4WD Sport
DIY focus on the kids
The ‘other’ grand prix is back Save this date: 19 November 2022
It’s a one-day off-road racing spectacular that will attract the fastest drivers in the sport, a defiant ‘salute’ to the Covid lockdowns that have held New Zealand in suspended animation for two years. The 2022 New Zealand Offroad Grand Prix evokes a series of similar events held on the old Grand Prix course at Te Atatu, over the hill from the long defunct Footrot Flats theme park. Organisers say the inspiration for the new event is drawn from the runaway success of the original 1990s version and also from the events organised last century in the USA by the originator of stadium short course racing, Mickey Thompson. It will be held on the edge of the biggest population centre in New Zealand at CountiesManukau club’s purposedesigned stadium track in Manukau. Manukau racer-turnedpromoter Tony McCall is working closely with the Counties club to deliver the event and says the track is the only venue that offers the combination of excellent
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viewing, top facilities and a challenging format for the drivers. “We are expecting some serious grids of racers from all over New Zealand. It’ll be a heck of a day.” The racing format will borrow from both off-road racing and Nascar, with two in-class heats of four laps enabling the classes to run against machinery of similar performance levels. These will be followed by in-class ‘semi-main’ or quarterfinal events over seven laps to decide class champions and 3-4 feature races over ten laps. The timing, he said, will be ‘fast and slick’. “We won’t be waiting around for people to get their hair done, we’re going racing!” McCall says the November event will also be the only time off-road racing appears on free to air TV in New Zealand, with the racing being edited for a post-event programme. “The TV audience for coverage we have scored there for past events has topped 250,000. But of course, there’s nothing quite like being
Off-road racers know the future of the sport rests with the next generation. That is true of every sport. A decade ago, Auckland racer Richard Crabb and a group of helpers got together to set up a youth category. Starting with tiny Chinesesourced ‘fun buggies’ – pull-start engines, simple transmissions – the hard core of this group got a ‘pathfinder’ group of children up and running to demonstrate the viability of the new class. Previously, the sport had languished with a handful of new racers coming in as teenagers. The new class ran at main events – but on a separately plotted ‘gentle’ course. Once parents saw the fun the young racers were having a steady stream were on board and the next step was to introduce the first of the current crop of Kiwitrucks – still paced for the younger set. Rules opened up the Kiwitruck ‘J’ and ‘M’ classes to racers as young as six years and a top age limit of 15 was set in the
rules. The sport’s governing body played its part, enshrining the Kiwitruck class into national championship race weekend formats. The growing fields were also able to race at stand-alone events on Richard Crabb’s farmlet near Silverdale. Grids at these events mushroomed to 20 or more across the two classes. Now, Bay of Plenty racers are organising a standalone race event at the TECT Park near Tauranga. They say they have noted strong interest from families, partly because the kid racers get to compete on a fully developed ‘grown-up’ track and partly in response to the specific focus of the event on the kids. The inaugural race day is set for 14 August; more information is available from Gary Baker on 021 304 864. He says the event is a ‘toe in the water’ to gauge actual interest and racer turnout will decide whether the event becomes a regular occurrence.
