Pitstop: Edgell leaves Petch V8s for Toyota single-seater drive

Aucklander Tim Edgell, who won the national Formula Ford title last season, is a late entry for the Toyota single-seater series, which debuts at Timaru this weekend.

The 25-year-old had been working as test driver for the Holden V8 team run by Mark Petch with a view to stepping up to a full drive in that championship next year.

But Petch has secured sponsorship for the Toyota drive and Edgell will join another former Ford champion, James Cressey, in a field of 17 for the first three races on Saturday and Sunday.

The Toyota Tartuus cars, built in Italy for the series, are powered by 200-horsepower versions of the fuel-injected engines fitted to the latest Corolla and Celica models, with wings and slicks.

The drivers have had their cars for about 10 days and have one scheduled shakedown test at Ruapuna before the race weekend. The ability to set up the cars quickly will be crucial and experience may count over flair in the first round.

No other competitor has anything like the experience of 63-year-old Kenny Smith, the New Zealand Grand Prix champion in a Formula Ford, who won that title in the powerful Formula 5000 and Formula Pacific cars.

Cressey and Daniel Gaunt have experience of Australian Formula Three, which also runs wings and slicks, and former world karting champion Wade Cunningham drove similar machines in the United States last year.

Andy Knight, Brendon Hartley, Ben Crighton and Chris Pither have had Formula Ford success and a number of karters are making this their debut in car racing.

The one overseas entry, 15-year-old Walter Grubmuller, has been getting up to speed in a Formula Renault.

Gaunt in top company

Daniel Gaunt may not be a household name in motorsport but he shares a distinction with greats such as Bruce McLaren, Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart.

They have all won the Lady Wigram Trophy, which for many years was contested at Wigram as part of the Tasman Series.

The 19-year-old Gaunt, who will compete in this season's Toyota series, won the trophy at Ruapuna last season in a one-off drive in an Australian Formula Three.

He had previously won the Australian Formula 4000 championship, but for most of last year was a racing instructor in Europe.

Pay-back time

Paul Manuell hopes to repay a debt of gratitude to the panelbeaters of Timaru by putting on a good show when the third round of the national V8 championship is staged at the Levels Raceway this weekend.

The 35-year-old Aucklander crashed at 200km/h during the Timaru round last season. He was not badly hurt but he thought his Orix Holden was a writeoff for the next round at Invercargill.

The local businesses rallied around to get him back on the track within five days.

"It would be good to repay their efforts with a good result this weekend," he said.

Manuell is third in the championship with 326 points, behind Christchurch driver Wade Henshaw with 426 and his Orix team-mate, Andy Booth, with 345.

Henshaw won all three races at the last round after Manuell had qualified on pole.

CIK Trophy meet

New Zealand karters will get their annual taste of international competition with the Hamilton Kart Club hosting the 2005 CIK Trophy meeting over the January 22-23 weekend.

The CIK-FIA (Commission Internationale de Karting-Federation Internationale de l'Automobile) is the governing body of world karting and the CIK Trophy meeting has in the past provided a springboard to success further afield for drivers such as Wade Cunningham and kart-turned-car drivers Tim Edgell, Chris van der Drift and Jonny Reid.