Motorsport: Richie firmly in command

Tauranga teenager Richie Stanaway delivered a near-perfect performance when the German Formula 3 Championship visited the Assen TT circuit in the Netherlands at the weekend.
Stanaway, 19, drove to victory in both races and picked up three of a possible four bonus points to extend his lead in the German series.
Although he had won four of the six races before the Assen round, Stanaway's lead in the series was a slender four points over Danish driver Marco Sorensen.
Being fastest in both qualifying sessions in his Van Amersfort Racing Dallara-VW earned Stanaway pole position for both races and two bonus points.
He won the opening race by 4.8s from Sorensen and gained a vital breakaway in the series standings when he won Sunday's race by 7s from Germany's Markus Pommer while Sorensen earned only two points for seventh place.
Stanaway added another bonus point for the fastest lap in race two.
The weekend puts Stanaway firmly in command with 79 points from Sorenson on 62 and Austrian Klaus Bachler on 40. The series continues this weekend with rounds 9 and 10 at Zolder in Belgium before a two-month summer break.
Nurburgring calls
After 17 visits and 888 laps, there's no sign of Tauranga's Wayne Moore losing his Nurburgring addiction.
Moore, fellow Tauranga endurance racer Maurice O'Reilly and two German team-mates will contest the uniquely demanding Nurburgring 24 Hours endurance race on June 25-26.
The 25.3km Nordschleife (north loop) circuit in Germany's Eifel mountains is perhaps best known to most New Zealanders for its appearances in the Top Gear TV series and in several virtual racing games.
Preparing for his 18th start in the race, Moore says the track with 187 corners is the ultimate challenge.
"It's just the enormity of the track and the challenge of trying to do the perfect lap," says Moore.
"With more than 200 cars on the circuit and changing weather conditions, no two laps are ever the same. The challenge is to consistently repeat the lap times which the team has set."
Moore's 17 starts means he has more Nurburgring experience than any other Kiwi, while O'Reilly has raced there on 12 occasions. Moore says knowledge of the track is the key to success.
"Track knowledge is the most important thing. There are 187 corners and nobody learns the track on their first visit.
"I've been privileged to help train a number of Kiwi and Australian drivers and everyone says it takes about three visits to really get to know the track."
Moore has twice achieved a class win at the 24 Hours but says that will be hard to repeat this year as he is racing in the same class as some well-funded factory supported teams.
This year, as they reacquaint themselves with the track in practice and qualifying, Moore and O'Reilly will also have a new car to learn.
Having raced a Volkswagen Golf diesel in recent years, the Tauranga duo are switching to 2.0-litre petrol SEAT Leon Super Cupra Turbo prepared by Duechting Motorsport.
"It's very exciting because potentially the car is a minute a lap faster than the diesel," says Moore.
"But we have to be careful because there is a lot more stress in the car. In the diesel class, the finish rate is usually about 80 per cent but in this class, it's usually about 50 per cent."
There are about 250 entries for the race and a maximum 210 cars will be permitted to start. Moore says the top of the field includes several ex-Formula 1 drivers and exotic cars including Porsche, BMW M3 GT, Audi R8 LMS and Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 machines.
Moore says that it's not just the challenge of the circuit that fuels his addiction and annual pilgrimage to the 'Ring.
"There are massive crowds and the race has an amazing atmosphere," says Moore.
About 230,000 fans watch the race and Moore thinks a record crowd is likely this year.
"The race is later in the year and I'm usually home already by now. Last year, it was about a month earlier and it was freezing cold. I'm expecting the record crowd of 235,000 will be beaten.
"I've driven in some shocking weather conditions and the race has been stopped for flooding and advertising hoardings blowing down across the track.
"One year, the start was delayed for two hours because the rain was so hard, the track flooded.
"The drivers waited in the cars on the grid and the grandstands were full of people. The only entertainment was when one of the drivers had to tip-toe through the puddles to use the marshals' porta-loo.
"The track can even have micro-climates. It can be sunny in the pits and teeming with rain in the mountains. Sometimes there's fog and that's made worse by the smoke from the bonfires and barbecues.
"Whole families camp out for days to watch the race. Sometimes you can smell what they're cooking as you race past and think 'that smells really nice'."
Solid start

Mt Maunganui's Mason Phillips is placed 14th after the opening round of the Canadian motocross nationals at Kamloops, British Columbia on Sunday.
Phillips rode his Kini Red Bull KTM 350 to 11th place in the opening MX1 moto but failed to finish the second race. He had been running seventh and also set the fastest lap of the race before being sidelined on lap six.
Young Cambridge rider Kieran Leigh, who is riding as Phillips' team-mate in the MX2 class, made a solid start to his first Canadian campaign with two 10th placings that position him ninth overall after the series opener.
The Canadian nationals remain in British Columbia for the second round this weekend at a track called The Wastelands, near Naniamo on Vancouver Island.