Stepping up the pace

MASTERTON farmer and vineyard developer Nigel Bunny is a motorsport enthusiast who had often daydreamed about racing a single-seater.
He had built and raced an Alfa Romeo coupe in their Trofeo series with some success, and was competing with that when he first came across the Formula Challenge cars at the Taupo circuit in 2002.
That led to a drive, a win first time out, a huge learning curve in his first full season (just finished), dramatic development of himself as a driver, and the shattering of some illusions about sportsmanship and fair play.
The class is a made-for-television open-wheel series using identical cars designed, built and maintained by New Zealand-based Formula Challenge.
They are pretty impressive beasts too. Designed by FC boss Craig Greenwood to look like Formula 1 cars, they feature much of the technology of modern racing cars, such as F1-style steering wheel-mounted sequential paddle gear change for the five-speed box.
There's fully-adjustable wings all round, cockpit-adjustable brake bias and so on.
The engines are Suzuki GSXR 1100s producing 150bhp at 12,500rpm and accelerating the cars from a standstill to 100km/h in just 3.8 seconds. From 100km/h back to zero takes just 1.8 seconds. Top speed is 230km/h.
The Formula Challenge series is a winter one, and that raises some problems.
The cars run Silverstone tyres, a major factor being that they look right on the car. But the tyres are made in Malaysia for conditions very different to a New Zealand winter, and grip proved a problem for everybody.
"In Malaysia they have an ambient temperature of 35 degrees, a track temperature of 45 degrees and when racing the tyres get to around 80 degrees," Nigel said.
During the past season the ambient was nearer 7C, the track 10C and the hottest the tyres got was 34C.
"When they were new, before they got scrubbed in, it was like there was oil on the tyres," said Nigel. "At the last meeting it was a nice, warm day, about 18 degrees, and the tyres started to get up to temperature. You could feel them working, and the car was much nicer to drive."
Back in 2002 Nigel got talked into doing an advanced driver school day with Formula Challenge at Taupo.
"There was just me ? it was one-on-one," said Nigel. "I just wanted to know how I'd go. With the Alfas you don't know if it's you or your budget, but these cars are identical so you can measure your skills."
Apparently he went well, because he was invited to drive at a meeting the following weekend. It was a one-off summertime round.
"I said I couldn't afford it, but they offered me a discounted price and said I'd probably do well - they were just a bunch of ordinary guys," said Nigel.
Yeah, right. When he met the opposition he found one other newcomer, with the rest having raced Formula Vees, Volkswagen-powered single-seaters, for years. One driver was a two-times national champion.
Nigel qualified second-slowest, which gave him a good position for the reverse-grid start. The cars were a mix of Formula Challenge, sports and historic racers.
In the race he found himself shadowing the pole-sitter, and when that individual got boxed in the Masterton man was off, winning by 5 seconds. He came back to earth in the next race, finishing 5th but still fourth overall.
Heady stuff.
A month later he won a round, and was invited to join the full circus for the 2002 series. Again, the budget got in the way. Nigel is reluctant to talk figures, but agrees you could buy a brand new road car for what it cost to do a season of Formula Challenge.
So instead he spent the 2002 winter season as a volunteer mechanic, getting to know the people and the cars, and having the occasional summer drive.
In 2003 he was mechanic for the eventual winner, calling on skills he had developed in his years with motorcycles (he raced motocross for 10 years) and the Alfa. And in the summer he helped out with Formula Challenge's corporate days, getting on well with the organisers, including Auckland dentist Rod Dawson, a partner in FC.
"I was geared up to mechanic again this year when I got a phone call from Craig saying there was one car left for the series and would I like a drive," said Nigel.
"It was a favourable deal and a huge opportunity - I couldn't believe it," he said.
"Rod had been running scholarships and there was still some money available which he wanted to give to somebody who had helped out.
"I couldn't afford it otherwise," said Nigel.
Now the numbers looked much better. He went door-knocking, getting support from Ordish and Stevens and the Sign Factory. A friend from the challenge series, Steve Golding, of Brakes and Transmissions in Levin, agreed to be his mechanic and joined the sponsors under the banners of BNT Motorsport and Redline Oils. (Steve was manager of Repco Masterton at one stage).
What followed was a season Nigel will probably never forget. He raced midfield throughout, kept the car intact and finished an official seventh, a placing he disputes. That follows an incident when he was leading David Westell, Coca Cola Korea CEO and his nearest rival.
Nigel pitted, followed in by Westall, who then angle-parked in front of the Masterton man, leapfrogging him and pushing him down from 3rd to 6th.
"I was fuming ? I wanted to deck the guy," says Nigel. The official response was "sorry, but there's nothing in the FC rules about it", so nothing was done. But he had the satisfaction of blowing Westall away in following races.
There were other incidents too, of jumped starts (the Formula Challenge cars have rolling starts, which are easier on the machinery) and lap-counting errors.
A lot of it was down to poor sportsmanship - for example only five drivers attended the end-of-season prizegiving.
Part of the problem, Nigel thinks, was due to the stakes being upped early in the season.
The Silverstone boss, after seeing the level of competitiveness in New Zealand, offered the series winner a drive in the Hyabusa class (similar to Formula Challenge) in a support race at the Malysian F1 Grand Prix meeting.
"The next three races were quite chaotic. There was a lot of contact, stupid protests, confrontations ... it was all a bit ridiculous," said Nigel.
"In the end the clerk of the course said if people didn't settle down their licences would be revoked. It was all pretty interesting."
But it was an amazing experience for all that.
"I'm glad I did it," said Nigel. "It taught me a lot and I'm probably a much better driver as a result. When I'm racing the Alfa I probably drive 9/10ths. After driving the Formula Challenge I took a full second off my lap time in the Alfa. In fact, the Alfa is now almost boring."
The FC cars are quite physical to drive, the small wheel making the steering heavy. A couple of g on the neck through corners leaves you feeling you've done a day's work at the end of a race.
Nigel Bunny would do it all again in a flash ... but there's the money thing. So he'll be back on the end of a spanner again in 2005, unless there's somebody out there with a few thousand to invest in television exposure in one of the country's most exciting motorsport events.