Pitstop: Paddon, Kennard in for rally

Hayden Paddon and John Kennard in action during shakedown for Rally Portugal. Photo / Honza Fronek

World champion rally drivers Hayden Paddon and John Kennard are the first competitors to submit their entry for Brother Rally New Zealand on June 21-24. After winning the FIA Production World Rally Championship last year, Paddon and Kennard have stepped up to the Super 2000 class this year in a Skoda Fabia S2000 car. The event is the seventh round of the WRC championship and the fourth round of the 2012 Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship. Paddon won his class last time out in Portugal.

Overheating SuperTourer

The overheating issue with the new V8 SuperTourer [see Driven story] still rumbles on but the category organiser has acquiesced and opened up the water and oil cooling options available to the teams from round five onwards. The organisers, though, still insist the problem is to do with excess oil in the sump.

Tight deadline for Fogg

Staying with V8 SuperTourers, reigning NZV8 champion Angus Fogg is burning the midnight oil in hope of making the next round of the series at Hampton Downs in the first weekend of June. He has yet to receive the bare chassis and will get his other bits ahead of M2 Motorsport, but everything depends on parts supply getting to him in time.

Kiwis warm up for Indy 500

New Zealand IndyCar drivers Scott Dixon and Wade Cunningham get down to the business of racing at the Indianapolis 500 tomorrow when five days of practice begins in the run up to qualifying. Dixon has the 2008 Indy 500 title to his name and Cunningham has won three times in the feeder series, the Indy Lights, at Indianapolis.

Vermeulen for Le Mans

Australian MotoGP rider Chris Vermeulen has been confirmed as the rider to replace the injured Colin Edwards at the Le Mans round of the championship next weekend. Edwards is set to return in four weeks time at Catalunya.

Under the hood

The F1 circus fires up for round five this weekend in Spain and so far there have been four different winners from the four races. Who's going to win this weekend is anyone's guess but leading contenders Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have been using different front wings on their respective McLarens.

Autosport website says Button has opted to run the new one that has different upper flaps and no gills in the middle of the endplate. Hamilton is using the old one. They are also using different brake materials and ducts. Button is using Brembo discs and open drum ducts, while Hamilton is using discs from Carbon Industries and full drums with a few openings.