Rotorua's James Marsters crowned fastest tyre fitter in New Zealand

Formula 1 pit crews may be on watch after a Rotorua man was crowned fastest tyre fitter in New Zealand.

Last month, Auckland based Drury Tyres put a call out on Facebook to find New Zealand's fastest tyre fitter.

Videos came in from tyre experts all over New Zealand but it was Simmonds Tyres Rotorua service manager James Marsters who took the crown with an impressive one minute and five second effort.

Marsters said one of his workmates saw the competition and told him to give it a go.

"I thought I'd give it a good go, try my hardest anyway. We ended up doing a couple of videos and our first couple we absolutely smoked the other times that were up.

"I was pretty stoked. I had the fastest time but they had a guy from Huntly enter in the last half hour and apparently he was the guy to beat my time. He got 1m 18s in the end.

"They had quite a few entries but a lot of people cheated - there were heaps of rules you had to stick to."

He's had plenty of practice, having worked at Simmonds for the past 10 years. Marsters said, in the 40 minutes before speaking to the Rotorua Daily Post, he had fitted about 12 tyres.

"We do this every day, we do heaps. It's always busy here but we love it, we thrive off it. I love my job so that just makes things easier. It gives me bragging rights until the next one.

"[When recording the videos], because we do it every day, I just tried to do what I always do, with 100 percent accuracy. I just focused on the basics."

James Marsters won $500 for his tyre fitting efforts. Photo / David Beck

The title came with a $500 cash prize which Marsters said would go straight towards renovations.

"We're doing house renovations at the moment and we want to get it done before Christmas so this definitely helps."

Another Simmonds employee Jason Tama Walker was also among the prizes but for a very different effort to Marsters'.

Walker won the Tyre Rodeo Blooper award for his effort in which one of his tools flew up and hit him in the face mid-video. He was rewarded for his error with a $100 prize.