Motorsport: Kiwis flying with the best overseas

Chris van der Drift managed a creditable fourth in race one at the World Series by Renault 3.5 litre race at Monza, Italy, at the weekend. Photo / APN

Last weekend was another successful couple of days for New Zealanders racing overseas, with Scott Dixon, Richie Stanaway, Brendon Hartley, Chris van der Drift and Tom Blomqvist all in action in their various classes.

There might just be another emerging Kiwi talent on the horizon; South Auckland's young Rex McCutcheon has been mixing it with the Aussies in the Suzuki Swift Cup. But more of that later.

It's Stanaway who's showing a clean pair of heels to all comers in the German Formula Three championship and he now has four wins from six races after three rounds. He sits at the top of the table, four points ahead of Marco Sorensen, with Blomqvist fourth in the series.

Stanaway dominated race one on the weekend at the Sachsenring, Germany, starting from pole and was never headed. He was, however, forced to stave off a constant challenge from Sorensen and those two pulled away from the chasing pack.

Race two was a different story, with Stanaway having to start from P6 after managing to get only one flying lap in during practice before crashing heavily.

He picked up a couple of early positions on the way to finishing the race in fourth place behind Klaus Bachler, Sorensen and Blomqvist.

"Many, many thanks to everyone in the team for repairing the car yesterday. It was great to bring home the race one win, even though it wasn't easy to keep Marco [Sorensen] back," he said. "I had a big crash in qualifying. It was a stupid mistake. To start race two from sixth wasn't ideal either but it's good to have gained a couple of places."

The next round of the German F3 championship is in Assen, Holland, from June 4-5.

Before then, Stanaway is off to Austria for a five-day FIA Academy training camp, then a two-day test at Red Bull Ring in Austria next weekend.

Moving on to the weekend's World Series by Renault 3.5 litre race at Monza, Italy, Kiwi driver Van der Drift proved his podium in Spa was no flash in the pan with a run to fourth in race one. Fellow Kiwi Hartley followed him home in fifth, which was a very good drive considering his Gravity-Charouz team was the only one not to make it to Monza's pre-season tests.

Race two wasn't so good for the Kiwis. Hartley, starting from 10th on the grid, made progress early on in the race and was up to seventh by lap two. Shortly afterwards he speared off at high speed at the Parabolica, luckily doing no harm to himself but ending his race there and then.

On lap five, Kevin Korjus got past Cesar Ramos and took control of the race. Further back there was plenty of action and overtaking, with daring passing from Van der Drift, who took his advantages when offered and finished fifth after starting in eighth.

New Zealand IndyCar driver Scott Dixon didn't hang about on the opening practice day for the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 at the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway last weekend. The Kiwi cranked it up early on in the day setting a speed of 361.27km/h to be just a fraction slower than Ed Capenter, who clocked a 361.74km/h lap.

Rain cut the six-hour session short with 32 of the 41 cars vying for the 33 spots on race day, Sunday May 29, taking part and Dixon completed only six laps to set his time. Dixon is a two-time IRL champion and the 2008 Indy 500 champion.

He'll be very keen to get a big result at the world's most famous motor race as, after four races in the 2011 IndyCar championship, he sits in an unfamiliar eighth spot on the table. His season has been dogged by bad luck and crashes.

If Dixon could win his second Indy 500, not only will it rocket him up the scoreboard but he'll also join the likes of Emerson Fittipaldi, Arie Luyendyk, Al Unser jnr and teammate Dario Franchitti as two-time winners.

As mentioned earlier, 17-year-old McCutcheon will be one to watch as he made transtasman history by winning the first ever Australian Swift Racing Series race at Mallala, South Australia over the weekend.

The first of seven rounds based on the successful New Zealand Suzuki Swift Sport Cup, McCutcheon was the standout performer in a field of Australian ranked up-comers. Having set fastest time in qualifying, he led the field home by two seconds.

Fresh from completing his rookie race season in the New Zealand based one-make Suzuki series; McCutcheon says it was a sweet moment to take his first race win, on Aussie soil. "We know the Suzuki series is going to take off over here, just like the New Zealand series; it can't help but do that. We have felt the Aussie-Kiwi them-and-us rivalry, so winning will really help the series."