Kiwi’s can rise to the top of the US Motorsports and…. ?

Why is it that us Kiwi’s (well at least some) seem to perform and achieve our dreams despite our drop in the ocean population, spec of an island not far from the South Pole, lack of resources and budgets and understated she’ll be right attitude. Remember the film “The Fastest Indian”, why would some old guy near the wind swept beach, old enough to be anybody’s Grand Dad, in a rickety old garage, not a race team nearby – accept for the little kid next door think he can win the land speed record in the USA.

In my humble opinion I think it is the culmination of being the small kid on the block mentally that has been written into our national trait. Is it because we don’t know any better…who said Sir Ed could not be the first up Everest, or Rutherford could crack the nut of a atom and dear I say it, Richard Pearce near my home town on Timaru flew before the Wright Brothers. Des Britton designed and raced a motorbike he designed with No 8 wire. For those of you reading this not familiar with NZ culture…well No 8 wire is a phrase we use about making what we want with what we got. It is also the gauge of fence wire used on the thousands of paddocks keeping our 60 million sheep of the roads. So it comes as no great surprise on one hand that Scott Dixon as a young chubby faced kid here in Auckland believed that he could win the Indy 500 in a few years time…. and that was when he had to wearing cushion on his race city!! …. and why not. And yet despite this prevailing attitude, NZ has a high rate of teenage suicides which makes you ask the question why. Especially when we live in a relatively safe country compared to many places in the world, a can do attitude is fairly standard, kids in general have access to a safe environment, every child has an education (if they want it) and they’ll never be kidnapped and turned into child soldiers by 11 years old.

Fellow Aucklander Scott Dixon did us all proud earlier this year when he won the Indy 500. What an amazing effort from his earlier days, the financial heartache his motorsports caused his parents, the financial backing he got from a group of believers. Now Scott only needs eight points over Castroneves this morning (NZ time) as he heads into the Grand Prix of Sonoma at Infineon Raceway to wrap up his second IndyCar Championship. Last year he almost won it …. remember that fateful last corner when he ran out of gas … one of those moments in life when everything simply unwinds into one major disaster. I think we have all had one of those days when everything is just going along fine and dandy, and whamo, from left field comes the most unexpected that turns our world upside down. How do you manage those moments?

Dream your dreams and surely you’ll find the end of your rainbow

and this is what happens when you find it!…congratulations Scott !

Another Kiwi Driver heading for a stellar career.
I see that, yesterday in Bucharest, Brendon Hartley from my old city Palmerston North dominated the British Formula 3 by taking his 5th win. The runaway performance reignites his title challenge as he remains fourth overall, 28 points behind Turvey, but there are still 63 points to be won. Brendon in his his Red Bull Dallara Mercedes sprinted away from pole position blitzing his rivals in the 15 lap Romanian street race. Stellar performance that might just result in a Palmy teenager winning the British Formula 3 Championship.
Never heard of Brendon, well check out these TV clips…go Brendon, brmm brmm

Congratulations Brendon on winning yesterday morning at Bucharest. Keep the kiwi flag flying.