Pitstop: Under the hood

Greg Murphy is back for 2011. Photo / Supplied

Former Ferrari driver Kiwi Chris Amon's bad luck is legendary. The ex-Formula One driver must have been cursing the gods after last Sunday's washout of the Festival of Motorsport at Hampton Downs. However, the event is on again this weekend.

F1-style shootout
A feature of this weekend's programme at Hampton Downs for the MSC F5000 Tasman Cup Revival series drivers is a special F1-style qualifying shootout to determine the grid for the first race.

V8 driver back
Kiwi V8 Supercar driver Greg Murphy is definitely back for 2011 and has been confirmed as the driver for the new Pepsi Max Crew #11 Holden run by Kelly Racing in Melbourne. Murph has won Bathurst four times.

Top kartracers meet
The country's top kartsport racers will be in Wellington this weekend contesting the annual CIK Trophy of New Zealand.

Paddon switches to Subaru
Double national rally champion Hayden Paddon is switching to Subaru for his assault on this year's Production Car World Rally Championship. Paddon has formed the first New Zealand world rally team since Possum Bourne.

May as well get the rule changes done and dusted before the F1 season. Surprise - the FIA has said team orders can now be given. I didn't realise they had been banned. F-ducts (double diffusers) are banned but teams can now have a movable rear wing. The minimum weight has gone up to 640kg to allow for KERS. The 107 per cent rule of Q1 time is back in to sort out the back markers.