V8s add grunt to speed fest

Esterer has imported an untested McRae GM1 from Canada after his previous car was badly damaged in a start-line incident at Manfeild in November last year. Photo / Supplied

The icing on the cake for racing fans at the Festival of Motor Racing this weekend will be the third round of the MSC F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series - these bellowing V8 behemoths still cause a stir when they line up on the grid and, when the red lights go out, the ground trembles as they launch towards the first corner.

The F5000 series in New Zealand is the strongest in the world by some margin and cars and drivers have once again arrived from the Americas, Britain, Europe and Australia.

It's not just the BMW and F5000 classes that will be big drawcards. In the past two years, around 150 drivers and classic racing cars from other countries have rocked up to Hampton Downs to race and be part of the event.

Canadian driver Jay Esterer epitomises many of the combatants in the F5000 class in his keenness to race at every chance.

The car Esterer started this series with was one of three badly damaged in a start-line crash at the second round at Manfeild in November 2011. And, like arch-rival and defending series champion Ken Smith, the damage was such that the Canadian has had to revert to another car for the rest of the season.

"Both front corners were knocked off, all four wheels were wrecked and the tub was smashed in and twisted," said Esterer. "It was a mess."

The 48-year-old won the Lady Wigram Trophy race in Christchurch and is sitting fifth in the 2011/12 series points. Esterer reckons he won't know how competitive he can be until the car he is air-freighting down from Canada for the remaining rounds turns a wheel.

The replacement is another McRae GM1, one that he has owned for just over a year, though one he had not intended on pressing into service quite so soon.

"It's number 10, an ex-Quicksilver Racing team car raced by ... Rodney Green in 1975, then stored in his garage until 2006 when it was sold to Paul Hoey, then James Stengel who I bought it off," said Esterer.

Though Stengel raced the car in the United States in 2008, Esterer has only had time to strip and reassemble it, then break it down again to fit into the two air-freight boxes he used to transport his damaged model back to Canada late last year.

"It'll be completely untested. That's why I don't want to make too many predictions about this weekend. I'll collect the boxes from the air-freight depot when I get to Auckland on Wednesday, then spend Thursday and Friday putting it back together at the track. After that we'll just have to see."

Despite a couple of last-minute withdrawals (including local drivers Calven Bonney and Poul Christie), there will be 27 cars on the grid and as many as 30 at the second festival meeting the weekend after.

American Eric Haga will arrive to race in New Zealand for the first time and, like Kiwi veteran racer Kenny Smith, is one of the F5000 category's originals, having raced Formula 5000 single-seaters in the US first time around in the early 1970s.

Action started yesterday with practice and qualifying, with racing across nine different classic and historic categories scheduled for today and tomorrow. Racing begins at 9.00am both days.