Pitstop: Taupo A1GP round may get okay

The proposed Taupo round of the A1GP championship in January could win approval after talks in the next few days between the series organisers and Motorsport NZ.

A January 20-21 date was published on the A1GP calendar but that clashed with the Timaru round of the national championships.

The two parties have only recently started talking to each other and a possible compromise would see the Teretonga and Timaru national championship rounds moved to a week earlier and national classes provide support for A1GP in non-championship races at Taupo.

It is believed A1GP is prepared to underwrite the Taupo round financially and the promoters have made preliminary moves on a track upgrade so that the work can still be completed on time.

Lack of entries sees Todd rally cancelled

The Auckland Car Club has had to cancel the Greg Todd Memorial Rally, based on Te Kauwhata next weekend, because of a shortage of entries. Even with an extended entry date only 34 entries were received, too few to cover running costs. Rally Wairarapa on August 26 will now be the third round of the Rally Xtreme championship.

Porsche team tackle endurance records

Six drivers will use a Porsche to try to beat a string of New Zealand endurance records at Manfeild on Monday. Mack Storey, Ray Williams, Harry Dodson, Ross Heffernan, Steven Neville and Jeff Hogg will drive Storey's Porsche 911 Turbo in a bid to set records for times up to 24 hours. The present 24-hour record is held by a BMW 540i that covered 2753.964km at Manfeild in October 1996.

V8 supercars miss Melbourne GP

Adelaide appears to be the winner and Melbourne the loser in a calendar clash that sees the V8 Supercars off the programme at the Australian Grand Prix meeting on March 15-18.

The Clipsal 500 will open the Supercar season on the streets of Adelaide on March 1-4. Melbourne will have to wait until the second half of the season for a round. The Aussie GP organisers suggest the V8s have snubbed the Grand Prix because of a change of television loyalties. The Supercar bosses can't believe the GP is being run on the same weekend as the world swimming champs in Melbourne.

Bureaucrats delay Hampton Downs

The Hampton Downs motorsport complex near Meremere got two laps closer to realisation last week but was then assessed a pitlane penalty by the bureaucrats from Transit and Corrections. The experts from the Government departments took decades to get a decent road between Mercer and Hampton Downs. Let's hope they move at a faster pace before the next Waikato District Council hearing on September 20.