Germans salute the 24-hour NZ team

By SANDY MYHRE

If former Aucklander Keith Sharp, once a test driver for Ford America, wants a change of career, he could bookmark the Saatchi & Saatchi tourism account.

He and five other sports enthusiasts did more to promote New Zealand's image in Europe the other day than any of the high-flying campaigns of recent years - and on a fraction of the budget.

They did it by advancing the 3-D billboard concept to a real-life theatre. Sharp and his team contested the high-profile 24-hour saloon car race at the famous Nurburgring circuit in Germany.

The race is staged on the old circuit, an arduous 25km track which years ago featured Formula One events but is now deemed unsafe for grand prix racing. Indeed, the late Denny Hulme won there in 1967 on his way to winning the world championship.

The circuit has been dubbed The Green Hell. It has 107 corners, the famous steeply cambered Carousel Hill, a 4.3km-long straight and sections of road surrounded by forest and enshrouded with fog.

It can take around 10 minutes to do one lap, although former international rally great Walter Rohrl did it in just under eight minutes in a Porsche.

This year's 24-hour race had a staggering 230 entries with competitors flagged away in groups of 70.

Sharp entered one of the smallest cars in the field, a Peugeot 106, which started near the back of the grid.

The front runners were a Porsche 996 GTR 3R and a Chrysler Viper GTR-S and the difference between these successful works cars and the diminutive Peugeot is a massive 370kW.

Sharp says the crash and mechanical attrition rate on the demanding circuit was high.

Still, the New Zealand finished well, gaining 79 places throughout the long day and night to finish third in class, beating dozens of big-budget professional teams in the process.

The driving team comprised Mike Eady, Mark Cooper, Gavin Ivers and Ian Green. Sharp managed the campaign.

It was the first all-New Zealand team to compete at Nurburgring in the 24-hour event's 30-year history, although several New Zealanders have raced there in paid-for drives with German teams.

This low-budget campaign in a Lilliputian-like car caught the imagination of the 150,000 spectators, attending media, the organisers and headlined prizegiving.

Sharp took his team jacket off and gave it to an official on stage who had tears in his eyes at the gesture.

"The Germans were emotional about our visit so we were first up at the prize ceremony," said Sharp."It was a phenomenal experience and huge publicity for New Zealand."

Sharp's next project is to drive in the Daily Telegraph World Cup Rally, limited to 80 invitation-only entries and run over three weeks in October 2001 from London to Marrakesh, Agadir, Sahara and back again in time for the London Motor Show.

He'll be taking a car from New Zealand - brand to be determined - and hoping to attract sponsors.