A1 Grand Prix

The New Zealand foray into the second season of A1 is showing us to be more competitive than in the first. While there have been few points, Brno in the Czech Republic provided one of the most dynamic performances by a New Zealander in international motor racing for a long, long time.

New Zealand driver Jonny Reid will probably have to accept for the rest of this A1 GP season most people are going to remember him as the driver who got it wrong on the first corner of the first race at Brno in the Czech Republic and robbed himself of the real prospect of giving himself, and the New Zealand team, their first A1 GP victory.

And that's a pity because his efforts in attaining pole position rank among one of the greatest moments that I have experienced in 40 years of writing about motor racing.

It had been Matt Halliday who had opened the season for Team New Zealand at the opening meeting at Zandvoort in Holland the week before. In front of the largest crowd ever seen at this historic, former F1 track, Halliday took a comfortable enough sixth place in the 20 minute sprint race and looked to be on track to better that by a position or two in the feature race before it started to rain. The rain changed the complexion of the race dramatically for a number of drivers including Halliday who suffered a lengthy pit stop when a wheel nut refused to engage properly when he pitted for wet tyres. He was further delayed by a lurid half-spin. But on a drying track he fought back in brilliant form to take 11th spot - just out of the points standings.

During the closing laps Halliday had to muscle his way past the yellow and green car of Team Brazil and there was some brief, but violent wheel banging.

Once past Brazil, Halliday edged away steadily showing real class but he was always going to need another half dozen laps to take tenth spot from Indonesian driver Ananda Mikola.

It was a bit of a mixed weekend for New Zealand - Halliday's drive had been typically gritty while the British-based Super Nova team, who are now looking after the New Zealand car along with Team Germany's machine, showed themselves to be totally professional and their expertise was good enough to give Germany the win in the feature race.

The Super Nova outfit is run by Briton David Sears whose father, "Gentleman" Jack Sears became a racing legend in the 1960s with some amazing drives in a series of big saloons like the Ford Galaxies as well as Ford GT40s and big, hairy, Shelby Cobras. There's a wealth of racing experience and heritage here.

Meanwhile, West Surrey Racing, the outfit headed by ace New Zealander Dick Ben- netts, who looked after the New Zealand car last year, has both USA and Singapore this season. The American team is aggressive and competitive, while Singapore are very definitely learning.

Zandvoort was once one of the F1 regular circuits, but the operating club couldn't keep pace with the increasing financial demands for higher levels of safety standards and pit and paddock conditions and dropped off the F1 calendar a long time ago.

For many motor racing enthusiasts a chance to visit Zandvoort was an opportunity to experience one of the world's most famous tracks.

The Dutch people responded to the return of big time, international single seater motor racing by arriving at Zandvoort in an orange horde.

While the Dutch are natural motor racing enthusiasts their interest in the opening A1 GP round was sharpened by an argument over their driver.

Last season, experienced veteran Jos Verstappen showed that once he and his team got to grips with the A1 GP concept he was going to be a potential winner.

In the weeks before the meeting, the Dutch pre-ordered tickets for Zandvoort at a rate never before experienced. But then it was announced that the owners of the Dutch Team couldn't, or wouldn't meet the financial demands being placed on them for Verstappen's driving services by his manager Huub Rottengatter.

Both Rottengatter and Verstappen came to New Zealand when Formula Atlantic was our international formula - Rottengatter earned infamy when he tipped Steve Millen at Pukekohe causing Millen to crash heavily, wrecking his car and breaking his collar bone.

Verstappen appeared out of nowhere a year or two later to drive a Graeme Lawrence owned car. His first appearance at Wigram stunned ew Zealand race fans because he was simply so fast - and fearless.

Following that he made his way into the international limelight and while he had a number of F1 opportunities, just never quite made it into the top echelon.

But Verstappen was popular in Holland where he is known as "Jos the Boss" and when he appeared in A1 GP last season the nation took to wearing Tee Shirts that proclaimed "The Boss is Back".

After the stand-off before Zandvoort when Team Holland replaced Verstappen with the less experienced Jerome Bleekmolen, the promoters offered to refund the entry fees to any Dutch fans who felt cheated. Few took up that offer but Tee shirts appeared reading "The Boss is Gone", or "The Boss is dead, long live Bleekmolen". And signs appeared in the jammed grandstands reading "Negotiation is an art form Huub Rottengatter".

Feelings were high.

For the record, Germany won the main race at Zandvoort from the USA, Australia and Holland. Bleekmolen actually led when it rained to the hysterical delight of the slightly mad Dutch crowd, but once it dried, instead of pitting to change to dry tyres he opted to stay out on wets and lost his chance.

While NZ was just out of the points, a Kiwi outfit that scored big was Line Seven who have the contract to supply the official A1 GP merchandise. The booths around the circuit were doing a roaring trade and in the finish they ran out of Team Holland gear.

Even though it was only an average result for New Zealand, the sight of seeing the Black Car taking part in a major international event, in front of such a huge crowd, so far from home made you feel pretty damned proud.

From Zandvoort Matt Halliday returned Down Under for his appearance at Bathurst and it was 22 year old Jonny Reid who was given the job of driving the Black Car.

Last season Reid got the unfortunate drives - those occasions when the car was suffering from an engine down on power and the season ended giving the impression that Halliday was the stronger of the two drivers.

But it didn't take long in official practice at Brno for Reid to show what he was capable of.

Practice was only underway a minute or two and I was standing in the New Zealand garage along with Colin Giltrap when suddenly Reid had posted the fastest time. Giltrap tapped me on the arm and said "Look, he's up at the top" and went out to watch from the pit wall.

But there was obviously a problem with the car and a couple of laps later the Super Nova team were preparing to have him in - and instead of pulling the car back into the garage by hand, they signalled Reid to drive straight in. At first it looked like they were going to pull the garage door down and shut out the public, but then they realised that's not the spirit of A1 GP and so we were all allowed to watch this outfit in action.

They knew what they were looking for even before the car had stopped. Telemetry and Jonny  Reid's ability to understand the behaviour of the car suggested a problem with the right, rear suspension and someone remembered the wheel banging with Brazil the week before.

It took a quick glance to confirm a break in some welding at the end of the lower wishbone.

The team worked swiftly and in almost total silence to strip off the bodywork, expose the rear suspension, remove the broken part and fit a new wishbone.

The exercise took about 30 minutes - about half of the hour allocated to qualifying and during that time Reid sat almost motionless in the cockpit of the car.

A1 GP is different to F1 in many respects and accessibility is one of those respects - while outfits as dedicated and professional as Super Nova almost always prefer to work in private, this whole operation was very much open, with TV teams coming and going.

But the second the damaged wishbone was removed it was whisked out the back. No point sharing any information like that with opposition teams. It was almost an automatic reaction to hide the damage from anyone else.

Reid got back out onto the track with about 8 minutes remaining.

Official practice doesn't really count for much, apart from learning the track.

Brno is a permanent course set in rolling countryside about 20 minutes outside the city. It's now about 20 years old but is quite magnificent in terms of its layout and facilities.

The track is very wide and comprises a mix of medium speed corners with plenty of opportunity to pass. It's not up to F1 standards and Brno has become known as an international motorcycle track.

But Brno itself has a very long motor racing history. The first time there was motorsport activity there was in 1904 and for many, many years there was a 20 kilometre long genuine road circuit that used roads on both the outskirts of the city as well as some inner city streets. It was a demanding place to race.

Before WW2 it hosted the mighty Mercedes and Auto Unions. but it was a saloon car circuit many years after the war and up until it closed in 1986, to make way for the new circuit, Brno was part of the European Touring Car Championship.

Earning a grid position in A1 GP is all about qualifying. This is where each driver goes out and does a standing lap, a fiying lap and a slowing down lap in a 15 minute frame. There is a five minute break and then it happens all over again - four times in all and the fastest two times are added to give an overall time.

The fastest, most confident teams usually leave it until the last possible minute in each session to go out. This is so they know the target times.

After the first three periods, Jonny Reid stunned everyone by being the quickest each time out. But it was all coming down to the final session.

The New Zealand and the German cars, both under the auspices of Super Nova remember, sat in their garages side by side. The driver was strapped in ready to go, the tyre warmers were on, there was an engineer at each corner, another engineer standing in front of the car and other engineers were at the pit wall watching monitors.

All were connected by headphones and microphones.

Great Britain went out and Robbie Kerr put in a great lap to vault him up the standings. Malaysian driver, Alex Yoong had been consistently fast, but it really was the two Super Nova teams, Germany and New Zealand who were the pace-setters.

With about eight minutes left to run, the German driver was sent out and on his fiying lap he posted a time that added to his previous fastest gave him pole position. To win pole, Reid now had to go out and better the German's lap.

But they held him, there. Waiting, waiting, waiting. The tension was increasing and all the time one of the official A1 GP television team was crouched down by the right front wheel with a TV camera almost stuck in Reid's face. He was totally inscrutable.

Then an engineer emerged from the back room with a lap top. He tucked it down into the cockpit and showed Jonny something. They discussed it in two word sentences and the lap top went away. Reid sat there for two minutes thinking about it and beckoned the engineer back - he said something and the panel on the top of the tub, just ahead of the cockpit was opened and, shielding whatever he did from anyone else, the engineer took a small screwdriver and made a very small adjustment to something, the panel was replaced and the engineer withdrew. Still the waiting went on. The tension increased.

Then came the signal. The car was started, the tyre warmers ripped off and out went Jonny Reid in the black car for three of the most critical laps of his young career.

The monitors told the story - on the fiying lap Reid was quickest through all of the sectors - he had won pole position by concentrating and digging deep. He knew what he had to do and he went out and achieved it.

There were hugs and handshakes all round. The Super Nova team for the first time showed any emotion. They grinned and slapped each other on the back.

As a Kiwi fiy-on-the-wall I felt incredibly proud. Colin Giltrap came out of the back room. I shook his hand. "I'm proud to be a New Zealander," I said to him.

"So am I mate, so am I," he growled in the Colin Giltrap growl. I'll swear he had a tear in his eye.

Later at the press conference I said to Jonny Reid - "Let me tell you that as a fellow New Zealander coming from the smallest nation taking part in A1 GP and having come the furthest distance, you've made me feel really proud." I didn't care if the other media thought I was a plonker - it was something I had to say. Jonny grinned a huge grin and gave the thumbs up.

I asked what adjustment had been made just before he went out. "I can't tell you, it's a secret." I knew it would be, A1 GP is open, but not that open.

A German reporter asked - "Your car is black, why is it black and not painted?"

Jonny was the perfect ambassador - he explained that black and silver are our national colours, that the silver fern is our national emblem and that we have a team of rugby players called the All Blacks.

But it was really a daft question coming from a reporter whose country's national colour is white!

There were high hopes of course the following morning when the black car with its white signwriting lined up on pole with the German car alongside. I heard an official ask another official - "What is that Fisher and Paykel?" The second official actually knew and told him it was a New Zealand company that made household appliances.

Exactly what happened as they headed off down into the first corner from the rolling start isn't clear but there was an official enquiry later that included Reid, the German driver as well as the Chinese driver. It was concluded it was a racing incident. No blame attached.

For the main race Jonny Reid started in 14th place, the German right behind him on the grid in 16th.

In the opening traffic Reid was understandably cautious, more cautious than he normally is in traffic as he's got a reputation for enjoying wheel to wheel stuff.

Once the race settled down the German car had managed to get ahead during Reid's cautionary period.

Malaysia's Alex Yoong won after he tapped wheels with and spun the Canadian car that had led from the start. And it was a comfortable victory from Czech Tomas Enge by almost eight seconds with Mexico less than a second behind.

Germany was fourth while New Zealand was seventh - but just three seconds covered this group as they virtually crossed the line nose to tail.

Yes, after qualifying on the Saturday, Sunday had been a day of lost opportunities, but Reid's drive was an intelligent one. He settled in and got faster and faster from about the half way stage proving that Saturday had not been a fiuke. It's going to be interesting watching how the rest of the season unfolds for not only New Zealand, but the rest of the teams. Reid's qualifying performance apart, the first two rounds showed no team being clearly dominant. France, who really did dominate last season, have had mixed fortunes so far and the driver is looking sour about it.

There have been some surprises and it was obvious that both the Dutch and the Czech drivers responded well to performing in front of home crowds.

Next up is the Shanghai street race and don't be surprised if the local driver, Congfu Cheng does well - he's no slouch.

So far, New Zealand has not played the Rookie card - that's a chance for a novice driver to practice on the Friday.

There's a feeling that Team New Zealand may give either Wade Cunningham or Chris van der Drift a Rookie drive shortly - at least at the New Zealand round at Taupo.

It was a long, long way to go and unlike most motoring magazines, we footed the bill ourselves. Being able to include the Paris Motor Show as well made it worthwhile, but it was still an expensive enough operation for a magazine from the smallest nation taking part in the A1 GP series and having to travel the greatest distance.

Was it worthwhile? Absolutely. We can't really express the pride we felt being New Zealanders at both Zandvoort and Brno.

We weren't alone. Apart from the commitment by Colin Giltrap, the Giltrap Group, Fisher and Paykel, Zespri and the other sponsors, we were also pleased to see Shaun Summerfield from TV3 and a cameraman along covering both events. They and us were the only New Zealand media there. We almost felt lonely at times.

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