Motorsport: Leadfoot Festival back in action

Hillclimb fans will recognise bits from Pikes Peak (above) echoed in Rod Millen's Hahei track.

After a year's hiatus, the Leadfoot Festival is back in action this weekend. Rod Millen, one of New Zealand's most accomplished rally drivers, is holding another hillclimb event up the driveway at his Hahei property on the Coromandel.

To be honest, it's really a driveway in name only as Millen decided he wanted to use the access to his house on the other side of the saddleback as a piece of tarmac to have fun on. He used the 1.6km climb to the top of the hill as a showcase of his favourite bits of track from decades of racing all around the world.

Aficionados of hillclimbs and various related festivals will recognise bits from the Goodwood Festival and Pikes Peak tracks, to name just a couple.

Contestants over the two-day event will tackle the fast and flowing 80-metre climb and have to deal with 16 corners, some of which catch the unwary out each year.

Drivers will attain speeds of up to 170km/h and fans will see some of the best drivers and machinery on offer in New Zealand, including the odd overseas racer.

It would be impossible to put a figure on the total cost of the 100 or so four- and two-wheel vehicles on display, but it must be in the tens of millions.

For a start, the oldest car is a French-built Darracq, owned by Ann Thomson, that competed in the world's first Grand Prix event held at Le Mans in 1906. At the other end of the Grand Prix racing spectrum, fans will be delighted to watch Phil Mauger's McLaren M23 that raced at the South African Grand Prix in 1973. The M23 model McLaren won two world Formula One championships; in 1974 and 1976.

"We learned a lot in the first two years and decided to take a year off both for ourselves and to evaluate what we wanted the festival to look like," said Millen.

"There's a good chance from now on it will be a two-yearly event. The break has been good as the ticket sales are up and we have a great lineup that is very diverse.

"We've got the five-time British rally champion Jimmy McRae [father of Colin and Alister McRae] racing up the hill. There's also quite a lot of interest in the pre-1976 class that has everything from Grand Prix cars to rally, saloon and GT cars. It should be fun."

Local knowledge helps a lot in motorsport, and as the track also doubles as a driveway to the Millen's house on the other side of the hill, the former Pikes Peak champion holds the record for getting up the driveway fastest.

He might have his work cut out though, as multinational and international karting winner Daniel Bray will be in his GP13 KZ2 shifter kart.

"The course the layout is exactly the same as in the past but we have added our own yard of bricks as at Indianapolis.

"It's actually about half-a-yard of rocks I brought back from Pikes Peak and laid into the start line.

"I honestly believe that Daniel will be the one to probably give me the biggest run for my money. Still, I'm looking forward to the challenge," said Millen.

He'll be doing triple duty this year, racing his Pikes Peak Toyota Celica, his 1974 Mazda RX3 and the Toyota Tundra off-road truck.