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2015 Repco Race to the Sky’s big names to do battle

24 March, 2015

The legendary Nobuhiro ‘Monster’ Tajima will be making his return to Cardrona, for the 2015 Repco Race to the Sky, held over April 18–19. The eight-time King of the Mountain champion will be joined by a number of competitors, both new and old, for the first iteration of the famous hill climb in seven years.

The opportunity to race the world-renowned course has attracted competitors from both here and abroad, amongst them, Whangarei’s ‘Rocket’ Ron Kirkman — at 78 years of age — the oldest competitor at the event. His age hasn’t slowed him down, nor his 1000cc Honda Rocket Racing quad bike. The quad category will also benefit from Christchurch’s Mike Shackleton, racing his famous ‘Quadzilla’ turbocharged 1300cc quad.

In the two-wheeled basket, Invercargill’s Craig Hyde — Race to the Sky’s original motorcycle ‘god’ — will make his return on the 1992 single-cylinder, two-stroke Kawasaki KX500, with a big challenge ahead in the form of Nathan McAlwee. McAlwee has two entries in two separate classes; a KTM SXF450 in middleweight, and a KTM SXF250 in lightweight.

The legendary Tajima will be taken on head-to-head in the eight-deep unlimited class by Rotorua local Sloan Cox, in the Mitsubishi Evo VIII successfully raced by Andrew Hawkeswood. Down in the open four-wheel-drive class, Mike Turfus will be bringing his own Mitsubishi Evo VIII out to play with the class’s other 12 entrants. The open two-wheel-drive class, within the national hill-climb competition division, will be headlined by Trevor Crowe, amongst its six competitors.

From across the ditch comes Brett Hayward from Victoria, Australia, who is also the current race record holder for open-wheel cars. He’ll be returning to compete in his sixth Race to the Sky event in his brand-new ‘Race to the Sky special’.

The off-road category also looks to be a hotly contested one, with national champ Bryan Chang bringing his championship-winning race truck to 2015 Repco Race to the Sky. Bryan has contested all bar one of the past Race to the Sky events, and will be facing off against Whangarei’s Clim Lammers, and Auckland’s Jono Climo, competing in the Toyota Hilux he designed and built himself, influenced by American ‘trophy truck’ desert racers.

It’s going to be an exciting two days of competition, and Highlands Motorsport Park’s general manager Mike Sentch says, “With so many former competitors, plus a great array of newcomers … I think it’s fair to say we can expect intense competition for the two main trophies.”

He’s not wrong there. Tickets can be purchased online from Ticket Direct, or from the Highlands Motorsport Park offices. A one-day adult pass costs $50, or $80 for a two-day pass. Children under 16 enter free with a paying adult.

Coaching from the bench: Casting plastic knobs and rubber parts

16 July, 2026

Casting rubber items is simple if you have a good original to work with. The item doesn’t have to be perfect. You can use plasticine to smooth out cracks, and you can even make whole prototypes out of low-fire modelling clay available from craft stores if you need to. Prototypes can also be made of wood or metal.
You will need mould dams to contain the liquid urethane moulding solution until it cures. You can build boxes out of strips of wood, but I have found that small plastic boxes and bowls such as those you would use for leftovers in your fridge work well if you spray them with a mould release agent.
Temperature is important to the chemical processes involved, so work in an area that can be maintained at around 20 degrees. You will also need adequate ventilation because the fumes can be dangerous to breathe. And you will want to wear latex gloves to protect your hands.

Fraser Cars – low flying into the fourth decade

10 July, 2026

With almost three and a half decades under its belt, Fraser Cars is one of New Zealand’s longest-surviving car manufacturers. The company first opened its doors for business in 1988, during the boom time for kit manufacturers. During the ’80s, around 40 different companies were building kits and turnkey cars for this niche market. Of those, only Fraser and Almac Cars (established 1981) are still in business today.
Most of the new kit car companies were killed off in the cradle by the threat of new legislation that never eventuated and definitively by the sudden availability of high-performance Japanese cars when the floodgates to second-hand imports were opened. The now long-retired founder of the company, Neil Fraser, first came across Lotus Seven replicas while racing Lotus Cortinas in the early ’80s. He regularly found himself racing against a little Caterham, a Lotus Seven–styled car built in England. He was very impressed by its simplicity and handling. In 1986 Fraser built his own Lotus Seven–type car, using the knowledge he had gained from several close looks at the Caterham.