KEY POINTS:
There is no doubt, the shining light for New Zealand motorsport in 2008 was Scott Dixon becoming the first Kiwi to win the Indianapolis 500 in May. And if that wasn't enough, he snatched back the IRL title he had won in 2003 to make it a stellar year for the Aucklander.
While Dixon looks back on his year, there will be others struggling to come to terms with bad luck and misfortune.
A1 Team NZ, with Jonny Reid full time in the hot seat, looked good to finally win the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport after finishing second in 2007. Through a series of driver and team errors, amid mechanical dramas, Black Beauty finished bridesmaid again.
Two-time women's world motocross champion Katherine Prumm, despite racing with a badly injured knee, was well on the way to winning three world titles in a row when disaster struck. She shattered her collarbone in a training accident, ending her challenge. Back on the bike after rehab, Prumm was again involved in a training accident and broke a number of vertebrae putting her out of the domestic championships.
Prumm wasn't alone, though. Josh Coppins' hope of gaining an elusive world MX1 motocross title started badly when he broke two toes at the start of his season. He had to play catch-up most of the time and by the halfway stage realised he wasn't in the hunt to win so begrudgingly settled for fifth in the championship.
It wasn't all gloom and doom in 2008, though - New Zealand may, within the next year or so, have its next full-time Formula One driver. Young Brendon Hartley successfully came through his first official F1 test this week in Spain and qualified for a Super Licence, allowing him to test and race at F1 meetings.
Hartley also finished third in the International Formula Three series, winning five races as well as setting a lap record at the Macau Grand Prix.
We have another rising open wheeler star in Earl Bamber, who won the Formula Asia V6 Championship and has raised a few eyebrows in his outings in GP2.
On the international front, Formula One driver Briton Lewis Hamilton made up for his rush of blood in 2007 and became the first black to win an F1 title. F1 has hit the speed bumps in recent times with manufacturers pulling out and a raft of new rules being introduced by the FIA to contain costs.
The grid for the opening race in Australia in 2009 will be interesting, to say the least.
Sebastien Loeb showed again why he is the best rally driver of his age by winning his fifth title. The WRC is also going through turmoil with Suzuki and Subaru pulling out, and next year will be the last time we see a WRC car as we know them. There's no New Zealand round of the championships next year as it's in Australia. We get to see the world's best rally drivers back here in 2010. Jimmie Johnson became the second driver to win three straight
Nascar titles, Carl Yarborough did it in 1976-78, while early runaway leader Kyle Busch faded when it came to The Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Australian Ducati rider Casey Stoner could not prevent Valentino Rossi from snatching back the MotoGP world title and placing it on his mantlepiece alongside the five he has.
The Australian V8 Supercars produced a new winner in Jamie Whincup, who added the title to his three Bathurst wins, and at 25, there are sure to be more championships to come.
On balance a good year, one would have to say, with lots of potential for Kiwis to really take the motor racing world by storm in 2009.
