were not glued on Bamber but on his hottest rival for the championship title Kuba Giermaziak (PL/VERVA Lechner Racing Team). Giermaziak was unable to hang on to his fifth starting position and was at times down to eighth to ultimately take the flag in seventh.

This was not enough for the title. “Of course I would rather have won the championship, but at least it’s enough for the team title. I’ll be back next year,” said the somewhat crestfallen Giermaziak. After ten rounds, the victorious Bamber earned 155 points ahead of Giermaziak on 132 points. Bamber is the first race driver from New Zealand to pocket the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup title. Never before has a rookie as a newcomer clinched the series title. After just seven of the ten races, he had already moved out of reach in the rookie classification.

Moreover, Bamber was crowned champion of this year’s Porsche Carrera Cup Asia.

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GROOMBRIDGE SEALS THE DEAL @ TAUPO’S MXFEST Taupo local and Bel Ray Pro Suzuki Team member, Brad Groombridge, managed to put on a show during the once a year motocross event, MXFest.

Groombridge would be a picture of consistency over the race day, managing two moto wins on his way to the top of the podium. Dargaville’s Hamish Dobbyn was hot on the heels of the Taupo local, but a costly third moto would cost the 2014 Motocross of Nations representative.

Fellow MXofN rep, Scott Columb would round out the podium in one of the final chances to get back to speed before the national championship starts.

Along with Josiah Natzke and Isaak Moore, taking the MX2 and MX3 crowns respectively, South Island based Courtney Duncan was one of the highlights of the weekend.

The 18-year-old multi-time former national junior motocross champion from Palmerston – about halfway between Oamaru and Dunedin – stormed to victory on both Saturday and Sunday of Labour Weekend, proving to be one of the stand-out performers of the annual MX Fest event at Taupo.

It was certainly a good way to start the season off,” said Duncan afterwards “But there is always room for improvement. My starts let me down and I know I can’t afford to start way back in the pack and expect to come through. My pace is good though and I expect to be better the next time I race.

“I’ve got a couple of race meetings to do in the Southern Motocross Series and there I will race in with the MX2 (250cc) boys, just to give me tougher competition. I’ll race the National 125cc class at the Auckland Motocross Championships (on December 6-7) and then I plan to tackle all rounds of the nationals.”

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DEBUT STAGE WIN FOR PADDON IN SPAIN Hayden Paddon and John Kennard have ably demonstrated their continued improvements on the world stage of rallying, by taking their first stage win on a FIA World Rally Championship event.

Contesting Rally de Espana with Hyundai Motorsport, Paddon and Kennard set a time of 15 minutes, 26.6 seconds on special stage three, a 26.59 kilometre gravel stage, which was 2.1 seconds faster than the second-quickest competitor, defending world champion Sébastien Ogier.

“To win our first stage is obviously very special,” says Paddon who moved into third overall after the stage win. “It was particularly unexpected. We had a good run in SS3, but there was a lot of dust for everyone and we were just trying to push through all that. But still we’re very happy to get first stage win and be sitting in third [at that point].”

The Kiwis showed great pace all day, taking advantage of running 11th on Friday’s six predominantly gravel stages, a repeated loop of three stages to the west

of host city Salou, while Ogier was at the front of the field, clearing gravel.

However, the day’s longest stage, the mixed surface 35.68 km Terra Alta, threw up challenges for the Kiwi duo and they finished the day in 14th place.

“It’s been a good day, some ups and downs obviously. It was great to get our first stage win – another achievement ticked off the list – and overall our times and speed have been very good. We’ve been among the top six and within only two or three seconds of winning other stages as well, so we’re very happy with the speed and stage times.

“Okay, we had problems on both runs through the long stage; this morning a double puncture which cost us six minutes and then this afternoon, a spin which cost us 30 seconds.

“From a results point of view we’re sort of down a bit but nevertheless it doesn’t change our targets – we’re here to set stage times, we’re here to learn and we’ve just got to keep pushing hard tomorrow on the tarmac and keep trying to do that.”

New Zealand Ferrari Racing Team, Trass Family Motorsport (TFM), will line up for its Highlands 101 debut on November 08-09 with the only all-Kiwi GT3 team and driver line up.

Led by accomplished international GT3 racer Jono Lester, 24, the TFM team will make its first start with the Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 at Highlands Park, partnered by impressive rising star Graeme Smyth, 23.

The recent addition to the team’s growing Ferrari stable is only the second FIA GT3spec car into New Zealand (the other is Inky Tulloch’s Camaro GT3), and the first carrying the Ferrari badge.

The 458 Italia model is highly accomplished in the world of GT3 racing, having won the Spa-Francorchamps 24 Hour four times, the Gulf 12 Hours twice, the 2013 Sepang 12 Hour and most recently the 2014 Bathurst 12 Hour.

In a race against time, TFM have taken delivery of the new car only this week

with a full mechanical checkover and race preparation currently underway. The first turn of the 458’s wheels for both Lester and Smyth will be in Friday’s opening practice of the Highlands 101.

“I’m pumped to get back behind the wheel of a GT3 car and have my first taste the gorgeous 458 Italia,” Lester said.

“All the late nights of preparation will be worth it when we fire up for the opening practice at the 101. I know we have a team and driver line up to score a top result despite the world class opposition.”

FERRARI 458 GT DEBUT FOR LESTER

Sunday morning’s Highlands 1+01 invitational endurance race (one hour long + one lap) will see Lester and Team Principal Gerald Trass pair up in TFM’s second Ferrari, a F430 Challenge.

The main Sunday feature of the 101-lap endurance race will see Lester and Smyth teaming up in the 458 Italia GT3.

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MOTORSPORT PLUS FEATURE

JAKE LEWIS MY YEAR IN REVIEW.

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After hearing from one of New Zealand’s under-promoted stars in Nick Cassidy last month, Motorsport Plus brings you another kiwi chasing the dream in Europe to minimal fanfare within the major media streams in his home country.

We bring you - Jake Lewis.

ey Everyone, My name is Jake Lewis from Christchurch, New Zealand. I am 19 yrs old and I have spent the last 4 years in Europe pursuing my dream of becoming New Zealand’s first World Superbike Champion.

Well what an amazing experience 2014 has been for me competing in the European 600 Superstock Championship alongside the World Superbike Championship. After winning the European Junior Cup in 2013, this season I made the step up to this very fierce European 600 class with the Agro On WIL Racedays Honda Team.

It has been a season that has had its shares of up and downs for me, the opening round at Aragon was where the season would get underway, it’s a track really enjoy because of the fast flowing nature and also its where I got my first race win in Europe last year!

It was a great way to kick off the year by consistently running in the top 10 all weekend and then to qualify 9th and have a hard fought battle all race long to finish 11th was awesome! This was a great achievement for me and to take my first points of the season was a good result for me and the team.

Then, unfortunately crashing out of Round 2 at Assen in really tough wet conditions was a real shame, because I had made my way through the field from a difficult qualifying position to 13th place and I was feeling comfortable to keep moving forward. But I made a small mistake opening the gas a little hard and the bike just high sided me and threw me sky high which finished my race and put me out of what could have been a points finish!

Imola in Italy was up next, round 3 of the championship. I had a reasonable pace putting myself 14th on the grid in a super hot qualifying session which was exceeding 50 degrees track temperature.

The race was another big battle all the way to end, having a number of out of 14

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the seat moments, pushing the limits.

I came across the line in 16th position, not where I wanted to be but still not a bad result in this extremely strong class!

Italy again, this time on the Adriatic Coast in Rimini for the Misano round of the World Championship. I was really excited for this race as the track looked fantastic to ride, with 6th gear pinned corners just cranking it over wide open, scary stuff!! I was only just over 2 seconds from pole in Qualifying but not a good place on the grid in 24th. I fought all race long making up places and having some more exciting battles right to the line finishing in 19th position.

Misano was a bit of a weekend to forget for me, but the following round was set to be a thriller. The angulations at Portimao are mind blowing, you feel your stomach drop in your body as you’re trying to keep the front wheel down in 4th gear riding off a 2 story drop and then flicking it left wide open to go back up again!

It was looking to be a positive weekend for me being very close to the top 10 in qualifying. The race however was a bit different, there was a huge crash at turn one which unfortunately I was caught up in and got skittled off the track, luckily stayed on two wheels but put me at the back of the pack and again I had to fight my through the field passing a couple of guys per lap, but only coming across in

16th position. It was a real shame because the pace I was running would have put me around the top 10 and that would have been a great confidence boost.

We headed to Jerez in Spain for the penultimate round of the championship after another few weeks break. Jerez is another great track with some big history and its the circuit where I clinched the European Junior Cup Championship last year! The race conditions were in our favour, a lot warmer temperatures from earlier in the weekend so I was feeling good! I got a good start and my team mate Kevin and I were pushing our way through the field and it came down the final lap between us for 12th and 13th position. I was leading him on the last lap going down the back straight too, then my bike lost power and had dropped a valve in the engine with only half a lap to go!! I was so angry and I just couldn’t believe it, I pretty much rolled my way to the line losing positions and finishing in another 16th place.

The Final round of the championship was now upon us, Magny Cours in France. A very difficult track but one where I’ve had success before, claiming my first ever podium in Europe here in 2011 placing 2nd as a wildcard in the European Junior Cup.

“I have a few great offers on the table in front of me with good teams on good competitive bikes which is a really exciting prospect for me for next year.”

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But this weekend was not to be like 2011, struggling right from the word go. We were down through practice and qualifying in what was an even tougher field with many wildcard riders making it a 42 bike field and believe or not pretty much the whole top 10 in practice were French wildcards who obviously new the circuit like the back of their hand. The race I made a great start and by the end of lap one I was in 16th position making up over 10 positions but then the race was red flagged due to an accident. The restart was not quite as good for me, I didn’t make the electric start like the first one, but I was running a good race pace and slowly picked off a few riders to come home in 21st position. Again, a tough result, but in this fierce 600 Superstock class it is still a respectable position, especially for my first full season in this championship!

For 2015 we have received some exciting news, I have a few great offers on the table in front of me with good teams on good competitive bikes which is a really exciting prospect for me for next year. As I know, I have now done my European apprenticeship and am ready for a season of consistent top 10 results, so I am desperately trying to raise the funds needed to put one of these fantastic opportunities together!

The racing in Europe is extremely tough and not easy at any level and to live there for more than 7 months of the year is a costly exercise also, the average cost of a quality 600 Superstock ride for a season is in excess of 65,000 euros up to 110,000 euros for some, the lower budget rides are just that, to be honest, and like a pot luck on what you will be supplied for a bike and the support that comes with it for the season.

As I have said previously, racing in Europe is a tough game and it is just as cut throat off the circuit as it is on the circuit, as we have found this past season more so than the others.

But I am very grateful for the time and effort individual people, companies, organizations alike have put into my European campaigns over the last few years and from me I only wish to repay all these solid people with some top success in 2015.

I would like to now take this opportunity to say a very big thank you to my team Agro On WIL Racedays Honda for all they have done this year and of course to amazing sponsors and fantastic people behind me who helped make this 2014 season possible, Stadium Finance and Stadium Cars, Race Supplies NZ, WIL Sport, Charlton Hurrell Drainage, Motorcycling New Zealand, Budget Motorcycle Spares, Racedays Honda and to MotorSport Plus.

Jake Lewis #29

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“I am very grateful for the time and effort individual people, companies, organizations alike have put into my European campaigns over the last few years and from me I only wish to repay all these solid people with some top success in 2015.”

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NXT GEN

RALLYING?

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WORDS/IMAGES: AYRTON BRANT

n an era of the New Zealand Rally Championship where imaginations are free to run wild, with Formula Renault 3.5 powered machines and extravagant Group A and Maxi beasts unleashed onto the iconic stages of New Zealand, the team at RalliArt have seen the light in the form of a chassis all the way from Poland.

The Dytko Proto is a potential life saver for those who crave the excitement and drama of the current rules, but with cost effectiveness as their number one priority.

Based on one of many modern hatchback-based shells (in this case, a Hyundai i20), they are then transformed into rallying machines of the future, with proven Mitsubishi components and both ends of an Evolution Ten fitted onto them. This helps reduce the costs significantly, removing the need for intensive fabrication to fit components. “With this combination, we have something that looks current and exciting – but is cost effective” Team Ralliart’s Bill Morton explained to us.

“Basically we’ve taken away everything seen as negatives in the Evo X – the heavy 200kg+ weight disadvantage and the pendulum-effect inducing over hangs.” “That, as well as installing factory Mitsubishi Evolution X components, we’ll be future proofing the cars for the coming years.”

This particular example will be heading to Australia with few more tweaks than usual, including top of the line WRC-spec shocks, a sequential gearbox, custom built tubular subframes and fabricated A-arms, as well as benefitting from the lack of a restrictor on the turbo – giving the Hyundai an injection of pace that will potentially see it the one to beat on the roads of the lucky country.

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“We feel we have come across a formula that is relatively cost effective, it uses off the shelf components and now we’ve got the look of a World Rally Car – so for anyone spectating they see something cool coming down the road, like the Hyundai, but the majority of it is Evo X.” “There’s no mysteries, there’s no engineering, it’s all been done.”

With multiple orders on already on hand, the Next Generation of rallying could have already arrived.

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“THERE’S NO MYSTERIES, THERE’S NO ENGINEERING, IT’S ALL BEEN PROVEN.”

- Bill Morton

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MOTORSPORT PLUS Q&A

RYAN BAKER

# 1 5 E L I T E G A R D E N S E R V I C E S / Q U A L I T Y WAT E R S U P P L I E S HARRIS RACECARS TQ In a sport where the raft of talent trying to break into the A Grade Midget car scene is immense, Motorsport Plus caught up with arguably one of the best in the Three Quarter Midget car game - Mr. King of the Springs, Ryan Baker.

Ryan, talk to us about your 2013/14 season.

We started off well, earning top qualifier in the opening meeting. After that we encountered a few issues with the car, which meant the first half of the season was quite hard on us. We got ourselves back in contention for the championship, but came unstuck in lap traffic on the second to last meeting.

That was hard, but we came back out at the last meeting and got the feature win. We also got to travel to Ruapuna Speedway for the NZ T.Q Title. That was a challenge, with over 50 cars entered!

Definitely the toughest championship I have been in, so to come away with 6th place was quite a pleasing result.

Overall, with our troubles and what not we finished up the season with a few results and earning a few titles, including King of the Springs and ATQMA Division 1 winner.

You also took home a fair amount of trophies at the ATQMA awards, give us the lowdown on your achievements.

After the slow start to the season we definitely came on strong at the end ensuring we won some of the top Awards at prizegiving, below is a list of the major awards I have won over the years: 13/14 - King of the Springs

North Island Championship 3rd

ATQMA Division 1 Winner

WXC Springs Series 3rd Feature Winner 11/12 - Western Springs Series Champ

Auckland Championship

Heritage Shield

T.Q Grand Prix 2nd

King of the Springs

ATQMA Division 1 Winner

ATQMA Highest Aggrigate Points

Multiple Feature Wins With another offseason, begins a new chance at perfecting your philosophies. Is there anything Ryan Baker has changed over the winter break?

During the off season I have made massive changes to my lifestyle so that I can be at my best, both physically 20

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and mentally. I have been doing a lot of strength and endurance training at the gym, so heres hoping it gives me a few advantages. I’ve also been doing my fair share of simulation racing, just to keep reaction times up! It’s the closest thing I can get to racing in the off season, well that’s my excuse anyway! We will see if it did me any good.

The hunt for sponsorship is a relentless one, with all you and your brother's success over the past seasons, does this make the search any easier? What could the class do to help promote driver talent such as yourself?

Searching for sponsors is never an easy task. Even with the teams success over the years, it’s never any easier. I believe one of the big reasons for this is the lack of television coverage we get, accompanied by the track conditions at the Springs. The track never allowed us to race like we should be able to, but hopefully these are sorted this year with the new team preparing the track.

This year our ATQMA club is making a YouTube channel to feature some of the racing. In my opinion, to make the class stronger and competition harder we need a country wide series, could also promote the drivers which would be a great way for the drivers to give their sponsors some coverage.

With all these somewhat radical 10-inch wheel machines rolling out of the Harris Racecars stable this season, what are your opinions on them? Do you feel as if they have a performance advantage with the right driver/setup?

The 10-inch idea has always been around the TQ class for years, with many people testing it out, without too much success. Since Gary from Harris Race Cars has started developing them, they have been a class act, definitely going to be major threats this season. The major advantage with the 10-inch cars is the weight, they are right on the minimum weight of 260kg compared to our 13inch cars which are 290kg+, definitely helps with the performance.

Last year when they debuted the #8 car at the North Island Championship.

It was on the pace straight away, and with a few modifications to the setup it was a quick car breaking the Huntly lap record by 2 tenths! I expect the same from them this year, especially with two of them out there in the field it should improve their performance.

The 2014/15 season is looking to be one of the more competitive in recent history, what are your goals and expectations going into it?

This season is definitely going to be very competitive, every season is, with new cars and driver combinations. Adding the new track surface to the mix, it should be very exciting and bring close racing and hopefully a multi-laned track.

My goal for the season is to place 3rd or higher at all the Speedway New Zealand events, and at every other event. I aim to win the Springs Series again and hopefully earn or retain other awards I have held before.

Your speedway career wouldn't be where you are today without your supporters. Here's your chance to thank your team.

I can’t thank Mum, Dad and the James Family enough for all there support, we definitely wouldn’t be out there racing without them! I’d also like to thank Ayrton, Gran and Grandad, Chris and Mark Petch from Racer Products, Quality Water Supplies, Kinghorn Signs, and Elite Garden Services for all their help.

Finally, where can all your new fans find Ryan Baker online?

Facebook /BakerRacingTeamNZ Instagram @ryanbaker15nz Twitter @Ryan_Baker15

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CHASING

5 0 0 MOTORSPORT PLUS MANAGED TO GET A HOLD OF ONE OF THE FASTEST MEN IN THE COUNTRY AND GAVE HIM THE FLOOR TO POST ABOUT HIS RISE TO THE TOP FUEL RANKS

MOTORSPORT PLUS FEATURE

ANTHONY MARSH MOUNT SHOP/MARSH MOTORSPORT TOP FUEL DRAGSTER

IMAGES:MARIA PANOVA PHOTOGRAPHY & SE PHOTOGRAPHY

Anthony Marsh, an unsuspecting guy working on championship race motors during the week, but come the weekend, especially that of January 10 2015 - that guy becomes the driver into one of the quckest and fastest machines on this planet. Motorsport Plus gave him the floor to get an insight into the man behind the machine.

M

y start in racing is not your typical story. I never did go Karting, I never drove around Pukekohe, in fact I never drove anything with more the 100hp before my world got turned upside down.

My first car was a 3 cylinder Daihatsu Charade. It could barely pull the skin off a rice pudding let alone get me in to any trouble, or so I thought. This did not stop me from trying to drive like Ayrton Senna, it did however teach me that I was not as talented as him. This is the car where I acquired the nick name “doof doof” because that was the sound the wheels would make, every time I climbed the curbs. After crashing it many times, along with most other cars I have owned, my Father decided the best way to slow me down was to speed me up - by throwing me in the deep end and putting me behind the wheel of his 1100hp dragster.

My first ever pass down a drag strip was a 9.7 and I still remember it to this day.

The G forces pushing you back in your seat so hard that everything goes blurry and you have no control over any of your body movements. The one piece of advice my Dad gave me was to hang on and by God he was right. It was and still is to this day the most terrifying thing I have ever done.

You may think it’s easy driving in a straight line, (I know I did at first) but when the back end of your car steps out on you when you are doing 450kph plus, it only takes a split second for you to either catch it or crash it.

We campaigned that car for a few years before my Dad lost the plot completely and sold his house, boat, dragster and brand new land cruiser, to buy an Injected nitro car (which belonged

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to Kenny Bernstein, who drove it in the top fuel class in America, before letting his son Brandon drive it as a A/Fuel car). In the first year we campaigned the car we won the NZDRA top alcohol championship, all while setting the fastest and quickest time in New Zealand history, at that time of 5.403 at 271.69 mph.

To get an understanding of how fast a 5.40 sec run is hers is a few increments 0 to 160 kmh in 1 sec 0 to 300 kmh in 2 sec 0 to 437 kmh in 5.4 sec But this was not enough for my Dad. He wanted to go faster have more noise and show everyone what we were capable of. So we brought a Top Fuel car (the F1 of drag racing). These are the cars that have 10ft high header flames and register a 3 on the richter scale when they take off. They produce well over 8000 hp and reach speeds of over 530kmh in 4.4 seconds.

The part we didn’t take in to consideration was the amount of work needed to not only get the car going, but to keep it going as well. We had a lot to organise to get the car going for our first meeting including building 3 engines, grinding endless amounts of clutches and trying to figure out how to get the most powerful car in the world down a racetrack in New Zealand.

The day of the Nitro Shootout 2014, I was a nervous wreck. I was about to hop into a 8000hp drag car for the first time and go for a 4 second ride.

For our first run we had way too much power dialled into the car and at the hit of the throttle went straight up in to tyre smoke. It’s a weird feeling when you have all this adrenalin running through your veins and you have no idea what to expect when you hit the throttle and the car barely moves an inch. We took the car back to the pits and pulled the whole thing apart to check over all the parts and make sure we hadn’t hurt anything.

Our second run which we call the “MYSTERY RUN“- because no time showed up on the timing boards, was my first run in the car under full power to the finish line. I found that you don’t black out when you take off, you grey out. That means you can see what is happening, but your body just shuts down and doesn’t know what to do and that’s what happened to me on that

run. I had never experienced anything like that in my life. By 1000ft we had blown the porcelain out of 4 sparkplugs, melted a piston to a rod, melted several pistons to the bores and torn out half of the teflon strips out of the blower. When we got the car back to the pits, the first thing we did was go through the data to see how fast that run was.

Turns out my first run down the drag strip under full power was a 4.87 @ 296 mph and we were doing over 300mph just before the 1000ft before the engine disintegrated.

On our third and final run of the day we didn’t change a thing on the car hoping it would run similar to the run before but the atmospheric conditions had changed slightly and it ran a 5.08 @ 272 mph.

So next year for the Nitro Shootout, on January 10th 2015 at Meremere drag strip in Auckland, our plan is simple. Not only do we want to run a 4 sec pass at over 300mph, we want to run a 4.6 at 315 mph (507kp/h) and show everyone we have what it takes to keep up with the best in the world .

Of course none of this is possible without the help of a hardworking crew that give up there weekends religiously to help get the car ready. Our dedicated sponsors MOUNT SHOP, Marsh Motorsport and Redline Oil and last but by no means least Tony Marsh, the money and brains behind this ongoing operation.

“Not only do we want to run a 4 sec pass at over 300mph, we want to run a 4.6 at 315 mph (507kp/h) and show everyone we have what it takes to keep up with the best in the world.”

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5TH TIME’S A CHARM

I N K S T E R A N D W I N N TA K E T H E C R O W N

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TARGA 2014

WORDS/IMAGES: Fast Company/ProShotz.

lenn Inkster and Spencer Winn have won the 20th anniversary Targa South Island, the Pukekohe pair arriving at the finish line in downtown Queenstown with a lead of eight minutes and 10 seconds over fellow Mitsubishi Evo pair Todd and Rhys Bawden.

Of the 26 stages confirmed at the Queenstown finish Inkster and Winn won their class, Instra.com Allcomers 4WD, in 20.

Five-time former winner Tony Quinn and co-driver Naomi Tillett won three in Quinn’s new Lamborghini but only contested three of the event’s six days thanks to a highspeed crash at the end of the second day.

Expat Kiwi Gavin Riches and his American wife Amy were also far and away the quickest combination in their Porsche GT3 Cup Car in the Instra.com Allcomers 4WD class, claiming class honours in 23 of the 26 stages.

But a holed exhaust and subsequent engine bay fire in the Catlins stage at the end of the third leg on Thursday saw them tumble down the class and overall standings.

And only a super-human effort by the talented Riches on the final two legs saw them rise back from 14th to fourth in class.

At the finish line former gravel rally ace Glen Inkster reckoned he was more relieved than anything else, having finally won the event after five years trying.

“Monday and Tuesday seem such a long time ago now,” he said. “And to be honest, we’ve been pretty tame and safe all event.”

A slipping clutch had the Targa event’s 20th winner worried earlier in the morning. “But really” he said, “it was a tiny problem and I think we were beating ourselves up for no reason. The guys did a great job all week in keeping the car going.”

Inkster said that of all the stages in this years’ South Island event he liked the repeated ones best, in particular, today’s run over the Crown Range and Thursday’s through George King Memorial Drive southwest of Dunedin.

“I love doing stages twice,” he said, “the second time is always a little more faster.”

Having won the 20th anniversary Targa Tasmania event in Australia, five-time New Zealand event winner Tony Quinn, had his heart set on getting the double here this year. But it was not to be, despite his investment in the latest Lamborghini supercar, the Huracan.

Though disappointed the Gold Coast-based Scot was philosophical, saying; “It’s what Targa is, full of stories, dilemmas and stuff that happens.” “We’re quite happy with the car....there are a few things that need doing to it and it will be fine.” It’s a very low car so you can’t see over the brows. Whether it’s the right car for the Targa

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I’m not sure. I may be better with another car and keep this one for the track, we have that option.”

The big drama on the final day of the event, meanwhile, occurred in the Metalman Classic 2WD class, though it did not affect winning son and father pair Mark and Chris Kirk-Burnnand from Wellington.

This year’s field was the most competitive ever, with six different stage winners, but the Kirk-Burnnands won their class on nine of the 26 stages, crossing the finish line in their BMW M3 over two-and-a-half minutes in front of provisional second place-getters Rob Ryan and Paul Burborough.

The final results of the Metalman Classic 2WD class remained provisional at event end, however, after Ryan and Burborough crashed on the final stage. If the results of that stage are included they will slip down the order, if not, they may retain the second place they held heading into the stage. Third place in the provisional standings is the BMW 325i of Bruce Farley and Tim Eddington, but fourth could also change, as Carl Kirk-Burnnand and codriver Scott Hay crashed their BMW 325i out of the event on the second to last stage.

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With Gavin and Amy Riches out of overall event contention after their problem in the Catlins stage on the Thursday, last year’s Instra.com Modern 2WD class and overall event winners Martin Dippie and Jona Grant were perfectly placed to take over in their Porsche GT3, taking line honours by a margin of almost five minutes from Christchurch rally pair Dean Buist and Andrew Bulman in a Ford Escort RS1800.

Third was Terry May and Peter Burridge in another one of the Porsche GT3s in the field, fourth the Riches after their giant-killing final two days, where they were fastest overall in several stages, in their similar, but track-based GT3 Cup car.

As well as winning their class, Dippie and Grant enjoyed the distinction of being the first resident South Island pair home.

“We’re very pleased, “ he said. “The car has gone like a freight train, no issues at all.” “We did have one moment on the Crown Range today where we gave ourselves a wee fright, but that’s racing. Dippie said that there were so many highlights on his ‘home’ event he found it difficult picking out one or two for special mention. That said….. “Catlins for me has been the best stage, and the Crown Range has been awesome. They whole thing has been tremendous, a lovely part of the country, beautiful flowing roads.

“The pace and the driving this year has been fantastic, it is up a notch. It’s been a very good event.”

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T H E R E S U LT S Instra.com Allcomers 4WD 1. Glenn Inkster/Spencer Winn (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8) 2. Todd Bawden/Rhys Bawden (Mitsubishi Evo6) 3. Nicholas De Waal/Guy Hodgson (Subaru Impreza WRX) 4. Harry Dodson/Glenn Cupit (Nissan GT-R35) 5. Andrew Simms/Chris West (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10) 6. Brian Green/Fleur Pedersen (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X RS) Instra.com Modern 2WD 1. Martin Dippie/Jona Grant (Porsche GT3 RS) 2. Deane Buist/Andrew Bulman (Ford Escort) 3. Terry May/Peter Burridge (Porsche GT3) 4. Gavin Riches/Amy Riches (Porsche GT3) 5. Ross Graham/Kevin Brookes (Holden Torana) 6. Tim James/George Randle (BMW M3) Metalman Classic 2WD 1. Mark Kirk-Burnnand/Chris Kirk-Burnnand (BMW M3) 2. Rob Ryan/Paul Burborough (Toyota Corolla AE-86 Levin) 3. Bruce Farley/Tim Eddington (BMW 325i) 4. Carl Kirk-Burnnand/Scott Hay (BMW 325i) 5. Barry Kirk-Burnnand/Dave O'Carroll (BMW M3) 6. Jason Easton/Campbell Ward (Ford Mustang Notchback) FACEBOOK.COM/MOTORSPORTPLUS

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MOTORSPORT PLUS FEATURE

ANDRE HEIMGARTNER S U P E R B L A C K R A C I N G / F P R V 8 S C FA LC O N F I N A N C E E Z I / M W R V 8 D V S FA LC O N HYDRAULINK NZST COMMODORE

One half of Super Black racing’s duo and a nineteen year old kid with many hats, Andre Heimgartner gives Motorsport Plus the run down in his personal diary of the weekend that was the 2014 Bathurst 1000.

The Super Black car wasn’t stable and was a shaky platform on which to build much needed speed. Paul our engineer didn’t want to change from the standard FPR set up preferring to focus on our driving skills. I was disappointed as we appeared to hit a performance barrier well short of a competitive time. After a meeting to compare all FPR cars, we changed our engineering philosophy, which lead to some adjustments for the rest of the weekend.

FRIDAY 3 Oct We quickly carved 2 seconds off our lap times. We were looking like racers now!

DVS qualifying was a disaster with so many safety cars and a red flags that I couldn’t get into a rhythm. Put it on P8.

Just before leaving home I received a cool email from Scott Dixon, wishing me luck at Bathurst. Nice surprise!

Flew to Sydney on Tuesday to help FPR set up Superblack. FPR are a huge outfit of about 60 people and Superblack got our own seasoned crew. I billet and eat with FPR. I brought my own physio/ hydration/massage guy who was a life saver for both us drivers. Ant particularly who ended up on drips in the medical centre at one stage. Fortunately my DVS team and Superblack were within 25 meters of each other which made life easier. The Superblack(SB) B Train trailer was amazing. An engineering office, private driver’s lounge, main lounge and kitchen, storage room, garage for car, and a covered viewing platform with soft furnishings! SB haven’t bought it yet but are hoping to raise money to make it part of the program.

The track had just been resealed and lap times were faster than ever before with Murph’s “lap of the gods” being well and truly broken. Unfortunately the track over the mountain started to break up and became very dangerous.

I am sure one or two corners may have had less camber than before which didn’t help? Many teams paid a heavy price in damage.

THURSDAY. Flat out practising. Two DVS and two Main Game. My DVS car felt good from the get go and was quicker at the outset.

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SATURDAY. More SB practice which lead to more engineering changes in the quest for speed.

An average start in the 250Km DVS race and I had my work cut out making my way toward the sharp end. Two incidents stand out in my mind. Firstly, I got stuck behind two quick drivers who in fighting between themselves were holding me up. Coming down Conrod at high speed, one of those cars pulled up alongside the other but didn’t look as though he would complete the pass. With a much quicker exit from Forest Elbow I was catching them very fast, but there was no room to pass. I decided to help one of the cars by bumping him from behind giving him the speed to make the pass.

It worked well and I stuck to his bumper and sneaked passed myself! On another occasion I was chasing down Jacobson, a very accomplished driver, unable to find a fault to exploit. Eventually decided to drive around him into the cutting which was risky but looked doable as he tended to stay tight at that point. I made the pass but had to carry too much speed which made my car over-steer wildly between the concrete barriers. It didn’t look good as I struggled to regain control, eventually straightening up pointing exactly where I need to be! I handed the car over in 3rd place. Steve Owen my co driver is very quick so all was going according to plan. A good finish in this triple points race would potentially give me the championship lead.

You don’t want to hear this..... we got a drive through because one of our crew had touched the car wearing only shorts during our driver change.....that spelt the end of our championship chances!

SUNDAY. THE BIG ONE. I had to remind myself several times to stop and savour the atmosphere. My first ever main game drive and it’s at Bathurst! The drivers parade and pit lane pre race was magic, I wish you could have shared those moments with me. The racing was furious, like a 161 lap sprint race. The track by now was seriously breaking up and there were multiple accidents eventually leading to a red flag and an unprecedented 70 minute stop to repair the track.

I did 2 stints and Ant 2 before taking the car back to the track in 13th place to bring it home.

I was gaining confidence and speed, we definitely had a good car with no issues.

With pit stops and a couple of overtakes found myself in 9th with 10 laps to go.

I was hard on the heels of Percat and Winterbottom(Frosty) when Percat made a move, I tacked hard onto Percats bumper and got passed Frosty! A couple of laps later Frosty and I had a braking dual into the last turn, he got in front but went a little too wide. I made an under pass move through the corner and was in the right place to take back the spot on turn 1. I managed to stay ahead of Frosty and am confident I could have held him off for a 6th place finish as he was probably in fuel conservation mode.

You don’t want to hear this....... my fuel light came on with 2 laps to go. My last fuel load had been miss calculated!

Finished 11th and was pretty upset. I couldn’t talk for a while when I got back to my garage.

CONCLUSION. The team felt that Ant and I had performed beyond expectations so overall we had to be very happy.

Incredibly both my DVS car and the SB car came home without a scatch!

I was 2nd fastest when compared only to co drivers and 15th fastest when compared only to main game drivers.

I was 0.748sec outside the fastest lap time which was set by Shane VG. I did my fastest lap on lap 157. Ant and I made a great team.

We celebrated in the FPR garage with Chaz Mostert and my good mate Paul Morris who had won! A huge thanks to Tony and Andrew for making this happen, incredible! What a day, what a weekend!

Many thanks to the team at Super Black, Instra Corporation, Finance Ezi, Hydraulink, CrimSafe, Eni Lubricants, Superlux and Herb Morgan Tyres & Wheels for helping us in these opportunities.

Sincere regards, Andre

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“I had to remind myself several times to stop and savour the atmosphere. My first ever main game drive and it’s at Bathurst!”

THUNDER IN THE PARK 5-7 DECEMBER 2014

Renowned for its size and diversity, this year’s GT Radial Thunder in the Park meeting is set to be one of the largest circuit racing events on the New Zealand motorsport calendar.

Set in December at Pukekohe Park Raceway, the meeting sees eleven different classes of racing and over 250 different race cars take to the track, including; NZGT, Pro 7, Porsches, NZ Sixes, SS2000, Formula First, Northern Muscle Cars, Production Muscle Cars and the Pre 65 series.

Headlining the event though will be the dual GT1/GT2 series, and the thunderous Central Muscle Cars.

“This year the thunder will be well and truly louder than ever” says GT Radial Thunder in the Spokesperson Deborah Day. “We’ve worked to ensure that there’s a class of racing for everyone from the ground-up with our young guns and future of Kiwi Motorsort in the single seaters, through to the beautifully presented classics and fire-breathing, record shattering beasts”.

While on the surface, the Central Muscle Cars and the dual GT1/GT2 classes appear to be radically different, both headline classes do feature a similar ethos - relatively free regulations allowing and encouraging Kiwi racers to produce race cars using their own ingenuity, as well as the proverbial number eight wire. The result of this are fields of race-cars which are as mesmerizing as they are loud and raucous. Here, the cars are well and truly the stars, and variety is king.

While the more established racers gravitate towards classes like Central Muscle Cars and GT1/GT2, the meeting also caters towards some of New Zealand’s most talented up and coming drivers, with classes like Formula First and the Pro 7’s (a series specifically for rotary-powered Mazda RX7’s) representing an

excellent cost-friendly channel for young drivers to establish themselves and learn more about the sport.

“We’re proud to have one of the best weekends in Kiwi Motorsport at Pukekohe, with family-friendly prices and activities to match” says Deborah. “A full weekend of racing for just $28 (per adult) is a perfect way to spend some special family time, with under 16’s free alongside any accompanying adult.

We have camping here on site free for motor homes and our Kids in Cars Fun Zone will be cranking all weekend to keep the little ones entertained in between racing.”

“We also have a very exciting and unique corporate hospitality opportunity for business people who want to give their VIP’s and colleagues an unforgettable Christmas function” says Deborah, “for those who want to spend the day in style we have a fully catered day of catching all the action from the comfort of the Pukekohe Park Raceway Corporate Box – something truly special for any Motorsport fan.”

GT Radial Thunder in the Park can be seen as a nod to New Zealand’s rich motorsport history, models of race car from almost every significant era of Kiwi tin-top racing fronting up for what is fast becoming an event which cannot be missed.

The flag falls on GT Radial Thunder in the Park in the 5-7th of December.

Tickets are available through Ticketek, or through the official event website: http://www.thunderinthepark. com/ For further information, photos and prize give-aways, follow GT Radial Thunder in the Park on social media: https://www.facebook.com/ThunderInThePark.

free for kids

* *under 16’s with

accompanying adult.

ay w ce Ra rk Pa he ko ke Pu , 14 20 r be em ec 5-7 D kend ee W ed ck Pa n io ct A an in rs Ca 0 25 r Ove ADULT WEEKEND PASS ONLY $28 PER

FREE MOTORHOME CAMPING ONSITE

PERSON

CORPORATE PACKAGES and single day passes available.

OR SCAN HERE!

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