Pitstop: Scott and Gurr team up for two V8 Supercar races

New Zealand V8 champion Kayne Scott will drive a Paul Morris Motorsports Holden with Australian Alan Gurr in the Supercar endurance races at Sandown and Bathurst. Scott has been competing in the second-level V8 series in Australia, while Gurr has been sharing a car with Team Kiwi's Fabian Coulthard in the main championship. Last year Scott finished 11th at the Bathurst 1000 with fellow New Zealander Mark Porter. Gurr was placed 10th with another New Zealander, John Faulkner.

Still Holden on in V8 champs

Team Kiwi's Holdens will not be missing from the national V8 championship despite the move of the parent team to Ford. One car has been leased locally while the newest has been sold to English driver Shaun Richardson, a regular competitor in the British version of Nascar. Team Kiwi's new Falcons will debut in 2007-8.

Murphy's law hits world rally debut

Emma Gilmour had a demanding first foray into world championship rallying in Europe. The 26-year-old Dunedin driver set a number of competitive special stage times in the Fiesta Sporting Trophy section of the three-day Rallye Deutschland. A final result of 50th overall and seventh in class reflected difficulties she faced. These included completing half of the opening day with steering damage on her Fiesta ST, a punctured tyre early on the second day, then losing time following a slower car on another stage later that day.

Christchurch driver for Australian F3

Young Christchurch driver Andy Knight will make his debut in the Australian Formula Three championship at Phillip Island near Melbourne this weekend. The 20-year-old contested several rounds of the US Formula Ford 2000 series before running out of funds. He will be racing for the Astuti Motorsport team at Phillip Island.

Halliday storms to second in China

After a poor qualifying position, New Zealand A1GP driver Matt Halliday stormed through the field to take second in the latest round of the Formula Renault V6 Asia series at the Zhuhai circuit in China. Chris van der Drift is 17 points behind the leader in second with one round to go in the Northern European Formula Renault championship. He finished third and seventh in the latest round in the wet at Anderstorp in Sweden. Brendon Hartley finished sixth and third.

Community spirit fuels Martin

Turangi driver Brett Martin was expecting to sit out the last two rounds of the national rally championship - instead he returns with a bolstered budget, thanks to community support. Martin lies third, the only Mitsubishi breaking Subaru's dominance of the top seven places. The next round is in the Wairarapa next weekend.

Baird maintains lead in Porsche series

Despite being pipped by Aussie Alex Davison in the latest round of the Australian Porsche Carrera Cup championship at Oran Park, Craig Baird retains a commanding lead of 137. Davison won two races and finished second to Baird in the third.

All hail NZ GP's move to March

One potential beneficiary of the A1GP round at Taupo in January is the New Zealand Grand Prix, which will be staged again at Invercargill's Teretonga track. Last season in January the competitors had to contend with horizontal hail. The forced move to March should hopefully produce kinder conditions.