Handling tight steep turns all part of the challenge.
Handling tight steep turns all part of the challenge.
Dannevirke's Michael McLean has had plenty of highs and lows in his 27 years and that is not just the terrain he has travelled at pace in his rally car.
In the space of just a week he went from "hero to zero" (in his own words) placing second in the New Zealand Gold Star Hill Climb Championships at Pukekohe February 15-16 and a week later rolling his Subaru Impreza in the first round of the Engine Room Series at Paheke Road near Kumeroa run by the Dannevirke Car Club.
He and his co-driver emerged after a four roll and a flip unscathed but his car was written off.
McLean in his workshop next to his 'munted' race car.
McLean's sporting career has been an interesting journey.
Focussing early on squash as his preferred sport McLean won several age-grade NZ titles and competed overseas before deciding to give it away and to complete a sports science degree while working at Activate gym.
His dad Donald's love of rally sport was contagious and soon McLean was behind the wheel and doing pretty well. He bought his first car for $14 and drove it for three years in this junior version of motor-sport.
He was accepted in 2016 into the prestigious Elite Motor Sport Academy for two years rubbing shoulders with Hayden Patton and other top drivers before embarking on events throughout New Zealand.
McLean speaking about motorsports at the Dannevirke High School Assembly in 2016.
In the 2019-20 NZ Gold Star Hill Climb Championships McLean won the first tar-seal leg of the North Island Championships in Hawkes Bay October 5, placed third in the first gravel leg at Masterton November 24, then won both seal and gravel events in Taranaki November 30, December 1 to go into the final at Pukekohe February 15-16 with 396 points from a possible 400.
Richard Bateman meanwhile had won the equivalent South Island series with a 400/400 perfect score meaning McLean had to beat him at Pukekohe to win. In the first warmup race McLean did so but his car developed a fault and the time between that and the first race was too short to make a permanent fix.
With other competitors breathing down his neck McLean chose to drive conservatively ensuring his car would survive the two races, handing the championship to Bateman but retaining runner-up status.
Michael McLean kicks up the dust at a recent event.
McLean is pretty thrilled to have earned second place, a feat father Donald achieved in the 2014-5 season. He is very keen to rebuild his old car to sell and is looking for a sponsor to help him into a newer car to race in the next season.
McLean has been completing a three-year apprenticeship with Mike Christie Sheetmetals which has taught him a huge amount about engineering.
McLean has also started his own part-time business, Switch Motorsport Fabrications, building and fitting cars out to race with roll cages and chassis strengthening.
Some of his cars have raced at Wellington, Napier and even Bathurst.
His ambition is to win the NZ Hill Climb Championship, perhaps even to run a North Island leg of it, and to continue building racing cars which he finds an enjoyable challenge.
Racing is in his blood. "If I won Lotto I would build a top car and race all over the world," he said.
