Motor-racing fans milling about Manfeild at the weekend are likely to recognise Nick Cassidy.
They should – the Auckland driver has won the past three New Zealand Grands Prix (NZGP) at the circuit.
No-one has won four straight since the first was staged at 1950 at Ohakea, and it doesn’t appear Cassidy will get a chance to create history.
He expects to be a spectator because all of the Toyota Racing Cars fleet have been taken up, so he and Kenny Smith dip out.
“Last year I got the last car,” he recalled. “I’m not racing, but I would have loved to. I could have done a good job.”
He might drive the Toyota Tatuus test car in a reliability session on Friday, but that will be about it.
Cassidy is almost a 20-year-old veteran now. Toyota sent him to Italy in July to test the new Tatuus car.
He expects the new cars to be faster around Manfeild this time thanks to extra downforce, being lighter and having more mechanical grip. The engines and the tyres haven’t changed.
He did drive in one race in the Toyota TR86 series, but said that was for fun, and he won on debut.
He acknowledged that having three NZGP victories on his resume had energised his motor-racing career and opened doors.
It helped get him a place on the grid at the Macau Grand Prix in which he finished third after sitting in second for much of the drive.
There were 50 entries and only 28 got to race.
“It was an amazing experience,” he said. “If someone had told me I would [get] in the top 10 before the weekend . . .
At Macau he was with British team T-Sport with whom he contested the final two rounds of the European Formula 3 season. At Macau the best Formula 3 teams from Japan, Britain and Germany came together.
His exploits at Macau saw him approached by Tom’s Toyota and he and a British driver were invited to test in Japan in December. Cassidy got the nod and will race in in Japanese Formula 3 this year.
“I’m pretty happy to have something as this stage of the year,” Cassidy said.
“The last six months have been a huge turnaround for me. It does moonbeams for your self-confidence and motivation.”
Earlier this year he also raced five rounds of the Formula Renault Eurocup against 40 cars each weekend. Palmerston North’s Brendon Hartley won that series in 2007.
Cassidy was with Koiranen, a Finnish team based in Barcelona. He did best at the Nurburgring in Germany where he qualified on the front row of the grid.
“That championship is one of the toughest in the world,” he said.
* Kiwi drivers have won all 11 of the New Zealand Grands Prix staged at the Manfeild circuit.
They were Craig Baird (2), Greg Murphy, Palmerston North’s Brady Kennett, Andy Knight, Daniel Gaunt, Earl Bamber, Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy (3).
There are only four New Zealanders in this year’s Toyota Racing Series – Invercargill’s Jamie Conroy, Brendon and Damon Leitch and James Munro (Christchurch).
