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Post by Carl on Apr 18, 2018 21:24:52 GMT
New Zealand is a relatively small country with a very large impact on racing worldwide. One of my first great heroes was and still is Bruce McLaren, whose influence on Formula One remains tangible decades after his death. Because of our love of racing, we all have connections beneath the Southern Cross.
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Post by René on Apr 19, 2018 11:19:12 GMT
Oh yes! Bruce, Denny, the Tasman series. Obviously a good breeding ground for racers!   |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2018 9:42:06 GMT
Cheers Carl, thanks for the chance to rant on a bit.
I'm an import to New Zealand. I've been here 20 years, and was in South Africa for 12 years before that. I guess 20 years is a lifetime for some folks, but hasn't seemed that long.
New Zealand certainly was a petrolhead heaven when we arrived, on the road and racing. Attitudes have changed towards speed on the road, but motorsport is still really strong.
We were in the North Island when we first arrived, and NZ still hosted a WRC rally, so following that was my first exposure to NZ motorsports. The teams and drivers were so accessible. Local hero Possum Bourne was a huge talent and personality, made a big early impression. But being able to chat with Malcolm Wilson,Andrew Cowan,Colin McRae,Monster Tajima,and a bunch of local and Australian competitors in the service parks and get to numerous stages over the course of a couple of days was pretty mind blowing.
Seeing the utter speed and commitment of Tommy Makkinen on the forrest stages near Huntly, and mechanics converting McRae's Focus back to four wheels in a 40 minute service park (it arrived with three and no suspension on one corner), and Bourne finish 5th overall in 1999, against a full field of WRC teams and drivers are all strong memories of those events.
Got to do some work now, but will add some more bits later.
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Post by charleselan on Apr 21, 2018 10:50:15 GMT
Jim,
There is a guy in the Uk who does many different motor based (mostly bikes) TV series called Henry Cole. He can be an acquired taste at times but I quite like him, nuances and all; currently he is into another "Motorbike Show" series on ITV4 which is rather good. Cole actually rates the roads in New Zealand as the best anywhere in the world (along with South Africa strangely enough) for motorcycling.
Not only that but the scenery is positively breath taking.
Great comments about New Zealand rallying, a bit like the exceptional forest stages in the UK of which I have been to many over many; many decades. The night time stages of old still give goose bumps to this day, especially the sound of the Audi Quattro S1.
NZ has a rich tapestry of great drivers in F1, or nearly men, and those that should have been great, Mike Thackwell one of the most outstanding talents I have ever seen.
John
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2018 21:36:17 GMT
Hi All, Here is another wondrous thing about motorsport in New Zealand, a driver called Kenny Smith. He is now 76 years old, has been racing since 1958. He races single seater, currently F5000 monsters, and is still properly competitive. He last won the F5000 series in 2011, and last year at the Skope Classic had some fantastic close races with the 21 year old, FIA Historic F1 champion Michael Lyons. nzmotorracing.co.nz/2017/02/05/title-willis-lyons-claims-skope-feature-win/This year he competed in his 47th NZ Grand Prix, in the Toyota Racing Series cars. He's a pretty low key character, but he's raced against many of the greats from NZ and internationally in the Tasman series days, '64 to '75. You can read a bit more about Kenny and his remarkable career at the links below; m.facebook.com/kensmithmotorsport/www.stuff.co.nz/sport/motorsport/101168956/kiwi-leads-group-of-contenders-for-new-zealand-grand-prix-titlenzmotorracing.co.nz/tag/ken-smith/www.driverdb.com/drivers/ken-smith/ |
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Post by Carl on Apr 22, 2018 4:30:31 GMT
Gentlemen, Kenny Smith is amazing! I wonder at what point did experience become a mainstay or even whether it has. Maybe his reaction times are still impressive. When I was 18, my reactions were fast and strong enough to convince a doctor I was faking, but when he feigned striking my knee, he knew better. Nowadays when I drive for fun I rely less on quick reaction and more on the anticipation that comes with experience. At my last annual physical, the doctor declared I had no reactions at all...  Cheers, Carl |
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Post by chrisb on Apr 22, 2018 5:41:11 GMT
one of my ambitions is to tour New Zealand, my ex is a Kiwi and she always spoke of how beautiful the country is [and still does], and quite a few people i know have also waxed lyrically about it, the hippy part of me would love that aura that seems to emanate from their but most of all - those roads!
I have watched as much as I can on the Tasman series pre 69 and love it, really felt it was just the best series, and Bruce's, Denis's and Chris Amon's memories, Jimmy's and Sally's comments etc, and then there was Colin, breathtaking - now I am sure there may be one aspect of NZ that we may disagree with Jim....rugger, there is a dream in me that I would be around to watch Scotland beat the Kiwi's - we so nearly did and that was heartbreaking last year, but i dream on in hope, one day...one day...
Carl, similar my friend, I realised a couple of years ago that the speed wasn't quite what it once was, so thought about it and am doing various advanced motorbike courses, did one advanced test last year which was good and a police based one this year - can't improve the speed but can the experience
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Post by mikael on Apr 22, 2018 5:51:23 GMT
Carl, A couple of years ago Mat Oxley had an article on the Motorsport Mag. website where he claimed that the top MotoGP riders typically don't have faster reaction times, etc., than the average person; the background/reason for their ability is something else. Oxley wrote, for example, " Of course, some people do have superior hand-to-eye coordination, spatial awareness, bravery and so on, but the riders we believe to be blessed with natural talent for riding motorcycle actually have nothing of the sort." I opposed to that idea. Rather than getting an answer from Oxley, I got a very interesting answer from Mark Hughes, who supported Oxley's point of view. The answer ran as follows: " Mikael,
Apologies for getting away from Mat’s original bike piece, but Dr Riccardo Ceccerelli – who has worked with most of the F1 grid of the last 25 years – has done extensive studies on this and tells me that racing drivers compared to any random control group do not have any special abilities re reactions, eyesight etc – the clichéd assumptions of racing driver adeptness. In fact the most successful F1 driver of all time, Michael Schumacher, had notoriously average reactions - worse than Ceccerelli’s receptionist. Where racers did show a marked superiority to control groups was in their ability to filter out extraneous information to the task. But this may be BECAUSE they are racing drivers rather than the reason they were good at it. Other relevant research includes that done by QinetiQ, a defence agency that used to have a partnership with Williams. It made available to the team some of the research it did into choosing suitable candidates for fighter pilots. Sensitivity to G-force, yaw and rotation was found to sourced from sensors located between our coccyx and third vertebra, relaying information to our inner ear and the brain subconsciously and therefore with no reaction time. Variation in this could well be why one guy is quick, another not. So it’s possible that we ARE born with the ‘genius’ for driving cars or not. In evolutionary terms, perhaps it originated in primates and how they used their tails in judging manoeuvres when swinging from trees?" Link to the article: www.motorsportmagazine.com/opinion/motogp/blessed-nature |
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Post by chrisb on Apr 22, 2018 7:19:31 GMT
not sure I can argue with the above science and Mark's assertion Mikael - It does rather feel like the ancient nature vs nurture argument that has been 'semi-resolved' insofar they have agreed to disagree- however one thing I did notice about 'more natural drivers/ sportsperson' is that they were taught at an early age and it 'became more natural' now i'm sure there are exceptions to this personal rule, but certainly this is what I have observed
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Post by René on Apr 22, 2018 9:18:12 GMT
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Post by mikael on Apr 22, 2018 11:36:58 GMT
I agree on your point, Chris. And I think I understand what it was Oxley wanted to say: that rather than reacting like "thunder and lightning", what is important is to react in "the right way" - and that is something that can be learned, by and large.
But it takes a certain ability to be able to learn that to perfection - and so we're back to ... the need to be born right!
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Post by robmarsh on Apr 22, 2018 12:59:43 GMT
I'm an import to New Zealand. I've been here 20 years, and was in South Africa for 12 years before that. I guess 20 years is a lifetime for some folks, but hasn't seemed that long. Hi Jacob, you seem older than 32 so I am curious as to where you were originally from. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2018 2:29:46 GMT
I'm an import to New Zealand. I've been here 20 years, and was in South Africa for 12 years before that. I guess 20 years is a lifetime for some folks, but hasn't seemed that long. Hi Jacob, you seem older than 32 so I am curious as to where you were originally from. Yep, much older than 32. Originally from Scotland, Edinburgh |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2018 2:46:42 GMT
one of my ambitions is to tour New Zealand, my ex is a Kiwi and she always spoke of how beautiful the country is [and still does], and quite a few people i know have also waxed lyrically about it, the hippy part of me would love that aura that seems to emanate from their but most of all - those roads! New Zealand is definitely worth a visit, the scenery, people and roads are magnificent. You have to get far North or East on the North Island to find the Hippy vibe, the rest of the country is pretty Neo-Liberal, but still great people. Really making use of the roads has been curtailed over the past 15 years, these days people get a bit freaked out if you're more than about 10kph over the limit, whereas when I first arrived 40 to 60kph over on the open road wasn't unusual. These days they take your car off you if you're caught doing that. But the traffic volumes away from the major centres, and main tourist routes, are low so you can enjoy magnificent roads in splendid isolation (except for the odd cop-car). The race circuits are great to visit too, mostly open paddocks, and very friendly competitors and spectators, so very involving. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2018 3:10:34 GMT
I am sure there may be one aspect of NZ that we may disagree with Jim....rugger, there is a dream in me that I would be around to watch Scotland beat the Kiwi's - we so nearly did and that was heartbreaking last year, but i dream on in hope, one day...one day... Hi Chris, as just revealed to Rob, I'm originally from Edinburgh, so I share your ambition that Scotland will one day defeat the Mighty All Blacks. Hopefully we live long enough to see it. So many people here claim Scottish heritage that it would be widely celebrated. Friends and I followed Scotland to see them play Georgia and Romania in Invercargill during the 2011 Rugby World Cup. The city was entirely Scottish those two weekends (oh my heid!). Unfortunately besides Motor sport, I follow the round ball game, so you can imagine how difficult it has been living all these years in SA and NZ as a follower of these minority sports. |
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