Big guns head to Hampton Downs

24 November, 2015

 

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The new-look motor-racing season in New Zealand got off to a great start with the first Premier Motorsport event at Taupo Motorsport Park in October, before the big classes then moved on to the ITM 500 V8 Supercar event at Pukekohe.

Over the weekend of November 28–29, the country’s major racing categories are in action once again, at the V8 Festival at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park. And if the racing at the first two meetings is anything to go by, then fans who head along to the North Waikato track this Saturday or Sunday are in for a real treat.
 
The revitalized BNT NZ Touring Cars are already finding their feet as a combined class of V8 SuperTourer, TLX, and TL-spec cars, and have produced some epic encounters already, most notably the first race at Taupo, which was regarded by many as one of the country’s best touring-car races for some time. Won by former Bathurst winner Jason Bargwanna, and packed with close racing and the odd controversial incident, the series now has everything touring-car fans hoped for. It can only get better, and with a full pit lane of the racers at the upcoming Hampton Downs event, the action is set to continue.
 
Youth vs maturity is the story of the epic climax to the UDC V8 Ute Racing Series, which will be played out at Hampton Downs during the V8 Festival. After a long, competitive, closely fought, and challenging championship, either Sam ‘Bazza’ Barry or Brett ‘The Scud’ Rudd will likely lift the series crown, and for either it will be hugely well-deserved.
 
The exciting Toyota Finance 86 Championship heads to Hampton Downs for the second round of its own bigger and better 2015 series. No fewer than 16 of the good-looking rear-wheel drive racers took to the track at Pukekohe, and we should see a similar field at Hampton Downs. Close racing is guaranteed.
 
Another crowd-pleaser heading for the North Waikato is the Ssangyong Actyon Ute Racing Series, where you can see some of the brightest young stars of the future show their skills at a large race meeting. The racing is nose-to-tail and the lap times incredibly close. It’s hugely entertaining and a great showcase for those competing.
 
The two TradeZone GT grids will wow the fans over the weekend, with the awesome GT1 and GT2 machinery likely to be amongst the very fastest machines racing. With sports prototypes, old supercars on steroids, and ex-factory GT cars, the class is petrolhead heaven. GT3 and GT4 combines slightly slower ‘home-grown–type’ machinery, and whilst the grid does not have the outright speed of its big brother, it nevertheless provides big fields and very close racing.
 
The classic Kumho Pre-65s are always a very popular addition to any race meeting, and the category is back for its second Premier Motorsport event at Hampton Downs, while the NZ Sports Cars (combined with a Formula Libre element for this event) bring modern aerodynamics and technology, and are more like baby Le Mans–type cars than anything else.
 
Action on Saturday, November 28 begins at 8.30am, and on Sunday, November 29 at 8.35am. General admission is just $20 on Saturday and $30 on Sunday, with kids under 12 going free. You can buy in advance at hdticketing.co.nz, or purchase at the gate.

A second dose of Dash

When the car arrived in Wellington in December 2018 it was duly taken along for entry certification. Vehicle Inspection NZ (VINZ) found some wrongly wired lamps and switches — not too bad — but, much more significantly, some poor welding repairs. As the structural problems were probed more thoroughly, we realized the previous owner’s restoration would not do and we needed an upgrade. Dash had made it into the country but it would take some time and money before he would be free to explore any of New Zealand’s scenic highways.
We took the car to our new home in Johnsonville in the northern suburbs of Wellington and I pored over the car in detail to figure out what was next. There were lots of new parts on the car and a very perky reconditioned drivetrain but the chassis needed serious work.

Lunch with… Jim Palmer

In the 1960s, Hamilton’s Jim Palmer won the prestigious ‘Gold Star’ four times and was the first resident New Zealander home in the New Zealand Grand Prix on five consecutive occasions. He shared the podium with Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren, Graham Hill, Jim Clark, Denny Hulme, Jackie Stewart, and Chris Amon. The extent of his domination of the open-wheeler scene in New Zealand will probably never be matched or exceeded. Yet he’s always been modest about his achievements.