Pitstop: Halliday expects fierce competition

Back home in Auckland after New Zealand's first A1 Grand Prix test session in England, driver Matt Halliday is full of enthusiasm for the new project.

Halliday shared the driving with fellow Aucklander Jonny Reid, who has commitments in the Japanese Formula 3 championship before the next test session in France at the end of the month.

"It was really good to be back in a single-seater," said Halliday, whose recent competition has been in Porsches after extensive experience in Europe and the United States in single-seaters.

"It gave me the chance to show what I could do. But the most important thing is that it's a team effort and I was really impressed by the professionalism of the New Zealand team.

"It's fair to say that I've driven for several teams that have struggled so it was good to work with such a good organisation. I'd never met Jonny Reid before but we got on well."

Halliday believes that, with former Formula 1 drivers such as Jos Verstappen (Netherlands) and Antonio Pizzonia (Brazil) involved, competition will be fierce. As the A1 cars should be basically identical, driver skills in setup and racing should prevail.

He has never raced at Brands Hatch, where the series starts on September 25, but does not see that as a major disadvantage and in any case there are other circuits where he has raced and others haven't.

EXPAT JOINS TEAM KIWI

John Faulkner, a hugely experienced expatriate New Zealander, will be part of Team Kiwi's assault on the endurance races in the Australia V8 Supercar Championship.

As predicted, the Auckland-based team have joined forces with Paul Morris Motorsport to run Paul Radisich and Paul Morris in their lead Holden for the premier events.

The second car will be driven by Faulkner and Alan Gurr, who works with the Morris team in Australia. The two Holdens will combine the liveries of both teams, which operate in a joint development programme for the championship.

The 48-year-old Faulkner, originally from Palmerston North, has competed no fewer than 18 times in the Bathurst 1000km race, with a best of fifth placing with Englishman Win Percy in 1997. He ran his own team in the championship for several years.

Gurr has raced at Bathurst the past three years in Commodores, and was Morris' team-mate in the two endurance races in 2004. He is employed on staff at PMM's headquarters at the Holden Performance Driving Centre and has been racing a Porsche in the Carrera Cup this year.

The Radisich-Morris pairing is part of Team Kiwi's strategy to finish in the top 10 in the championship. The points from the two-driver races go to the individual drivers so joint efforts are not penalised.

Morris has made 12 starts at Bathurst with a best result of third in 1999 in a Holden Racing Team Commodore with Mark Skaife.

Radisich has finished second twice from 14 starts, in 1990 with Briton Jeff Allam in a Shell Ford Sierra and in 2000 with Jason Bright in a Ford Falcon.

Team Kiwi's best finish at Bathurst was 11th two years ago, but with Radisich in impressive form, team owner David John is talking about outright victory rather than a top-10 finish for that race.

CHINA RALLY 'AMAZING'

New Zealand rally championship leader Richard Mason enjoyed a low and a series of highs on his visit to China last week.

The Masterton driver and his co-driver, Sara Randall, had been invited to drive a 2003 Subaru Impreza for the GT Tires team on a round of the Chinese championship series.

Disaster struck early on the first day when Mason's foot slipped on the brake pedal and they went off the road, damaging the suspension and putting them out of action for the rest of the day. But from then it was all good.

"The team fixed the car ready for the next day and we won four of the five stages," said Mason. "They have an award called the Flying King for each day and I won that.

"It really was an amazing trip. The team treated us so well and the enthusiasm of the spectators was amazing.

"They lined the roads around the start 10 to 15 deep and when you drove through the stages you could hear the spectators yelling and screaming. There was a big police presence but not in a bad way. They were there to help.

"The gravel roads were not very different from New Zealand except that they had concrete curbs and there was usually quite a drop on to rocks after that.

"Back home there's usually a bit of runoff, but there you needed some precise driving."

The winner of the event was Englishman Martin Rowe in a Mitsubishi. He is a former winner of the world production car championship.

The rally, based at Liupanshui in the south-west of China, was staged at between 1500m and 2500m above sea level and there were spectacular mountain views.

The massive bridges across the ravines impressed Mason, but he was less taken by the driving of the locals on the open road.

"I felt safer on the special stages. Road rules seemed to be non-existent elsewhere."

NZ-BRIT COMBINATION

New Zealand A1 Grand Prix test driver Matt Halliday will team with former British touring car champion Alain Menu In the endurance races of the Aussie V8 Supercar Championship. They will drive an Orrcon Ford Falcon.

DIXON WINS AWAY

Scott Dixon is having more success off the track this season than he is at the wheel of his Indycar.

In the past month, he has competed in two triathlons in Shelbyville, Indiana, featuring a 800m swim, 25km on a bike and a 5km run.

In the first he won his age group (21-24) and finished 22nd overall.

After celebrating his 25th birthday and moving into another category (25-29 age group) last week, he won his age group again and finished eighth overall. He will be back to his day job this weekend, driving for the Ganassi team at Kentucky Speedway.

ADVENTURE RALLYING

The newly formed Marathon Rally Car Club is planning an event in the South Island in November next year that will revive the concept of rallying as an adventure.

The week-long Silver Fern Rally will use 1500km of special stages, many of which were used when the international Heatway and Motogard Rallies visited the South Island in the 1970s and 1980s. The rally will cater mainly for older cars such as Ford Escorts, Datsuns and Mazdas but there will also be classes for pre-1992 four-wheel-drive cars and modern two-wheel drive cars.