Motorsport: Teens follow in Dixon's steps

Alyssa Clapperton aims to bounce back from a crash yesterday. Photo / Geoff Ridder

Pukekohe Raceway has a habit of being the place where young motor racing drivers cut their teeth in saloon car racing.

Probably the most famous youngster to come to prominence at Pukekohe is Scott Dixon, who at just 13 entered a saloon car race in a Nissan Sentra. The four-time IndyCar champion and Indianapolis 500 winner was given a special dispensation to race that weekend, which just happened to end in tears.

He rolled the car and television caught him struggling out of the car with a pillow strapped to his back to help him to reach the pedals, and the hint of tears in his eyes.

Move on 22 years and there are two more rookie saloon car racers trying to make their mark in V8 racing. While not quite as young as Dixon, Bryce Fullwood (just turned 17) and Alyssa Clapperton (19) are making their first foray in V8s at Pukekohe.

Fullwood, in particular, has made one of the biggest category leaps in some time, having stepped out of karts straight into the Aussie V8 development series. He's gone from having only two pedals and no gear stick to hundreds more horsepower, a roof, seat belts and a gearshift.

"Having had time to think about it, I probably wouldn't recommend jumping out of karts at 16 straight into the V8 development series," said Aussie Fullwood. "My very first race start in a car was at Clipsal [in the opening round of V8 Supercars in Adelaide] this year for the first round of the development series. It was a bit of an eye-opener but at least I did have some practice.

"I flew over to New Zealand and spent some time at Hampton Downs with Greg Murphy, who's sort of mentoring me. We must have done over 100 laps with him teaching me how to change gears, braking points and where to put the car on the track. That gave me such a big head-start, as I only had half a day in my race car back in Australia before Clipsal. We only get six days of testing in Australia, so coming out here to race is great. It means I get a whole heap more race kilometres and the cars aren't that different."

Clapperton has had a bit of time in tin tops, having punted various machinery around South Island tracks after leaving karting.

Her dream has always been to race V8s and she had her first outing at Taupo at the opening round of the New Zealand Touring Cars series.

The grand old dame of motorsport tracks in South Auckland has a reputation of biting the unwary and Clapperton got caught out coming over the hill in yesterday's practice.

"I got a little wide on the entry of the corner and kept sliding across the track and it was all over once I hit the grass and then the wall," she said. "There's not too much damage and we'll be right to go for the two races [today]. It's always been a dream to race V8s and now I'm here doing it. It's been the thing I've wanted to do since starting in kart when I was nine.

"I love the close racing, the noise of them and how they race. It's hard work racing these big cars and I'm lucky to have Craig [Baird, former NZV8s champion] helping and mentoring me," she said.