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Simon Evans to join V8 Supercars with Super Black Racing

21 February, 2015

Super Black Racing, New Zealand’s only V8 Supercar team, has gained another driver — Simon Evans, the talented BNT NZ SuperTourer racer. Evans will soon be getting behind the wheel of another Ford Falcon, this time as part of the V8 Dunlop Development Series in Australia.

With his recent success in the local SuperTourers series, the Dunlop Development Series is the next logical step for Evans, and one he is looking forward to.

“Representing Super Black Racing as the only New Zealand team in the V8 Supercars at the moment just makes it even more exciting. It’s great to have their support, as it can be really hard for drivers to break out of New Zealand,” Evans says.

It’s not going to be a walk in the park for him, though; this will be his first time racing in Australia, other than racing kart. Evans will face the added challenge of having to learn each and every track during the allocated practice sessions.

For Super Black Racing, the opportunity to help Evans was one they couldn’t ignore.

“The [Super Black Racing] team was started to help New Zealand drivers break into different levels of motorsport, so when this became a possibility, we had to make it happen,” said Tony Lentino, Super Black Racing team owner.

Both the team and Simon Evans will be waiting for the big day of February 26, the Clipsal 500 held in Adelaide, heralding the official start of both the 2015 V8 Supercars season and the Dunlop Development Series.

Britannia rules the roads – Royal Tour Cars – part 1

30 May, 2025

Today we take royal tours for granted, but once upon a time, or at any time before the 20th century, it was impossible for our monarchs to visit their downunder dominions because of the distances involved and the unreliable transport.
The advent of steam power for ships and trains, the evolution of the motor car and, finally, the arrival of passenger air travel shrank their world, and ours, considerably, and the royal tour became a feature of the empire and the Commonwealth.
The first British royal visitor to Aotearoa, New Zealand, was Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1920. During his 28-day tour, he travelled mostly by the royal train, which was both safer and more convenient for royal personages. A variety of best-available cars were used locally. Ideally, these would be Daimlers.

Motorman: Blame it on Rio!

22 May, 2025

Following the third polite advisory, I figured there had to be a fair degree of substance to the warning. “If this is your first visit to Rio de Janeiro, please be careful,” came the personal hushed dialogue from the pleasant hostesses on a far from crowded Varig flight from Los Angeles to the famous Brazilian seaside city.
The previous evening I had flown into LA from Auckland en route to the 1985 international launch of the Fiat Uno Turbo. I was prepared for another long haul of just under 12 hours across Mexico, central America, Colombia, and central Brazil to that nation’s third largest city. Surprisingly the 10,500km run from Los Angeles to Rio is actually longer than the 8800km LA-London air route.
With the journey including a brief stopover in Honolulu I expected to travel just under 44,000km for the return journey to sample what was to be a low-volume version of a popular Italian car that would sell in even lower numbers in New Zealand. I like to think this shows nothing more than my deep commitment to my craft. In fact, even though I became lost on the homeward journey my total air miles would be little different.