Motorsport: Speedway's where the heart is

Steve Williams is passionate about Saloon car racing. Photo / Herald on Sunday

The intense rivalry that has always existed between Australia and New Zealand has led to a wonderful history of competition across many sporting disciplines. Not least of which was the famous Tasman Series, which showcased Formula One stars and emerging Australian and Kiwi talent back in the 1960s and 70s.

Ex-pat Kiwi Wayne Belk returned to his birthplace last season with his Dodge Challenger Super Sedan and took on the locals in a series of speedway races, in which he struck up a friendship with Steve Williams (better known as Tiger Woods' caddy).

The pair got chatting and hatched a plan to put together a series of races in Australia later this year, along the lines of the famous Tasman series.

Belk and Williams have announced a six-race, concentrated speedway series: the Valvoline Trans Tasman Late Model (Australian team) versus Super Saloon (Kiwi team) Challenge. It will pit 10 of the best New Zealanders against 10 of the best Australian drivers.

The races will be held over two consecutive weekends starting October 22 at Mildura, followed by Swan Hill, October 23, and Moama, October 24. After a week of sightseeing, the series will conclude in a flurry of activity at Rolling Thunder Raceway (RTR), Bacchus Marsh, October 29, Hamilton, October 30, and the finale at RTR, October 31.

"I got talking to Wayne [Belk] when he came over to race and we thought we'd put a challenge on between us and the Aussies. The support has been absolutely fantastic. You couldn't something like this together without the support of the speedway community," William said.

"Some of the people in the sport have been really good including CSL Containers, who have been a huge help, as have Jenners Worldwide Freight. It's been awesome and the response from the drivers at the chance to race in Australia for two weeks has been great."

Although his main job these days is carrying a bag of sticks for one the world's best golfers, Williams hasn't lost any of his passion for speedway.

"I think at the end of the day, when you've been competing in speedway for a long time, the novelty of just racing on a Saturday night kind of wears off. But because I love the sport I've tried to come up with ideas to inject extra interest.

"I came up with the idea of Speed Week in New Zealand and that's just gone from strength to strength."

With speedway and golf at opposite ends of the sporting spectrum, Williams reckons it's a good thing. He says everyone needs an avenue for stress relief from their main job and racing just happens to be his.

"[Woods] thinks it's great I go racing. He also knows what a big rivalry there is between New Zealand and Australia. I was just talking to him last week about this event and he though it was awesome.

"I've arranged this event around when I'm not working. We also want to make this an annual thing, alternating the country we race in."

The Australians have first-class team with good credentials, headed by legends Darryl Grimson and Ross Nicastri, with Geoff Phillips, Blair Grainger, Lucas Roberts, Gary Bryans, Matt Crimmins, John McKay, Michael Holmes and Warren Oldfield.

Neil Wallace, Adam Brook and Bill Mentiplay will be on standby as reserves, should they be needed.

"It is disappointing to not be able to do this series with Super Sedans but the Late Model guys have really grabbed this opportunity whole-heartedly, and I really need to thank all those who worked so hard in the background to keep this event alive," said Belk. "The tracks were also fantastic in their support of the change to Late Models and, in reality, the specifications of the Late Models are closer to the New Zealand Super Saloons than the Saloons were to the Super Sedans."

The Kiwi team includes current New Zealand Champion Brett Emerton, Shane McIntyre, Dennis Bolt, Craig Cardwell, Ian Burson, former national champion Peter Hemi, Paddy North, Ricky Taylor, Ben Harding (one of the hottest young guns from last season) and, of course, Steve Williams.