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NZV8 Touring Cars TLX and TL Championship

16 June, 2014

 


After much drama in and outside of Sunday’s races, Nick Ross won the NZV8 Touring Cars TLX Championship, a title he has hunted with vigour since entering the series in 2002.

Ross, driving a Holden Commodore came to Pukekohe Park Raceway trailing Toyota Camry driver Jason Bargwanna by 61 points. The Australian suffered engine problems in race one on Saturday morning and then again that afternoon allowing Ross to have one hand on the trophy.

On Sunday morning in race three, Ross and Bargwanna looked as though they were in for another one of their epic battles until a safety car period, followed by another incident at the restart, resulted in the field crossing the finish line behind the safety car with much anticlimax.

Ross was leading at the flag, and was thought to have taken the title, until he was deemed to have been travelling too slow at the restart and was relegated to fourth place leaving the championship battle still open.

“We are supposed to be between 70 and 80 (kph) but I just had a brain fade and kept it at 60,” said Ross.

Dramas continued in the afternoon when, in the final race, Ross took the lead only to have Bargwanna pass him and pull a small gap.

All Ross needed was to finish the race and he would take the title which he had chased for 12 years.

The crowd started to become excited as they saw puffs of smoke coming from Ross’ Holden, after seeing two engine blowouts already on the Saturday.

Bargwanna increased the gap and Hamilton’s Lance Hughes was beginning to catch the Cambridge driver as the smoke became worse, but Ross eventually took the flag in second place to win the round and the NZV8 Touring Cars TLX Championship.

“I’m really happy to get the title after all this time. It’s been 12 years,” said Ross.

After 12 years chasing the title in a series of Holden Commodores, Nick Ross will be entering next season in a brand new Nissan Altima TLX car, upon which he will proudly place the number one.

Hamilton’s Lance Hughes finished in third place over Auckland’s Shaun Varney and Turua’s AJ Lauder.


Sunday also saw Ian Booth win the NZV8 Touring Cars TL Championship. He won the title over Lower Hutt’s James McLaughlin after a very consistent season.

Scoring only his second race win on Sunday, ironically his first win was also at Pukekohe in the opening round in November, he won the championship with one race up his sleeve.

Coming into the weekend there was a slim gap between the pair of just 11 points, but McLaughlin had one of those weekend’s that he would rather forget.

“Going into the weekend I was quite settled for second place actually knowing what James is like so I was quite relaxed when I thought I wouldn’t win but then that all changed when he had problems in qualifying,” said Booth.

“We had a 100 per cent record this season. My chief mechanic, Mark Dalton, has just been fantastic and he would be down there working on the car when I don’t even know he is there,” he said.

Turua’s Brad Lauder — the only other driver with a chance of moving up ahead of the two leaders — had a rough weekend with incidents in both race two and three which kept him out of touch with Booth.

With the title under his belt, Ian Booth has stated he will not be racing next season to concentrate on his job as chairman of the series.

“I’m going to call it quits at this stage. I need to stop racing and drive this series to the next level,” said Booth

“There is a lot of interest in the TLXs. We are definitely having more of them for next season and to continue this momentum forward I need to stop racing and focus on making this class what it really should be — and that’s the best premiere class in New Zealand.

“I honestly believe that in three to four years the numbers and quality of the field will be as good as it ever was and I have no problems or qualms with that at all,” he said.

The NZV8 Touring Cars are a two-class series with the TLX category supporting Toyota Camry, Holden Commodore, Nissan Altima, and Ford Falcon with interest coming from other brands.

The TL category offers very competitive racing with the original specification NZV8 Touring Cars hosting the traditional and popular Ford versus Holden battle.

The new season is due to restart this coming November.

NZ Classic Car magazine, July/August 2026 issue 406, on sale now

21 June, 2026

Rebirth of a brilliant Grand Tourer –1973 Datsun 240Z
How often do we long for that ultimate dream sports car, and that dream comes true? This is about one of the most influential Japanese cars of all time, a car that changed the sports car market.
This is about much more than the restoration of an iconic classic sports car, the 240Z. It’s about the culmination of a dream over many years and the friendships made. It’s about the people who helped and the professionals whose approach ensured that the dream became a reality, an attitude typical of the industry we call ‘classic restoration experts’.
It is no surprise that the outcome after a lengthy search by Conrad Van der Geest for the right Datsun 240Z culminated in a trophy for the best Japanese car at this year’s Caroline Bay Beach, Rock N’ Hop at Timaru.
Originally a roadworthy car in running order, it was left-hand-drive and had been driven for several years by its Timaru owner, as Conrad explains.
“A neighbour, Dave Barron, knew I was looking for one and introduced me to the owner. I had seen the car being driven around Timaru. It was unusual for one of these coming originally from California, so it was a really clean car instead of rusty, as they are prone to rust. The story goes that the grandfather passed it onto his grandson, who decided to sell it, and that’s when it came over here.”
Every issue comes with our FREE huge wall poster; this issue, it’s our cover car for this edition, a 1973 Datsun 240Z

The butterfly effect

18 June, 2026

The man on the mountain bike pedalled over, taking it all in. Gazing in wonderment at this small Japanese coupe with butterfly doors, he said, “Wow, I have never seen one of these before. What is it?” When I told him it was a Toyota, he nearly fell off his bike.
The Toyota Sera is unique amongst ’90s Japanese coupes. The Sera, which is Italian for ‘evening’, can trace its roots back to Toyota’s AXV-II concept car. Launched as part of a trio of Toyota concept cars at the 1987 Tokyo Motor Show, it shared its underpinnings with the P70 Toyota Starlet. The similarities ended there, thanks to the AXV-II’s low-slung and rounded coupe styling with butterfly doors. These doors were held upright by gas struts when fully open. Glass covered the upper section of the doors and the rear hatchback.
These features, much to everyone’s surprise, were carried over to the production Sera in 1990. Toyota marketed the Sera, which means ‘will be’ in Spanish and ‘princess’ in Hebrew, as a funky alternative to the much-loved MR2.