Young Tauranga racing driver Richie Stanaway sealed his domination of the German Formula 3 Championship by scoring his 12th and 13th race victories of the year at last weekend's season finale.
Stanaway had already wrapped up the German title ahead of the final round at Hockenheim but was keen to achieve one more milestone for the year with a perfect weekend.
He missed out on his target by a few-hundreths of a second, scoring 23 of the possible 24 points on offer at Hockenheim with two race wins, two fastest laps and one pole position. In qualifying for race one he was pipped by just 0.06s for pole position and that denied him the perfect weekend.
Race one saw Stanaway clear out to win by 9.6s from series runner-up Marco Sorensen (Denmark) and in race two from pole position he immediately separated from the pack to win the 19-lap race by an astounding 15.5s and set a fastest lap 0.8s quicker than his closest challenger.
The Hockenheim effort completes a stunning season with the Netherlands-based Van Amersfort Racing Team which has seen Stanaway clinch the Formula 3 rookie prize and the overall championship. In addition to his 13 race wins from 18 starts, Stanaway was on pole position for 10 races and set the fastest lap on eight occasions.
The next phase of the 19-year-old's career in international racing has yet to be decided.
Gravity Sports, the company which manages his career, have indicated that GP3 or World Series by Renault are the most likely classes for Stanaway to graduate to in 2012.
Meanwhile Stanaway's appearance at the Macau Grand Prix on November 15 has been confirmed. The annual street race is considered as the unofficial world championship of Formula 3 bringing together top drivers from the F3 Euro Series as well as the British, German and Japanese F3 championships.
Townley returns
Mount Maunganui-based former world motocross champion Ben Townley is making his return to international racing in Las Vegas on October 15.
Townley cut short his Europe-based MX1 World Championship campaign with the CLS Kawasaki team in mid-June. Still feeling the effects of two crashes in New Zealand over the summer, he said he could not ride safely at a top level and needed to stop racing to rebuild his confidence and fitness.
He has recently returned to racing at a number of local club events with his most recent local outing at the BOP Motorcycle Club winter series round at Awakaponga a fortnight ago.
Townley has set his international return for the inaugural Monster Energy Cup at Las Vegas' Sam Boyd Stadium on October 15. The event uses a "hybrid" track with characteristics of both supercross and motocross designed by former US champions Jeremy McGrath and Ricky Carmichael.
"I'm really excited to race at a higher level in the US again," he said.
"Ironically, the last time I raced supercross was at Sam Boyd Stadium in 2007, so it's been a while. The atmosphere racing in a stadium is exciting and I'm looking forward to doing it again."
The 2007 season saw Townley win the Eastern Regional Supercross Lites title in the US.
"The hybrid factor and general concept of this race is really interesting to me. I feel if there is a good balance between motocross and supercross it will make for some really interesting racing."
The Monster Energy Cup posts a US$250,000 ($332,000) purse, awarding the winner US$100,000 plus a US$1 million bonus if a rider can win all three main events. Other leading riders include supercross star James Stewart and recently crowned AMA motocross champ Ryan Villopoto.
Kart Club meeting off
The BOP Kart Club has cancelled its annual two-day Citrus Invitation meeting at Fagans Valley Raceway due to a low number of entries. This weekend's double-header has been replaced by a "twilight" club day on Saturday. Gates open from 11am.