Baypark Speedway fans will have a Christmas holiday treat when Tennessee sprint car star Sammy Swindell returns for a single appearance.
Swindell will again race for Auckland team-owner Ron Salter this summer - including Baypark's December 30 international meeting.
It's part of a foray to New Zealand that will see the former World of Outlaws champion race at Auckland's Western Springs on November 26 and December 26 before the Baypark meeting.
The Salter Motorsport Team plans to run Swindell in at least five New Zealand meetings to satisfy the overseas driver eligibility criteria for the New Zealand title at Christchurch in early February.
Last summer Swindell raced once at Baypark and won in convincing style but local fans were denied the chance to see Swindell contest the New Zealand Championship due to rain which postponed the event by one day.
Swindell had to return to the US to compete at the indoor Chili Bowl midget car race at Tulsa, Oklahoma, rather than extend his stay in New Zealand.
"Sammy has got some unfinished business at Baypark after we were short-changed by the weather there last season," said Salter. "We have a brand new car for him but it's exactly the same as last year's car. There are no big new things in sprint car racing, just a few small things which we learned when we were in the States this year."
Baypark will have its second meeting of the 2011-12 season this Saturday with racing followed by a Guy Fawkes fireworks display.
Racing for youth ministocks, saloon cars, stock cars, super saloons and sprint cars starts at 7pm.
Macau showdown
The career of Tauranga racing driver Richie Stanaway has remained in top gear since he clinched the German Formula 3 title last month.
Stanaway, 19, has been preparing for the Macau Formula 3 race on November 20, has tested BMWs new M3 DTM racer and was featured in a full page profile in the British motor racing weekly Autosport last week.
Stanaway was one of three young drivers given the chance to test BMW's new-for-2012 DTM racer at Lausitz Eurospeedway. The others were Porsche Supercup champion Rene Rast (Germany) and 2010 Indy Lights winner Jean-Karl Vernay (France). BMW is joining Audi and Mercedes-Benz in the DTM next year when the series adopts new rules.
"The DTM car was great. The way the teams operate is very similar to F1 with the amount of personnel working in the pit box and the engineers that you have to work with," said Stanaway. "It was a good experience for me and I've always wanted to drive a DTM car so I was very grateful of the opportunity."
The Macau F3 race is shaping up as a showdown of 2011 Formula 3 champions with one of the strongest entries in recent years.
Stanaway will be among a field of 30 rising stars. It includes newly crowned British F3 champ Felipe Nasr (Brazil) and F3 Euro Series winner Roberto Mehri (Spain). There's also GP3 champion Valterri Bottas (Finland) and GP3 race winners Antonio Felix Da Costa (Portugal), Kiwi teenager Mitch Evans and Alexander Sims (GB).
Stanaway remains with the Dutch Van Amersfoort Racing team driving a Dallara-Volkswagen at the Macau race which is considered the unofficial World Championship for Formula 3, attracting top drivers from the major European and Japanese championships.
"The team has built up a brand new car for Macau and we tested it for the first time last week," said Stanaway.
Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher along with David Coulthard and Takuma Sato are among past Macau F3 winners.
Opening upsets
The opening round of the D1NZ Drift Series at Manfeild on Saturday delivered several upsets.
Defending champion Gaz Whiter and last year's runner-up Curt Whitaker were knocked out of the top-16 round and the top qualifier was Tauranga driver Cole Armstrong.
Driving a new V Energy Nissan Skyline R34 four door - which was built in just seven weeks to replace the car damaged in a big crash in Australia in August - Armstrong qualified ahead of "Mad Mike" Whiddett.
Whiddett went on to win the event in his Mazda RX7 ahead of Andrew Redwood (Nissan S14) "Fanga Dan" Woolhouse (Commodore) and Armstrong who reached the semi-finals but lost to Redwood. Armstrong's new car has seen most of the running gear from the damaged two-door R34 transferred into a new four-door body shell.
"It was a big push to get the car finished," said Armstrong. "But from the first time out I think it's got a lot of potential. We haven't started playing around with the set-up but it's got lots of grip and lots of speed. With the work we'd done on the engine and gearbox I've got no worries about going hard every time and the oil surge problems we'd been having are all solved." The second round of the D1NZ series is at Pukekohe on November 26.
Format change
December's 40th birthday edition of the Bay of Plenty Motorcycle Club's big Summercross meeting will be headlined by top pro riders Ben Townley, Josh Coppins and New Zealand champion Cody Cooper racing in the premier MX1 class. The two-day event at the Awakaponga MX track takes place December 27-28. In a change of format this year the senior racing is on the first day (Tuesday) followed by the mini, junior and women's racing on Wednesday, December 28. Some significant changes have been made at the Awakaponga venue over the winter with major earthworks altering the track layout and improving spectator viewing. The revised track will be used on Saturday, November 12 for the second round of the Mr Vintage MX Series (for pre-86 bikes) along with the final round of the BOP MCC Yamaha MX Series on Sunday, November 20.
Club champs
The BOP Kart Club is running its 2011 Club Championship this Sunday. Only club members are eligible for the championship event which sees practice runs getting under way at the Fagans Valley Raceway near Te Puke from 9am. A four-heat and final format is being used for the club champs with drivers being challenged by having to race in both directions. The first two heats will use the track in the anti-clockwise direction and after a short lunch break the remaining two heats and the final will use the clockwise track configuration.
Loop in use
A short section of new road that links together two existing forestry roads has provided a 2.8km loop in the TECT All Terrain Park that will be used by Motorsport BOP competitors for the first time this month. Sam Dunlop Rd will be the venue for the gravel sprint event on Sunday, November 13 with reconnaissance from 9.45am and three timed runs to determine the results. The event is the final round of the Motorsport BOP Club Championship for 2011.