MOTORSPORT - Nelson revved up for her first international

Northland rally driver Kirsty Nelson flies to Malaysia today to begin acclimatising before competing in the Rally of Malaysia - her first international race - next weekend.
Nelson is one of a group of young Kiwis, who have entered the rally to chase the title of Pirelli star driver with the prize, a fully funded drive in a Group N car in next year's World Rally Championship series.
The 18-year-old admits there is some pretty tough opposition for the Pirelli prize, that is a competition held within the Malaysian event, and her first aim is just to "drive fast and be the first women to finish".
"Hayden Paddon is the really the one to beat, he should win, at least I'm hoping he does, it would be so cool if he does," Nelson said.
But should Paddon, the 2007 New Zealand Rally champion, run into problems Nelson isn't planning on being too far behind.
The competitors will compete over 14 special stages, totalling 226.74km, on the rubber plantation tracks outside of Johor Bahru, Malaysia's southernmost city, just north of Singapore Island.
She is expecting the heat - "it's going to be hot, you know really hot" - to be the biggest challenge with the temperature peaking every day at around the low to mid-30s mark at the moment in Malaysia.
Everything else is unknown and it won't be until Monday, when the team retrieve the car from the container they shipped from Auckland and get it out for a practice run, that they'll begin to get a feel for the challenge ahead.
"We'll find out when we get there - it's going to be a pretty big learning curve for us all."
Kirsty's father Peter, her crew chief, left yesterday to be in Malaysia to ensure things go smoothly when the rest of the team, co-driver Michelle Brunt and crew Reuben Cameron-Hucker, James Woolhouse, Jason Grey and Warren Davies, arrive today.
The team decided to crate up their own car rather than take the easier but possibly more expensive option of hiring one.
"We heard on the grapevine that if you damaged something really small, they would charge a lot of money to fix it, so in the end we decided to take my own car, which I'm used to as well, so it was better all round," Kirsty said.
Paddon and another Kiwi driver, Brad Ayling, will drive their own cars while the other New Zealand entrants, Mark Tapper and Patrick Malley, will hire cars for the rally.
Nelson admits the big contingent of Kiwis chasing the Pirelli spot will take some of the pressure off her in what she's come to regard as the "big one" since she decided to enter.
"It's very exciting, it's going to be a huge experience, but having a few other Kiwis around will make it a bit easier."
The Malaysian rally, which is part of the Asia-Pacific series like the Rally of Whangarei, incorporates a separate points scoring system for the Pirelli star drivers.
As well as being included in the overall rally results based on total time, the ``driving scholarship' is decided by who has got the most points at the end of the event.
These are awarded for every stage, with three points for the first scholarship driver, down to one for third.