The is the
New Zealand team of the international racing series,
A1 Grand Prix .
Its car was presented to the public at
New Zealand House in
London . Named '', it is painted a glossy black which is the traditional colour for New Zealand sporting teams, and has the silver-fern design prominently displayed. Because the series is a competition between countries, the A1 cars will display
Country Recognition Codes rather than numbers which traditionally identify drivers. A1 Team New Zealand has '''NZL''' in white on the car, but the Kiwis hope this will be in gold lettering next year, (the defending champion country will have the right to use the gold colour).
The team was formed by and is owned by prominent
Auckland businessman
Colin Giltrap . The team is managed by
Kiwi Bob McMurray who retired last year after nearly 30 years involvement with the
McLaren Formula One racing team. The car is prepared in London by
West Surrey Racing, WSR, which is owned by New Zealander Dick Bennetts and has specialised in race car preparation since 1981.
The major sponsor is
Fisher And Paykel , a longtime appliance manufacturer in New Zealand. The company was formed in 1934 by Woolf Fisher and Maurice Paykel who sold surplus refrigerators. They began manufacturing a few years later, and gradually expanded operations over the years to become an exporter in the late 1960s and to become a public company in 1979. The company has restructured several times, introduced innovative and diversified appliance product lines, and now exports to more than 80 countries.
Jonny Reid and Matt Halliday are the two nominated drivers for the team. In testing for the first event, Reid was fractionally quicker than Halliday, but as Halliday was available for the second round in Germany because of
Bathurst 1000 comittments, he was selected to drive in the opening event. It has been postulated that
Scott Dixon may drive at the end of the
IRL season on tracks he has raced on previously. Dixon is a seasoned road racer and coincidentally, on the day of the first A1 GP, he won the IRL road race at
Watkins Glen in the US. There were reports that the car may be driven in the Australian round at
Eastern Creek by
Greg Murphy who is a noted New Zealand driver resident in the Australia who has single-seat racing experience and success.
- . Chief executive McMurray said a few days before this first race at Brands Hatch on September 25 that although Reid and Halliday had been in the top five during shakedown tests of the Lola race cars, they would be disadvantaged at Brands because neither had ever raced there and he expected the team to gradually improve performance during the season. In qualifying, Reid was unlucky to strike a wet track, but in the dry Halliday was able to put the car on the front row of the grid beside polesitter Nelson Piquet Jr of Brazil. Halliday was chopped off on a corner early in the sprint race but manged a creditable third place. His engine stalled at the start of the warmup lap for the main race and he had to start from the pit lane, at the very back of the field. Piquet's excellent driving to win both races was clearly dominant, but Halliday's drive through the strung-out field to take fourth place was a standout performance which left New Zealand in third place overall after both races. See Here for comprehensive results of this race.
- . While Halliday was downunder racing in the V8 Supercar Series in Australia, Jonny Reid was trying to find a balance in the car during qualifying at EuroSpeedway Lausitz . He managed only fourtheenth place on the grid, but the car was seemingly running reliability. However, during the warmup session on race morning, Reid experienced a major gearbox failure, and a rebuilt spare gearbox had to be hurriedly fitted. Reid made a remarkable start from 14th in the sprint race. He was seventh going into the first corner, and exited it in fourth place, courtesy of a bingle between USA , GBR and PAK . He was fractionally down on speed but maintained a smooth race pace to take fourth place. In the main race, Reid had a poor start but at one stage had improved to third. While carrying out his compulsory pit stop for tyres he was passed by GBR and CAN , and cruised to the finish for another fourth. His seven points from each of the two races took Team New Zealand to second place overall, which was beyond the expectation of the team so early in the series. Team New Zealand is the only team to finish all four races in the series so far.
