Kaleb Ngatoa will be stepping up to the Toyota 86 Championship for the coming summer motorsport season.
Kaleb Ngatoa will be stepping up to the Toyota 86 Championship for the coming summer motorsport season.
Marton's driving prodigy Kaleb Ngatoa has his next major assignment as the 17-year-old Rangitikei College student has signed up for the 2018-19 Toyota 86 Championship.
Although racing against some of the top Kiwi adult drivers, the multiple time national karting champion and Formula First season runnerup should be a solid contender straight out of the gate.
His car will be run by Ken Smith Motorsport, with Smith himself, the multiple NZ Grand Prix winner, directly guiding him.
Smith, who has shaped the careers of Greg Murphy, Daniel Gaunt, Shane van Gisbergen and Scott Dixon, who celebrated his fifth Indycar title yesterday, will be at the track to instruct Ngatoa, along with defending Toyota 86 champion Tom Alexander.
Murphy, the four-time Bathurst 1000 winner, has also offered his advice.
It was Smith and Murphy who convinced Ngatoa to try his hand at Toyota 86's, after the young man and his father Robbie, the Whanganui motorcycling veteran, opted against competing in Spain in the karts due to the costs.
"I met both Kenny and Greg at a national karting weekend when I had been leading throughout and had problems in the final race," said Kaleb Ngatoa.
"I came into the pits and sat quietly with my crash helmet still on, taking it all in.
"Kenny later came up to me and said I'd driven very well and had taken defeat very maturely.
"Greg saw me race that weekend too and was very complimentary.
"Since then both have always been available to help me with questions and direction.
"They've been great. This is the next step in that relationship."
Ngatoa, the National Junior Sportsperson prize winner at 2016 Whanganui Sports Awards, has been winning national karting titles since 2012 in Cadet, Junior Restricted and Junior Rotax divisions.
He entered the Formula First division in 2016 and won the Winter Series in his first attempt, then came seventh in the NZ Championship which he followed up last year by finishing second overall after a very close finish with Palmerston North's Callum Crawley.
Ngatoa has already had success in his Toyota, which will be backed by long-time supporters JJ Waters, Capture Signs and father Robbie's Mechanical Services in Marton.
He entered the North Island Endurance One Hour race at Pukekohe and won it in his first time behind the wheel for a competitive race.
Kaleb Ngatoa, at rear chasing Matt Penney and Simon Usher at the North Island Endurance Series race.
Ngatoa also as GT experience with one of Mike Racing's GT4 Aston Martin's under his belt as well.
A huge part of his development was acceptance in the 2017 Elite Motorsport Academy, which is managed by the MotorSport NZ Scholarship Trust and housed at the University of Otago.
The course covered important elements for a driver outside of the car, like fitness work and business acumen, which is crucial now as Robbie Ngatoa has given his son the freedom to make his own career decisions.
The teenager is taking a realistic approach to the five month series.
"We're in it to win it and I have always believed that's the attitude you have to have in motorsport if you are looking to build a career in it, regardless of the route you decide to take.
"You have to want to win and it's all about the complete package. We know the circuits and we have a team who knows the car."
"I will drive to the best of my abilities and if we are consistent and near the front in every race and every round, then I am hopeful race wins will come and we can be in the fight for the championship."
Ngatoa follows in the footsteps of expat Wanganui driver Matt Gibson, who raced this in competition and came fifth overall in consecutive campaigns.
The teenager's campaign will be begin November 2-4, on the big stage as the Toyota's will be one of the support classes of the Supercars Championship event in Pukekohe.
They will return to Pukekohe on December 7-9, as part of the Speed Works Motorsport NZ Championship.
This will be followed by consecutive weekends in January, the 11-13 and 18-20 at Highland Motorsport Park in Cromwell and Teretonga Park in Invercargill, with the Castrol Toyota Racing Series.
Racing continues at the NZ Grand Prix at Manfeild on February 8-10, followed by the championship finale at Hampton Downs Motorpark on March 9-10.
There will also be a non-championship endurance racing weekend in Taupo in April.
