One month… two weeks… 5 days… this is getting real!

Time seems to have stood still since August, but then it’s all come at me in a gigantic rush! From heading over to P&S for the initial hand over, trying to wrap my head around winning this amazing scholarship and taking onboard the reality of Mum and Dad signing contracts on my behalf (and the background, bin it and you’re grounded for the next 75 years) to the excitement of heading to Hampton Downs for my first day with Tom (cool as a cucumber) Alexander, which was all about me getting comfortable in the car, and Tom giving me tips and tricks, to the stark reality that race car driver life still means mock exams… but get through them and it’s RACE WEEK BOOOOOIIII!

The season launch this year was at the NZIGP Icebreaker at Hampton Downs. Previously, this has been the annual event that has seen my sisters, and anyone stupid enough staying with Mum and Dad volunteering at the track, to jump into the winter temp swimming pool…this year saw me jumping into my own shark tank of Nexen Tyres E46!

The Scholarship had arranged for me to test on the Friday with the support and guidance of the legend himself, Race Jase (seriously, have any of you googled Jason Liefting?). I was so nervous, I didn’t eat breakfast – but I was doing my best to be an absolute sponge for the information he had for me, and give him the best possible answers to his questions – turns out, that makes you quite hungry!

The weather gods were not our friends, so Jase didn’t get to cut me any reference laps, but out he sent me, through what even Murray Walker would have considered wet, and I did my best to give him good feedback. We had a couple of issues throughout the day, which is what testing is for – huge thanks to P&S Autos for spare parts and advice – and I should also thank Shiane and Carter, little did they know we’d be raiding their car for parts… even temporarily.

To add to the fun of Friday, school had sent down my very own film crew – my school is online, and they’re doing some promotional videos that we agreed to be part of, so not only was I trying to learn, drive, and give and take feedback from a legend, I was doing it with cameras hanging around, and the lovely realisation that they wanted to interview me sometime soon! The crew were pretty chill, and loved hanging at the race track – watch out for some of their b-reel on my stories soon. John was a champ and managed to get me my BMW race series shirt early, so I went into the interview in my full armour – branded!

Saturday morning, I was pumped. We woke up to rain, there was bacon and egg pie in the garage, and we were good to go. Except, it was dry, and I had no idea at all how #80 handled a dry track… game on! We rolled out for qualifying, sitting just outside the top 10 as the session evolved, when I broke the throttle pedal. Fortunately, it broke “off” the throttle and I crawled back to pit lane, ending up 16th by the end of the session. I was pretty happy to have a car in one piece and no grid penalty having made it back to the pits…. Now Let’s! Go! Racing!

Having done what every good race driver does – watch footage, plan with my engineer, get into my car, start the formation lap, get to the grid – realise I’m nervous and have forgotten to do everything Sam and I agreed I would on the warm up lap…. I’m about to start my first race!!! Holy COW Batman! Nerves of steel… not me! What the….lights out!!! RACING, RACING, RACING! By turn 1, I realised I’d lost some spots, I engaged my gears, foot and brain and off we went! Lap 1 should be renamed MAYHEM!!!! I was passing cars and being passed back left, right and centre! What an experience! Utter battle pack for the whole race, and I finished in P15.

Race 2 felt like it took forever to roll around but suddenly I was back on the grid, starting positions based on the finishing position of the previous race – let’s go!!! I was determined not to go backwards at Turn 1, so as soon as the lights went out, we were hard into it, wheel spinning off the line – my plan didn’t quite work and finding myself P18 at turn two, I settled down to making my way back up the field, one pass at a time! Sam got me in a headlock overnight with data and some onboard and I went into Sunday with a very clear goal – I was starting 17th, based on lap times (gotta love a good battle to slow you down). This time however, I had figured out how to get off the line at the start, and with Mum applying some Chaz Mostert psychology (in this case, a muffin for every pass), I found myself in P13 at the exit of turn 1. Getting my head down, I managed to get 3 more places in lap 2, before I got a bit excited and lost two spots in T1, after a bit of a moment. It took a bit to get back in the game as I was kicking myself a bit, but I got my head back down, and on the last lap it was a 3 car drag race for 11th from the exit of T10 – we popped across the line in 13th, older, wiser, with our elbows out, but with minimal battle scars, and busting to get back to the pits for muffins – and start counting the days till Manfeild.

A huge thanks to all the volunteers, the team from BMW, Race Jase, Sam, Dad and all my supporters and sponsors…. Oh, and Mum… banana choc chip for the win!

📸 Matt Smith

Do NOT Go Backwards and LOOK FORWARD!

Manfeild OctoberFAST! Round 2 of the Nexen Tyre BMW E46 series.

The weekend started early Thursday morning when we began the long journey down to Feilding to pack in on Thursday afternoon. We were ready for the much-needed Friday test day – my first time at Manfeild with new suspension and, more importantly, for session one, new brakes! The morning was spent bedding in brakes and getting used to the car and track. Session two was used to set a lap time and start studying my footage. My secret weapon for the weekend was Christina Orr-West, driver coaching for me, with Mum and Dad being out of the country. A combination of chats, footage and getting to grips with Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon, and we got down to a 1.23.1 in the afternoon.

Saturday morning brought a cold track, and keen as a bean I was heading out to qualifying forth out onto the track. Getting some clean track played to my advantage, and I qualified 10th with a lap time of 1.22.9 – YEAH! Christina went over my footage with me again, and with a bit more coaching, we formulated our plan and goals for race one (send it around the outside!) With my grid box on the outside of the track, the goal was to get a good start and move forward – then it was lights out and away we went! Boom! Plan worked, launched well and was up in to 8th place – then 7th on the exit of Turn 1. I was stoked! I took a deep breath and started to settle in – eyes forward – kind of good in theory, but with a mix of inexperience on my part and outright race pace, we dropped back a few spots. Christina’s message in my ear was clear – “Don’t go backwards!!” I put my head down and battled hard – and had a heck of a job defending my spot. By lap 8 I’d managed to build a gap back to P11 and started focussing on the cars in front. By the time we got to the last lap, I was hanging onto the bumper of the cars in 8th and 9th but was not able to get a pass. I finished the race P10 on track, but a penalty further up the field gave me P9.

On Sunday morning, we went with the same job to do again – Do NOT Go Backwards and LOOK FORWARDS! Because I was starting 9th on the inside this time I needed to beat the cars ahead to the apex…. It didn’t quite work, so slight change of plan – 4 wide into turn one – Yeehaa! (Sorry, Mum!) There was a bit of push and shove as we all made it through the corner, the only victim being my right-hand mirror was now smiling at me instead of showing me the side of my car – slightly blind and a bit disconcerting, not that I had much time to think about it, by T3 we had sorted ourselves out. I lined up a move for the hairpin at Turn 5, where we bunched back up on cold tyres. We all had a wobble, and in the chaos, I saw a gap and went for it – but it closed as quickly as it opened – so onto the grass I went to avoid contact! End of lap 1, I’m now P17, It’s not ideal, but it can’t get any worse, right?! Uh, I spoke too soon as the gap on the outside for T1 got smaller and smaller, and I’m bouncing through the grass again, teaching Christina some new words as I went! It was time to clear my head and do my best to recover – one car at a time. I worked my back lap after lap to see the last lap board, with P8 right in front of me! 4 wide into T1 again – It felt like being in the Lightning McQueen Cars movie – suck in your breath and poke your tongue out – all of us trying not to have more contact out of T1 and into Splash, no damage or positions gained or lost, but still half a lap to go – last opportunity was run to the flag, tipped it a little hard at the final corner, power down and drag race to the flag side by side…. P12 – redeemed from P17 – I was feeling pretty ok with that.

With lots of footage to review and advice to take on board, I started studying for Race 3, excited at the thought of having both my mirrors back. I strapped in, with the plan to send it round the outside in turn one again – eager to move forward, but with the Top 8 reversed, I was chasing the fastest guys in the field. Not quite nailing the start the way I wanted, I was 11th after turn one but head down and eyes forward, cutting qualifying lap after qualifying lap five laps in a row being 3 tenths off my PB – the chase was on, and P9 was looking possible when coming out of Turn 1 the accelerator pedal snapped off it’s mount – sadly you can’t accelerate without it – I tried to limp her home but realised at T5 I wasn’t going to make it, so pulled well clear of the track so I didn’t trigger a safety car and wreck anyone’s race. DNF for me!

Overall, an epic first weekend at Mighty Manfeild, with my best results so far. I’m looking forward to being back at Hampton Downs for R3 in a couple of weeks’ time. Massive thanks to Shiane, Carter, Sam, Christina and, of course, Jackson, who drove and flew down to support me and the whole BMW team for being on hand to help every step of the way!

📸 Matt Smith

Return to my home track

Round 3 of the BMW Race Driver Series NEXEN Tyre E46 Championship saw us return to my home track at Hampton Downs. We skipped the test day on Friday, and jumped straight into qualifying – my first time in the Scholarship car for over a month. We spent the first couple of laps getting used to each other, and then it was time to put in some solid lap times. I put together a 1.19.6, finding it difficult to find a gap in the traffic. That put us P11 for Race One, which I was quite happy with. Grid 11 gives you the inside line for turn 1, that I prefer.

Unfortunately I didn’t get my start right and warmed the Nexen’s up, wheel spinning in first and second gear off the line losing one spot. I had some great battles during the race, and was sitting in 11th heading into the last lap, determined to try and get into the top 10. Good track position exiting Turn 10 gave me a run for the flag, and we crossed the line in P10.

Sunday brought lovely weather and Race 2. We start this one in the position we finished Race 1, so I lined up in 10th. I got a much better start off the line and the rears gripped up nicely. We set off at a cracking pace, and I was hunting for P9 when I had gearbox issues and lost all drive – I was able to get out of the way on the outside of Turn 8 and park up safely – give the marshals a thumbs up, (sorry for making you run to me Karl!) and wait for the recovery team to give me a lift back. DNF, but not causing race control any drama.

Word had quickly gone out while I was waiting for my lift, and by the time the team dropped me back to the garage, the P&S team and BMW Committee were there to help. Being a home round, my usual crew were doing double duty volunteering, so Shiane took one for the team and took over Safety Car from Carter so he could come and help. (He’s better on the spanners than she is) 45 mins later, we had a new gearbox fitted allowing me to line up for the last race of the weekend.

Race 3 was pretty cool! Starting from the inside line again, I was hoping to pick up a couple of spots into turn 1, but everyone around me had the same idea! I got my head down and cut 3 consecutive laps at 1:19:4, which pulled me back into the freight train of cars ahead, sitting in P9. Riding shotgun, with the words from our drivers briefings clear in my head, I settled in, being patient, not wanting to make contact with anyone but looking for an opportunity. Everyone kept it tidy, and we were nose to tail! Unfortunately I got caught up with lapped traffic on the run through T10 which meant I had a bit of a gap to catch in the last lap, and crossed the line in P9.

Massive shout out again to the BMW Committee, the boys from P&S, Dad and Carter for all their work keeping me racing and to the volunteers and team for an awesome weekend racing. Time to wrap school for the year, before we head to Taupo in early January for Round 4!

📸 Matt Smith

What a weekend!

What a weekend! Round 4 of the NEXEN Tyre E46 Series in the Scholarship car took us to Taupo this time. We picked the car up and started a three car convoy to Taupo, with different start times (kind of like a reverse handicap race, with Mum starting from pit lane – she was on the Secret Weapon Mission). The first hint this was going to be a tricky weekend was when Mum made us ‘tourist’ – she ended up in a different place to us, we had no service, so she snuck past in to 2nd place – the recently reopened Blue Springs in Putaruru is quite nice for a mid trip walk, if you’re in need of a break, or want to slingshot the opposition!

The forecast for the weekend was looking spicy, but we had our fingers crossed it was right (I might’ve been on my own). On Friday, I had my test session booked thanks to Taupo Motorsport Park, and Mum’s Secret Weapon, Brendon Leitch was on the radio. The idea was, that Brendon would coach me and run through some video, to help add to the invaluable lessons learned from Race Jase in our coaching session supplied as part of the Scholarship. His message was clear – get out there and push the car as hard as I could… but don’t hit anything! Having Brendon on the radio is a bit different… it made me get my head down, and get on with things. I had fun pushing the car and hard, and getting her to dance on the infield curbs (have you seen the new circuit limits amendment? WOOHOO!) We packed up and headed home as the rain set in, and there wasn’t much more benefit for me in the wet – the scholarship day was wet, my day with Race Jase was wet, and we were happy with the car… time to fuel the driver, and watch some video!

Saturday morning brought the weatherman’s prediction – SPOT ON… rain, rain, snow on the mountains… cold wind and more rain. I headed out for qualifying feeling confident with me and the car. The Dayle ITM cheerleading squad got themselves organised, and it was all action stations! I can tell you that driving a neat little E46 in slippy slidey conditions is one heck of an arm workout – somewhere in the middle is the catch point! Brendon told me to get my head down, and we got stuck in! He’s pretty quiet on the radio, unless I get a bit lippy! Our coaching paid off, and I set a PB of 1:47:90 – placing me in P8 on the grid for Race 1.

Race 1 was dry. The NEXEN Tyre Scholarship car has a neat feature to help my cheer squad spot me – only one headlight made me easy to spot down the back straight. I got an epic launch and got stuck in battling hard, racing door handle to door handle and bouncing from 4th-6th after lap one. A stopped car brought out the Safety Car, and we lined up behind it. Awesome work from Race Control meant that it was only half a lap before the restart, looking for the greens and the Safety Car Control line. We hurled ourselves in a BMW blender down into turn 1, and I felt the accelerator peddle wobble. A quick call to Brendon, and the advice was not to blip on the downshift and I nursed it home – finishing with another PB in 6th overall. Back in the pits, again the BMW Committee and community proved just why this is the best class to be part of, with parts and tools to get us fixed, and I don’t think that accelerator peddle is ever moving sideways again.

Sunday arrived, and with some overnight data and more to improve on, I threw it all out the window as the conditions were ridiculously wet. Dad tried to tape up the air intake in the door to stop me resembling a mop when I got back to pits. I got another blistering start, and came out of turn 1 in P3!!!!! YEAH!!!! Let’s GO! I must have absolutely surprised myself and the car, because that was the best we got to, and while still battling hard, wiser heads prevailed and I fell back to P6 again.

Mental note to self… don’t drop your undershirt when it’s wet, as it soaks up water like a wee sponge… I headed out on the grid for race 3 in P9, wearing my big sisters fireproof undershirt (thanks Shiane!) By now, as a grid, we were more like ducklings having earned our webbed feet in the rain. I was pretty determined to move forward fast and keep improving. I took the revs up to 2.5 – lights went out, and awwwwaaaayyyyyy we went!!! I came out of Turn 1 in P4 and had some epic battles throughout the race – it is so much fun racing side by side, especially through the infield – and I was having an awesome time being the last of the late brakers into Turn 12! (Mum doesn’t approve of Doc Hudson’s advice) I crossed the line in P5 – wrapping up my best ever weekend in the car.

Massive thank you to the BMW Race Driver Series Committee and the rest of the BMW Race Driver Series grid, Brendon Leitch, and the green Nexens that I held onto from round 1!

📸 Matt Smith

Goodness, patience really is a virtue

Goodness, patience really is a virtue, as it felt like FOREVER since our Taupo round so I was well excited to be heading to Hampton Downs for the NEXEN Tyre BMW E46 series – the penultimate round.

TACCOC had provided the opportunity for the series to run a one day event, and it was busy busy busy! A 10 minute practice session started the day, which was novel, as we usually roll straight into qualifying. I took full advantage of this, getting to the grid nice and early and was first out on track, setting a PB in the session. WOOT! Nothing beats heading out in a race car!

One day events certainly compress the timetable, and it felt like in no time at all I was back out on track for qualifying. I really wanted to improve on my practice time, and set out with the best of intentions. Unfortunately I didn’t look hard enough and pulled into the pits early, without setting a good time as I thought I was going to have a weight issue (turns out the fuel gauge lied to me). I have to admit, when I realised I was starting the first race from P18, I was pretty gutted, and felt like I’d let everyone down. I decided to go and sit with Mum (who was running race control) and get some sympathy…. Should’ve known better! A quick hug, and a reminder to go and iron my passing pants, she sent me off with some work to do.

Race 1 I lined up, determined to sort myself out. My start wasn’t my best but once I launched I got my head down, proverbially pulled up my (nicely ironed) passing pants and got on with it. Weeeeeee – 80 and I made some moves, and started moving forward up the results – I had some really good tussles, made some passes and pushed my way forward on the final lap to finish 11th. All in all, not a bad start – and right on the heels of the top 10 for race 2.

Dropping both the tyre pressures and my expectations for Race 2, I prepared for the race. It was a fun race to be in, slightly fewer passing opportunities and needing to drive smart and patient while I tried to find a way through. In the end, 9th was my finishing spot and I took a little breather to catch some of the other races before we got ready for the final race of our day.

Race 3 saw me start in 10th, but as with race two, we were fighting for position in a tight battle pack, swapping passes lap after lap. It was a closely fought race, pushing myself and the car to pass cleanly and race hard – I finished the race in P8.

It’s funny to think that this was my second to last weekend in the Scholarship car, and already I feel like I’ve learned so much race craft, and have improved as a driver. I’m really looking forward to heading to Taupo at the end of March for our final round, and giving it my absolute best effort. I feel very privileged to be the Scholarship driver and I’m loving every minute in the car.

Look forward to seeing you all in Taupo – and maybe hoping for a little rain!

📸 Matt Smith

The Final Round… where I get by with lots of help from my friends!

Hard to believe we headed to Taupo for the 6th and final round of the Nexen Tyre NZ E46 Championship. The weather in Taupo was playing ball this time (although I’d hoped for a bit of rain) and the sun beamed down on us throughout the whole weekend.

Dad and I loaded up the Scholarship car, and drove down to Taupo in the early hours of Friday morning as we had new brake pads and discs to bed in. The rest of the Day Family Supports Club would join us by Friday night. We got down to business, and I had two 15-minute sessions to figure out how Taupo goes in the dry, as our previous weekend had been very wet. In the last session of the day, I locked myself onto the back of Joel Herbert, a fellow E46 competitor who helped me a lot on and off the track all weekend, and gave chase, getting down to a 1:47:7 – which is an “OK” lap time.

It was early rising for us this weekend, being second class on track so qualifying was on a very cold, but most importantly fast track. I qualified with at 1:47:3 which I was comfortable with, and that placed me 8th for race 1.

I started Race 1 on the outside of the grid looking to reuse some of my luck from the rainy Taupo meeting a couple of months ago, and hang it around the outside of Turn 1…unfortunately that didn’t end up working, so I settled into the seat. I had good pace and was able to stay with the front runners but eventually I pushed my luck and had to gather a tank slapper at T9, which meant I lost touch with the front group and had my hands full with Emily Robb battling for position. I had great pace from Turn 1 all the way to the back straight out of 11 and had traction to build a bit of a gap, but lost out a little in the horsepower department, making it up with some bravery pills and a lunge on the brakes at the other end of the straight (don’t look now, Mum!) holding the pack off almost all the way home to the flag eventually taking the checkered in 8th after a hard fought 10 laps. The early finish had it’s bonuses too – lunch at 2 Mile Sailing Club and a bit of retail therapy for the Supporters Club – WIN!

The Grid for Race 2 on Sunday morning is based on your finishing place in Race 1, so I started from 8th again. I knew I needed to get across to that inside line in the dry, and we got a good start, making up a place and quickly finding our groove. We weaved our way through an incident at Turn 7, gaining 3 spots (sorry, Riley!) and picked our way through the carnage. Head down, knowing there’d be some hella recovery drives from those spun – they were in front of me to start with for a reason – they’re fast – and it didn’t take them long to catch back up. I had the advantage of being the leader of the pack though, and had to drive smart, making sure I chose my line, and making the Nexen Scholarship Car as fast as I could where we had the pace. We roared into T1 to start lap 6, when one of the cars behind me had a brake issue, and in taking avoiding action, used me to stop. The impact was pretty big, lifting us up onto two wheels momentarily, and as I tried to gather it back up, I realised the car was pretty broken. The Taupo Motorsport Park team hit the red flag, and because 75% of the race had been completed, the race was declared.

I walked back to the pits, and the driver from the other car involved came to chat – that’s racing right? At the end of the day, we were both ok and cars can be fixed.

The Scholarship car put up a bit of a fight getting on the trailer, and before we got her back, we had people offering parts, help – anything we needed. Luke from Skunkworks got us access to the Prime Motorsport workshop, and the community set about working out what we needed, and sorting it. It was very humbling to see just how many people wanted to help – there’s a list at the end of this story to thank them all, but I have to say this is an amazing series and community to be part of – thank you!

While Dad, Uncle Matt and everyone were busy on the car, Mum and I talked to VJ, the accident investigator, and then I had to go and be checked out by Pammi and the medical team – standard procedure for a ‘shunt’ and they’re always lovely to see. Shiane was running laps around the pits for Dad, finding parts from people and swapping things out. The race programme had been delayed due to another couple of incidents on track, which effectively brought us more time. I have to say, having a crash creates a whole heap of work for the officials – and lots of reports. Bonus for me – with the race being declared, I kept my 5th place, even though we didn’t make the final line up!

We were close to getting back in the game, with just one part that needed some welding – a phone call from Matt at Prime to his friend Shane from Full Send Fabrications and Carter and I were off down the road to a tig welder, and back ASAP with the mended part in hand.

With the car nearly back together (I swear, it’s an absolute miracle), we found the scrutineers so they could check the repairs and sign my logbook off.

While all this was going on, the legendary Todd Leatham came up and offered for me to drive his E46 in the final race – I was so determined to finish the season in the Nexen Scholarship Car if I could, and Todd was so kind, he even let me take it up to the workshop for spare parts if needed! Thanks to everyone’s epic effort I was able to give him his car back in one piece.

Some tough love panel beating was required, and Dad made some bits good with some race tape. We found the CROs and the Clerk of Course allowed me to take the car out for one lap (Pit exit to Pit entry) in the lunchbreak to make sure we had no wobbly bits. (Thank you very much)!! The lap showed an issue with the ABS sensor which had snapped, and again thanks to the great people around us, the computer got plugged in, all faults cleared and I was good to go for Race 3, apart from my left hand wing mirror – that definitely didn’t survive!

Race 3’s goal was simple. To finish the last race of the season, in my (now patched up) Nexen Scholarship car and bring her home safely. But let’s be real – once that helmet went on and the door was shut, it was right back to square one to send it, and try and get the best result I possibly could. I started P10 in this one, with the grid based on your fastest lap of the weekend. I gave the car a good warm up on the formation lap, checking everything was good to go. All things considered, the car felt great, and I lined up on the grid, ready to give it another crack. I got a good start, moving up to P9, then P8 but lost touch with the top 7 as I once again found myself defending a battle with two cars, one getting the better of me down the back straight. I wasn’t about to give up though and I started chasing hard, filling his mirrors with the purple livery all the way to Turn 11 where I had a lunge under brakes to get alongside which made it a drag race down the back straight! Brendon Leitch’s words to me fly through my head, “Just have a dip, son” I absolutely sent it into the final corners and held onto the rear as it protested and onto the final lap, where I managed to pull away from Joe Wilson and Henry O’Leary finishing P8!!! Never has an 8th place felt so good!!!

I cannot express how grateful I am to everyone that helped in rebuilding the car to get me back out on track. This series is an amazing group to be part of, and this weekend showed just how much everyone is willing to go.

When I won the Scholarship back in August I was so surprised, but grateful for the opportunity and really wanted to do my absolute best for Nexen and the BMW Race Series committee to reward their faith in me. I’ve had so much fun, made so many friends, learned so much race craft and to be able to bring home a slightly patchwork quilt car put back together with everyone’s spare parts, time and commitment to getting me back out there was epic.

A massive thank you to all who helped me rebuild the car to get me back out on track, if I’ve missed you, I’m sorry – but still very grateful! It was an absolute blur of faces and helpers.

Prime Speed for letting us use their workshop,
Luke Hardie from Skunkworks and Matt from Prime Speed,
Matt Wallace,
Carter Rinkin,
Brent & Emily Robb
Peter Ball,
Graham Ball,
Riley Boswell,
John Boswell,
Zane Hills,
Joel Herbert,
Mackenzie Motorsport,
Shane from Full Send Fabrications,

Last but not least Todd Leatham for letting me borrow his car if all else had failed.

Taupo Car Club Officials and the Nems Medical team for their care and attention

And of course Mum and Dad for paying the bills! (not sorry for the heart attacks, Mum!)

📸 Matt Smith