Well, in 2015, the floodgates burst. It would be unfair to compare today's era with Kiwi motorsport's golden years of the 1960s and '70s, decades that featured the likes of Denny Hulme, Bruce McLaren, Chris Amon and Mike Thackwell to name a few. Let's just say we're currently enjoying a purple patch, with Kiwis in 2015 making podiums across the globe.
First, we have to salute one of New Zealand's most consistent and now one of the most successful open wheel racers of all time.
Dixon won the IRL championship for the fourth time in 2015 and now sits fifth on the all-time winners' list with 38 victories. He is the most successful active racer of his generation and also won his second 24 Hours of Daytona this year.
After such a successful year, it was no surprise he was nominated for a Halberg Award, along with motorcycle racer Avalon Biddle.
She is a former New Zealand TT winner and national champion and has been competing in Europe for years. The 23-year-old won the FIM European Women's Cup section of the Junior Cup competition this year, holding off the elite female racers from all over Europe.
Back on four wheels, two Kiwis who showed the motorsport world they had what it takes were Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber.
Both are works drivers for Porsche Motorsport, Hartley in the World Endurance Championship and Bamber in the German manufacturer's GT3 programme.
I was fortunate enough to be at Le Mans this year to see both on the podium, Bamber as the outright winner and Hartley as runner-up in the LMP1 class. Missing out on line honours may have annoyed Hartley, but that second place was shaded when he became world WEC champion after the last round of the series in November.
Also racing in Europe at elite level were Mitch Evans and Richie Stanaway. Evans had a torrid time in the first half of his GP2 season but came good after getting his old engineer back and had a string of great results, including a win, in the back half of the series. His highlight of the year, though, was standing on the Le Mans podium after finishing second in the LMP2 class.
Works Aston Martin driver Stanaway was doing double duty racing in a limited WEC and GT campaign dovetailed with GP2 outings and picked up a win in both championships.
World Rally Championship contestant Paddon impressed his Hyundai Motorsport team so much in his first full season as a factory driver that the South Korean manufacturer gave him a further three-year deal. Paddon and co-driver John Kennard made the podium at Rally Italy and were setting stage times faster than their illustrious teammates.
Staying with rallying, young Perth-based Kiwi Michael Young finished second outright in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship and clinched the Asia Cup along the way.
New Zealand Grand Prix winner and former Toyota Racing Series champion Nick Cassidy continued to develop as single-seater racer, this year winning the Japanese Formula Three title at his first attempt.
Closer to home, Chris van der Drift followed Bamber's lead in winning the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia series. Fellow Kiwi Craig Baird, one of the world's best Porsche drivers, may have a few years on his younger rivals, but kept Van der Drift honest through the season to finish second.
Across the Ditch, the four Kiwis in the V8 Supercars - Shane van Gisbergen, Fabian Coulthard, Scott McLaughlin and Andre Heimgartner - couldn't quite keep an Aussie off the top spot this year. The best of the bunch was van Gisbergen in fourth, with Coulthard seventh, McLaughlin eighth and Heimgartner 24th.
Back home, the big news of 2015 was the schism in domestic V8 racing being dealt with and the emergence of a unified category, which now no longer has grid numbers counted in single digits.
The highlight of the year for me was listening to the New Zealand anthem being played at the world's biggest and most prestigious endurance race, and seeing three Kiwi flags on the winners' podium.
Making their mark
Kiwis who raced overseas in 2015:
Andre Heimgartner - V8 Supercars
Avalon Biddle - Motorcycles
Brendon Hartley - FIA WEC
Chris van der Drift - Porsche Carrera Cup Asia
Craig Baird - Porsche Carrera Cup Australia
Daniel Bray - Karting
Earl Bamber - Porsche Motorsport works driver
Emma Gilmour - Rally
Fabian Coulthard - V8 Supercars
Hayden Paddon - Rally WRC
Jake Lewis - Motorcycles
Jono Lester - GT Racing
Josiah Natzke - Motocross
Mike Whiddett - Drifting
Marcus Armstrong - Karting
Michael Pickens - Speedway
Michael Young - Rally
Mitch Evans - GP2/LMP2
Nick Cassidy - Japanese Formula 3
Richie Stanaway - FIA WEC/GP2
Ryan Urban - Karting
Scott Dixon - IndyCar/Daytona Prototypes
Scott McLaughlin - V8 Supercars
Shane van Gisbergen - V8 Supercars
Tom Blomqvist - DTM
