Motorsport: Kiwi Driver Fund a helping hand behind success for New Zealand young drivers

Matthew Payne. Photo / Photosport

The Kiwi Driver Fund has been instrumental in giving New Zealand's latest crop of young motor racing drivers a leg up in building an international racing career. Established in 2015, the Fund has helped in the past the likes of Brendon Leitch, Taylor Cockerton, Marcus Armstrong, Liam Lawson and Chelsea Herbert.

More recently the fund supported Mathew Payne, Kaleb Ngatoa, Conrad Clark, Billy Frazer and Peter Vodanovich in this year's Toyota Racing Series (TRS). It's a credit to the trustees of the Fund that all the drivers selected for investment have gone on to greater things both here in New Zealand and abroad (Herbert the exception due to sustaining a broken back in a racing accident).

One of New Zealand's brightest hopes is Armstrong, now a Red Bull Junior racing in Formula 2, and he is very appreciative of the Fund's help early in his career.

"For me without the Kiwi Driver Fund I wouldn't be racing this year or last year," he said back in 2020.

"It's a massive part of what helped me get onto the grid [TRS, which he won in 2019]. I don't come from a background full of money — most New Zealanders don't — and it's massively difficult to go racing especially in Europe. The Kiwi Driver Fund has been a great help."

The Fund is a registered charity orchestrated by a board of trustees that include former McLaren Formula One team member Bob McMurray, former Toyota Racing Series motorsport manager Steve Boyce and former Toyota New Zealand employees Bob Field and John Fowke. The evergreen Kenny Smith is an integral part of the Fund coming on board in a mentoring, driver training and ambassadorial role in concert with his being patron of the Fund.

"It was an idea of Steve Boyce after he retired, and is completely separate to Toyota. It came about when we realised that there were three or four young Kiwi drivers who had the talent, but not the funding," said McMurray.

"The Toyota Racing Series was becoming more and more international due to the fact promising young New Zealand drivers just didn't have the funding to compete in the championship.

"The Fund is there as a top-up for Kiwi drivers who don't quite have enough to do the entire series. It's not a sponsorship for the series. They have to come with their funding to start with.

'We'll pay for their engine and or chassis lease to get them across the line to do the whole series. Potential recipients have to pass pretty rigorous tests to qualify for the funding and have to be good enough to compete at an international level.

"They then have a test in a TRS car and then we decide who receives the top-up. They still, though, have to sort their own team and sponsorship out.

"We set it up when we realised some really talented Kiwi drivers just didn't quite have enough to race in the TRS and compare themselves to the best young single seater drivers from abroad."

The aforementioned drivers had great success during the 2021 Toyota Racing Series with Payne winning the championship ahead of Ngatoa, Frazer, Clark and Vodanovich.

"We wouldn't have been on the grid without your [Kiwi Driver Fund] support and this [series win] wouldn't have been possible without you," said Payne on social media.

Building on the TRS, Payne is now racing Porsche Carrera Cup Australia with Kiwi team Earl Bamber Motorsport, Ngatoa had a win in his first race in the Australian S5000 single seater category, the former TR86 champion Vodanovich has an agreement with the Erebus Motorsport Academy in Australia with a view to racing in the Supercars series and Frazer and Vodanovich recently announced they're to be part of the Road to Indy programme and to take part in the USF2000 series.

The Fund has so far been supported by Tony Quinn of Hampton Downs and Highlands Park, Post Haste and Truck Sales New Zealand. However, to keep the momentum going and getting more young Kiwis on the ladder to racing success, continual funding is needed and the Fund is hoping for more help from the wider motorsport, or business, community to put a few hands in a few pockets and invest in the future of our young racing stars.

For more information on how to get involved contact McMurray through the Fund's website www.kiwidriverfund.co.nz.