Canterbury motorsport identity Andrew Neale is ready for the next step with his fledgling motor racing team, Neale Motorsport.
Since selling the Canterbury Motor Racing School Neale, a former top racing driver himself, has established Neale Motorsport and last year ran rookie James Munro in a solo race programme with the team. It proved to be a successful debut season for both Munro and Neale Motorsport as they claimed the New Zealand Formula Ford title at their first attempt.
“Last year was a toe in the water exercise,” says Andy. “This season we are launching Neale Motorsport into a bigger environment – the Toyota Racing Series. It is an exciting prospect to step up to join the premier single seater series as a team owner to work with Toyota and the series management team. I have been engineering for other teams since the series inception and now in the tenth season of the category I have got my act together to get my name above the door. We will be running James Munro after last year’s success and also Singapore driver Andrew Tang who I met last year when he did the Toyota Racing Series.” Since then Neale has spent six months in Europe working with Tang in Formula Renault where he achieved some noteworthy results in the toughest season of Formula Renault to date. “Andrew is just in his first year of motorsport out of karts and it was a learning year for him. James is a local boy and this is part of his career progression. He will be gunning for Rookie Of The Year,” says Neale.
Over the years Neale has worked with many drivers in many different categories and also had a stint with the BAR Formula 1 team.
The 2014 Toyota Racing Series commences at Teretonga Park in Invercargill from 9-12 January. It runs for five consecutive weekends with rounds following at Timaru, Highlands Motorsport Park in Cromwell and Hampton Downs in North Waikato before the finale including the New Zealand Grand Prix at Manfeild Park in Feilding from 6-9 February.
